Short Communication

isiXhosa name for leopard

Published in: African Zoology
Volume 47 , issue 2 , 2012 , pages: 345–347

DOI: 10.1080/15627020.2012.11407544

Author(s): J.M. Feely Centre for African Conservation Ecology, Department of Zoology, South Africa

Keywords: leopard , tiger , ingwe , Eastern Cape

Abstract

The confusion among some speakers of isiXhosa concerning the meaning of ingwe can probably be traced to John Ayliff’s dictionary of the language published in 1846. There he gives ‘tiger’ as ingwe and ‘leopard’ as ihlozi. He clearly treats the two as distinct species. This is contrary to South African usage in English and Afrikaans in which tiger/tier is an alternative name for leopard/luiperd. The confusion does not appear in twelve other languages in which ingwe (or a cognate) means leopard in southern Africa, and not another species.

« Metabolic disturbance and hepatic tissue damage induced by Eimeria papillata infection

First record of freshwater fish on the Cape Verdean archipelago »