AMAGAMA EZINYONI Zulu Names of Birds

Amagama Izinyoni: Zulu Names of Birds lists all the bird species found in KwaZulu-Natal and surrounds, gives the proposed standardised Zulu name for each species, and explains the underlying meaning and how the name came into being. All earlier names for these birds, even if no longer in current use, have been recorded here, making this a historical repository of Zulu bird names as well. This book is the result of the six-year Zulu Bird Name Project. Between 2013 and 2018, annual workshops, organised and facilitated by the three authors, brought together a total of eighteen mother-tongue Zulu-speaking bird experts to research the names of bird species present in the Zulu-speaking area of South Africa. At the start of the project, only approximately 40 per cent of the bird species of this area had species-specific Zulu names; by the end of the project all 550 species had unique names. The comprehensive introduction explains the methodology used in the Zulu bird name workshops, providing a template for linguists and ornithologists who might wish to do similar bird-naming exercises in the other African languages of southern Africa. The introduction also provides some linguistic and onomastic insights into bird naming generally and Zulu bird names in particular.

Adrian Koopman is an emeritus professor of Zulu at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is the author of the 2002 Zulu Names (which includes a chapter on Zulu bird names), the 2015 Zulu Plant Names, among others. Roger Porter has travelled extensively on bird trips to several countries in Africa as well as to Madagascar, India, and Antarctica. Before retirement, he was a wildlife ecologist and conservation planner for nearly 39 years in the Natal Parks Board and KZN Wildlife. NoleenTurner retired after 32 years’ service from the African Languages Department at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. She is currently an honorary research professor at the same institution.