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<h3>6 Kaaps</h3>By Peter Snyders 6.9.2020&nbsp;In our 4 Kaaps, we dealt with the tilde (~) in a nasalised vowel in Kora. While Kaaps has lost most of this nasalising feature, this has not happened with the lengthening of a vowel, even though a pidgin speaker likes to keep matters short and typical, to avoid being confused. The phoneme vowel [a] (or a in Kora) is short as in the examples given before. When the vowel is retained a little longer, as in maar, haat, saam, naand, darem, angel, and saans, the drawn-out vowel is written with a macron [ā] or ā (alt + 0257) in Du Plessis’s Kora dictionary.&nbsp;Some linguists use a: but this may cause punctuation confusion. So, when we write the above words diacritically (to distinguish a universal sound), they would appear thus: [mār], [hāt], [sām], [nānd], [dārem], [āngel], and [sāns] in Kora. In Pidgin-Kaaps, a separate language from Dutch and Kora, we opted for a double when necessary. We would write maar, saam, and saans. The Pidgin-Kaaps would try to avoid anything like macrons, tildes, and the circumflex, ^, (kappie). Please allow us to ignore the influence of nasalisation (caused by [n] and [m]), to which we will return shortly.&nbsp;The rule of keeping everything short and simple, as we will prove, can sometimes override the elongated sound and return it to the shorter version. Remember, as long as there is a rule, your language remains civilised! When writing in Kaaps, we will not be using the macron. There are enough rules to guide us in our use of ê.Let us add some rules of Kora regarding the vowels with extended length, which have been copied directly from Kora Chapter Three, pp. 64 to 65 in our hard copy:In addition to a contrast between oral and nasal production, some of the vowels in Kora (as in most Khoisan languages) may be lengthened. (In Namibian Khoekhoe, long vowels are indicated by means of the macron, as ‘ā’.) Several of the older authors indicate the long vowels of Kora by means of a colon (as for example, ‘a:’), but since this can lead to confusion with ordinary punctuation marks, we have chosen to follow the Namibian convention and use the macron instead.&nbsp;Nasalised vowels are always long, and because of this predictability, it would be redundant to indicate the feature in the spelling. (Comment: So, this is why [dārem] and [āngel] would be written as [darem] and [angel] if they had to appear in Kora. Some Kaaps writers correctly write gaan as gan. Same rule.)In our reproductions of the heritage texts and in the Dictionary, we have usually preserved any indications of vowel length that may have been given in the original sources. The reality, though, is that such indications were often only sporadically made, and were not always consistent. In the case of transcriptions made by Lucy Lloyd and Carl Wuras, it seems that their occasional use of a doubled consonant (as in the word ‘torro’ recorded by Wuras for thoro ‘scatter, sow, strew’) was intended to reflect a shortened preceding vowel. (Comment: This is useful to remember when words like nie, die, dit are assimilated [absorbed or incorporated into the preceding word]).As a basic rule of thumb, the vowel in a word (other than a grammatical morpheme) that consists of just a consonant followed by a vowel (such as bī &nbsp;‘suckle’) is typically long, while the first vowel in a word that either has a medial consonant (such as koba ‘speak’), or ends in a nasal (such as xon ‘grind’), is most often short. There are many exceptions to this basic principle, though, where these frequently seem to occur in cases where a word is reduplicated or compounded, or where it was perhaps originally so, but has subsequently undergone contraction. (Comment: We have retained Du Plessis’s accents.)We have highlighted and changed the font colour below to help you focus on the important parts.<figure id="figure-i2rig6nuxhmrwdukvk" data-full-width=""><img id="i2rig6nuxhmrwdukvk" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/17uzD6yBWOn9HGTqRRVnGAN5UcgRPtUukTHzamBzqOZ6N9RWIiGgobChXQcHt79z.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: 0% 0%;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="0%" data-positiony="0%" data-fullwidth="true" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/17uzD6yBWOn9HGTqRRVnGAN5UcgRPtUukTHzamBzqOZ6N9RWIiGgobChXQcHt79z.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: 0% 0%;"></figure>We are not going to comment much on the rules in the above examples because we are progressively going to leave this task to you. If you look at Griekwa-Kaaps and you compare it to the other varieties of Kaaps, you will find many similarities. You will also find some differences. This is because they took the Cape’s Kaaps with them, but, being separated from the source, they adopt their own means for expressing their version of Kaaps.&nbsp;If they came into daily contact with Afrikaans, they may have some Afrikaans in their current language. This does not always seem to be the case because Apartheid did us all a favour and left us to preserve much of our original Kora-influenced Kaaps because separation causes a degree of language change.&nbsp;Coloured people having to live in the onderdorp in the country were also allowed to retain some of the Cape Kaaps (not Afrikaans, because it did not exist yet) with them. Note how the unpopularity of p in Kora is still demonstrated by its omission in skawagter but the medial (middle) vowel of the first syllable remains long according to the rule: the middle (medial) vowel of the first syllable in a word is always long.Apartheid also allowed us to retain many of the older rules. Unfortunately, the third (English-influenced) and fourth (Afrikaans-influenced) phases of Kaaps have forced themselves onto Cape Flats Kaaps. The fifth phase (Modern Kaaps – where the spirit of Kaaps is back in control) is recouping some of its losses. Fortunately, as we can see above, Griekwa has retained much of the old Kora authority. We will confirm this even more when we show examples from Rehoboth-Kaaps and Namakwalands-Kaaps.You should probably find all Menán du Plessis’s Kora rules above, as well as those we discussed earlier in these examples. We are again just pointing to some clues by making some letters bold. Please look for more and different examples in your own writing as well as the writings of other writers. This is a very time-consuming project, so we try to limit the examples to the contributor who displays the best paradigm (list of illustrative examples).We will soon look at e, a shorter form of ê with the sign [ε] (alt + 238).&nbsp;

