WILHELM HEINRICH IMMANUEL

BLEEK (1827-1875)  , German philologist, son of Friedrich Bleek, was born in 1827 at Berlin . He studied first at Bonn and afterwards at Berlin, where his attention was directed towards the philological peculiarities of the South African languages . In his doctor's dissertation (Bonn, 1851), De nominum generibus linguarum Africae Australis, he endeavoured to show that the Hottentot language was of North African descent . In 1854 his health prevented him accompanying Dr W . B . Baikie in the expedition to the Niger; but in the following year he accompanied Bishop Colenso to Natal, and was enabled to prosecute his researches into the language and customs of the Kaffirs . Towards the close of 1856 he settled at Cape Town, and in 1857 was appointed interpreter by Sir George Grey . In 1859 he was compelled by ill-health to visit Europe, and on his return in the following year he was made librarian of the valuable collection of books presented to the colony by Sir George Grey . In 1869 he visited England, where the value of his services was recognized by a pension from the civil list . He died at Cape Town on the 17th of August 1875 . His works, which are of considerable importance for African and Australian philology, consist of the Vocabulary of the Mozambique Language (London, 1856); Handbook of African, Australian and Polynesian Philology (Cape Town and; London, 3 vols., 1858-1863); Comparative Grammar of the South African Languages (vol. i., London, 1869); Reynard the Fox in South Africa, or Hottentot Fables and Tales (London, 1864); Origin of Language (London, 1869) .