South African Bird Names through Time, Language and Usage

Adrian Koopman is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. His research focuses on onomastics, Zulu linguistics, and the interface between language and ornithology. He has contributed extensively to the development of standardized Zulu bird names through workshops conducted from 2013 to 2018 and has published on African language naming systems. Koopman's work combines linguistic analysis with cultural and environmental contexts, addressing questions of nomenclature, semantics, and multilingual dynamics in southern African ornithology. He received National Research Foundation grants for his research on Zulu bird naming systems.Eckhart Buchmann is affiliated with Durban University of Technology, South Africa. His research interests include ornithological nomenclature, bird naming systems, and the historical development of vernacular bird names in southern Africa. Buchmann has contributed to the documentation and analysis of multilingual bird naming practices, examining the interface between scientific nomenclature and vernacular naming across English, Afrikaans, and African languages. His work addresses contemporary issues in ornithological naming including taxonomic changes and the evolution of standardized naming systems in the region.

• 1. Introduction 2. Naming Systems 3. A Typology of Bird Names 4. The First Names: Pelagic and Coastal Birds 5. Early English Bird Names 6. From Latham to the Woodward Brothers: Early English Vernacular Names for Birds in South Africa 7. English Bird Names in Southern Africa in the Twentieth Century and beyond 8. From Aasvogel to Kolpensie: Afrikaans Bird Names 9. African Bird Names: Names in Environments 10. The Underlying Meanings of African Bird Names 11. The Development of Zulu Bird Names 12. The Semantics of Scientific Names 13. Titihoia Melanoptera: The Interface between Scientific Names and Vernacular Names 14. Neddicky, Piet-My-Vrou, Sakabula and other Multilingual Names 15. Now and the Future 16 The Naming of Individual Birds 17. Weaving the Complex Tapestry of Bird Names