6 Kaaps

<h3>4.2 Kaaps</h3>(© 4th September 2020 by Peter Snyders) In Kora, we find [a] ≈ a appearing in such words as:<figure id="figure-2h0cqqjd2mrweumss"data-full-width><img id="2h0cqqjd2mrweumss" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/8TfyfjmHM4OGUAdStlPCcgGWLyPUMK65JjqRA0sN5BLzxeV30meqb5TZHkCfgSS2.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 3/2; object-position: 100% 0%;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="3:2" data-caption="" data-positionX="100%" data-positionY="0%" data-fullWidth="true"/></figure>Since all the phonemes in Kora are in bold, i.e., [a] = a, we have taken the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. While showing where a appears in Kora, we have included the other phonemes. So now you know the other diacritical signs used in Kora; they all sound the same in all languages. Note that there are two pronunciations for the letter g so we have two signs, g and x ([g] and [x]).&nbsp;The j sound in Jan, which Kora changed to Dj or dz, has the universal phonetic sign [ʤ] (alt + 0676), but for convenience it is written in Kora as dz. The [n] in Kora seldom appears at the end of a word. If a letter before n is nasalised (spoken partly through the nose), it gets a tilde (~) on top, like ã in [ʤãn] (or dzãn in Kora). If ã is followed by a nasal sound/letter like n, m, ng, these sounds are absorbed into the preceding vowel and are therefore omitted. Which means that the Kaaps pronunciation of Jan was no doubt without the n part of the a, i.e., [ʤã].&nbsp;Always remember that we are only concerned (as far as we can infer) with the origin of Kaaps as a pidgin from 1652 and later until the slaves arrived in large numbers. So, over time, as Kaaps started denasalising sounds (sometimes completely), the [n] phoneme returned so that today we say [ʤan] and write Djan. To prove this rule of changing j to dj in Kaaps and Kora, we draw up a list of similar appearances (called a paradigm) and so prove the rule. We will be using this linguistic method on a variety of cases.Also note (please refer to the Kora-English dictionary) that the letters C, F, J/Y, L, P, Q, V, W, and the schwa (the e [ə] sound as in English the) sounds either do not appear or are very rare. We will go into these later.Kaaps did not come from Afrikaans, so Afrikaans is not a reference. We have given Afrikaans a column for any of you who may have problems with Dutch.&nbsp;More importantly, though, it also allows us to demonstrate how Kaaps has its own words, spirit, and rules which it uses to make foreign words conform to its own inventory (collection of sounds). Our tables also show that Afrikaans is much closer to Dutch than to Kaaps. The English column gives readers who are not very well conversant with the other three languages a good opportunity to see how Kaaps relates to the other two languages. Also, it illustrates why English is the best choice for a metalanguage. It has nearly nothing in common with the three other languages.In our next letter, we will deal with the longer letter ā as in maar, raam, naat, taamlik, and laat, and how Kaaps modifies the sound with its own rules. We will also show the reason some rules are in a pidgin language. Then we will go into the other vowels, and if the letter is not too long, see what Kaaps does with vowels that are not in its inventory.

