Dorothea Bleek

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Dorothea Bleek

Dorothea Frances Bleek (born March 26, 1873 in Mowbray , Cape Town , South Africa ; † June 27, 1948 in Plumstead , Cape Town) continued as the daughter of Wilhelm Bleek the edition of his philological research into the South African languages. Her most important work is the dictionary of the Bushman language .

Life

Dorothea Bleek was the sixth child of Wilhelm Bleek and his wife Jemima Lloyd. The family lived in Cape Town, where the father worked as a curator and conducted field research into the language and culture of the San ("Bushmen"). Bleek had produced a large number of documents in numerous interviews. After the father's death in 1876, the family was forced to return to Germany for economic reasons . Dorothea attended schools in Germany and Switzerland and studied African languages ​​in Berlin. Lucy Lloyd , her aunt and father's assistant, visited her several times from England to instruct her in the San language and to familiarize her with the rest of the father's research.

In 1904 Dorothea Bleek returned to Africa and taught at Rocklands Girls High School in Cradock until 1907. Bleek accompanied a colleague on an expedition to draw rock paintings . When this work was published in London in 1908, she was also there. Back in Africa, Bleek devoted all of her time to learning the language and culture of the San. She was able to support her aunt Lucy Lloyd in the preparation of the book Myths and Fairy Tales of the Bushman Peoples , which was based on her father's research.

Bleek took part in many other expeditions to study the various dialects of the San and their rock art. In the process, she not only collected vocabulary, grammar and genealogical facts, but also photographed the clothing, the dwellings and weapons.

Works

  • Dorothea F. Bleek: A Bushman Dictionary. American Oriental Society, New Haven CT 1956 ( American Oriental Series 41, ZDB ID 417829-4 ).
  • Dorothea F. Bleek: The ke or Bushmen of Griqualand West. Notes on the language of the ke or Bushmen of Griqualand West. Khoisan Forum, Cologne 2000 ( Institute for African Studies (Cologne) - Khoisan Forum - Working Paper).
  • Dorothea Bleek's collections are on UNESCO 's Memory of the World Register .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bleek, Dorothea
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bleek, Dorothea Frances
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-South African linguist
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Mowbray , South Africa
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1948
Place of death Plumstead , South Africa