Note 92 — Chapter VI · THE DUTCH IN AFRICA

Nevertheless, by their final and more complete contact with the Hottentots and Bushmen the Zulu-Kafirs adopted three of the Hottentot clicks; whereas earlier invaders—Karanga, Bechuana, and Herero—though adopting a few Hottentot terms, kept clear of Hottentot phonetics, and use no clicks to this day. The Zulu-Kafir language, divided into four dialects—X̓osa-Kafir, Zulu and Swazi (all three closely related), and Tonga or Ronga of the Delagoa Bay district, is on the whole most nearly related to the East African Bantu groups, with some affinities with Central African Bantu. But it has no near relations and has developed a very peculiar vocabulary, as though it had been isolated for centuries.