4.2 Kaaps

<h3>Biased Textbooks: The System That Manufactured Lies</h3>Bias #5 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias, p.3What the Textbooks Taught The potential for prejudice to be fostered in pupils is very real due to biased interpretations of South African history being found in both English and Afrikaans textbooks. And this bias is amplified by the way these textbooks are handled by the teachers.The Evidence from the Original Document The original document notes that biased interpretations of South African history appear in both English and Afrikaans textbooks. This means the bias was not limited to one language group or one political faction - it was systemic across the entire education system.The document also highlights that teachers play a critical role in how these textbooks are used. Even a biased textbook can be challenged by a critical teacher. But when teachers themselves accept the textbook narrative without question, the bias is reinforced and passed on to the next generation.The Bias Exposed This is structural bias. The problem is not one bad textbook or one bad teacher. The problem is a system that produces biased textbooks, approves them for use in schools, trains teachers to teach from them without question, and examines students on their ability to reproduce the biased narrative.Textbooks were written by white historians, approved by white education officials, published by white-owned companies, and taught by teachers trained in the same system. The Khoi had no representation at any stage. Their oral histories were dismissed as unreliable. Their languages were excluded from the curriculum. And their descendants were not consulted about how their history should be taught.Even well-meaning teachers were trapped in this system. They had limited time, limited resources, and examination pressure. A teacher who challenged the textbook risked their students failing exams. The system was designed to produce a specific historical consciousness, and it worked.Why It Matters This structural bias means the problem cannot be solved by simply writing one new textbook. It requires transforming the entire architecture of historical knowledge production - new authors, new publishers, new curricula, new examinations, and new relationships between schools and indigenous communities. The machine that manufactured lies must be dismantled and rebuilt.<figure id="figure-q0tkxwo41nmrtha1f7"><img id="q0tkxwo41nmrtha1f7" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/d8cqZQR0aM9GVCNdcILp0duk13yeQv6RCme8CkXCBmlWvrQBavwd5qBDaezxBfdx.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="Jacqueline Aird: Investigation of the Nature of Bias p.2 " data-positionX="undefined" data-positionY="undefined" data-fullWidth="false"/><figcaption class="body-normal text-gray-500 mt-2">Jacqueline Aird: Investigation of the Nature of Bias p.2 </figcaption></figure>About This PostThis is the fifth and final post in a series on biases against the Khoi in South African history textbooks, based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias.

Bias #5 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias, p.3

<h3>Misrepresentation of Blacks in South African History: When Facts Become Lies</h3>Bias #4 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias, p.2What the Textbooks Taught Textbooks did not merely omit Black people from South African history - they actively distorted their role when they did appear. The Difaqane, a complex period of conflict and migration, was misrepresented. The role of Black people in the making of South African history was underplayed and inaccurately presented.The Evidence from the Original Document Within the same textbook, the Difaqane is dealt with very briefly, while the chapter dealing with the Great Trek and the settlement of the interior is particularly lengthy. The Difaqane is totally misrepresented, focusing on the blacks as murderous and destructive, rather than presenting this period as a complex process of nation building.The relationship between the Great Trek and the Difaqane is inaccurately presented, underplaying the part played by the blacks in the making of South African history.The Bias Exposed This is active misrepresentation, not mere omission. The Difaqane was a complex historical process involving nation-building, migration, and political reorganisation. But textbooks reduced it to 'murderous and destructive' Black violence. Meanwhile, the Great Trek - which involved similar displacement and conflict was presented as heroic nation-building by white settlers.The same actions were described differently depending on who performed them. White displacement was 'settlement.' Black displacement was 'destruction.' White conflict was 'struggle.' Black conflict was 'savagery.' This double standard was not accidental - it was a deliberate strategy to portray Black people as obstacles to progress rather than agents of history.Why It Matters When history portrays a people as murderous and destructive, it removes the moral basis for their claims to justice. If Black people were only violent, then their dispossession was justified. If they contributed nothing to nation - building, then they have no claim to the nation. These lies were designed to serve colonial interests, not to teach truth.<figure id="figure-a42kuwntimrtgy8yd" class=""><img id="a42kuwntimrtgy8yd" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/32Zl1C3UjFluLuipadPGCyD32yxkM5v0aYGpcFdwiHyLWdhPR3pxlebTs0s23Rgz.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="Jacqueline Aird: Investigation of the Nature of Bias p.2 " data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/32Zl1C3UjFluLuipadPGCyD32yxkM5v0aYGpcFdwiHyLWdhPR3pxlebTs0s23Rgz.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"><figcaption class="body-normal text-gray-500 mt-2">Jacqueline Aird: Investigation of the Nature of Bias p.2</figcaption></figure>About This PostThis is the fourth in a five-part series on biases against the Khoi in South African history textbooks, based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias.

