Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal

Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal (1919-1990), was a South African linguist and an expert in Bantu and Khoisan languages. Ernst Westphal was born at Khalavha in Venda, the son of German Lutheran missionary parents. Already as a child he was fluent in German, English, and Afrikaans. His first and native language, however, was Venda, and as a child he was initiated into the partly secret Venda rites for young men. He studied Zulu and Southern Sotho under Clement Martyn Doke at the University of the Witwatersrand and, after graduating in 1942, was a Lecturer there 1942-1947. He was Lecturer in Bantu Languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London 1949-1962, and Professor of African Languages in the School...