Bias #4 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias, p.2

<h3>Ideology of White Supremacy in Textbooks: Racism Disguised as Fact</h3>Bias #3 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias, p.2What the Textbooks Taught Textbooks embedded white supremacist ideology so deeply into the historical narrative that it appeared as objective fact rather than political opinion. The racial hierarchy was not stated explicitly - it was woven into the language, the framing, and the very structure of the history being taught.The Evidence from the Original Document The original document identifies how the ideology of white supremacy was fostered through the use of omission, misrepresentation, inaccuracies, and the creation of stereotypes. Textbooks referred particularly to a Std. VIII textbook used in coloured schools in South Africa.This textbook opened with the arrival of the Europeans at the Cape. The history of the people living in the area before the arrival of the Europeans was completely omitted. Pupils were then likely to assume that these people were of little consequence in the formation of South African history, which is totally inaccurate.The Bias Exposed The Eurocentric approach implies that South African history only began when Europeans arrived. This is a deliberate erasure of the Khoi and other indigenous peoples who had lived on the land for millennia. By opening the textbook with European arrival, the authors sent a clear message: nothing that happened before Europeans arrived matters.The textbooks also fostered stereotypes through selective omission. When the Khoi were mentioned, they were described with derogatory language. When they were omitted, the silence itself was a statement about their unimportance. Either way, the message was the same: white people built South Africa, and Black people were merely background.Why It Matters This bias prepared young white South Africans for their role as a privileged minority and taught young Black South Africans their place in a predetermined social order. History was weaponised. By presenting white dominance as natural and inevitable, the textbooks provided moral cover for apartheid long before the policy was formally named.<figure id="figure-b2kixm9zgdmrtgfnr1"><img id="b2kixm9zgdmrtgfnr1" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2dOXHyro4XaKMuKckDkOU8QowFirUozmexP7sCwbnsQ4Qztiz7jDUVh9YejeEZDH.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="Jacqueline Aird: Investigation of the Nature of Bias p.2 " data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2dOXHyro4XaKMuKckDkOU8QowFirUozmexP7sCwbnsQ4Qztiz7jDUVh9YejeEZDH.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"><figcaption class="body-normal text-gray-500 mt-2">Jacqueline Aird: Investigation of the Nature of Bias p.2</figcaption></figure>About This PostThis is the third in a five-part series on biases against the Khoi in South African history textbooks, based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias.

Bias #3 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias, p.2

<h3>Khoikhoi Judged by European Standards: The Deficit Model</h3> Bias #2 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias, p.2What the Textbooks Taught Textbooks described the Khoi as 'badly organised, owning few possessions and having a lazy disposition.' They claimed the Khoi slowly became absorbed into other nations and became their servants because of these inherent flaws.The Evidence from the Original Document Lategan (1961: 40) wrote about the Khoi: 'Because they were badly organised, owned few possessions and had a lazy disposition, they slowly but surely became absorbed into other nations and became their servants.'This is a highly derogatory and one-sided point of view. The Khoi lifestyle is being judged according to a European value system. Within their own culture, their lifestyle suited their needs. They were neither lazy nor did they need many possessions.The Bias Exposed The Khoi only became servants of the colonists once the Europeans had destroyed their natural way of life. It was not laziness or disorganisation that made them servants - it was colonial violence. The Europeans took their land, destroyed their herds, and forced them into dependency. Then they blamed the Khoi for the situation the Europeans had created.The textbooks measured the Khoi against European standards: permanent houses, private property, centralised government. Because the Khoi did not have these things, they were called primitive. But the Khoi had sophisticated systems perfectly adapted to their environment — communal land ownership, consensus-based governance, and seasonal migration patterns that preserved the land.Why It Matters When we judge a culture by foreign standards, we always find it wanting. This deficit model - focusing on what a culture lacks rather than what it possesses - is the intellectual foundation of racism. It transforms difference into deficiency, and deficiency into justification for domination.<figure id="figure-xu3mtprcgbmrpq7gqb" class=""><img id="xu3mtprcgbmrpq7gqb" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/3ct4p1a3Y4jQNt6xzi7SQouCratzJ2Qnu90z5OvRy2sjMb9ld3z3GJU5Clm8u3Gl.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 " style="aspect-ratio: 1/1; object-position: 35% 35%;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="1:1" data-caption="Jacqueline Aird: Investigation of the Nature of Bias p.2 " data-positionx="35%" data-positiony="35%" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/3ct4p1a3Y4jQNt6xzi7SQouCratzJ2Qnu90z5OvRy2sjMb9ld3z3GJU5Clm8u3Gl.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 1/1; object-position: 35% 35%;"><figcaption class="body-normal text-gray-500 mt-2">Jacqueline Aird: Investigation of the Nature of Bias p.2</figcaption></figure>About This PostThis is the second in a five-part series on biases against the Khoi in South African history textbooks, based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the Nature of Bias.

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6 Kaaps

4.2 Kaaps

Bias #5 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the...

Bias #4 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the...

Bias #3 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the...

Bias #2 - Based on Jacqueline Aird's Investigation of the...