BOOK REVIEWS97A Practical Ndebele Dictionary By J. N. Pelting. Salisbury, Longman Rho-desia in association with the Rhodesia Literature Bureau, revised edit.1971, 154pp., Rh$2,60.Lessons in Ndebele By J. N. and P. Pelting. Salisbury, Longman Rhodesia inassociation with the Rhodesia Literature Bureau, 1974, 210pp., Rh$3,20.Ndebele Work Book By P. Pelting. Bulawayo, J. and P. Pelling, 1975, 198pp.,Rh$2,40.Besides serving a long-standing practical need, these three substantial con-tributions from the Revd and Mrs James Pelling will be particularly welcomein Rhodesia since they mark a turning point in the acknowledgement andrecognition of Ndebele as a language in its own right and not just as a 'poorrelation' of Zulu. Compared with many of the other languages of SouthernAfrica, Ndebele has in the past been very poorly served regarding linguisticpublications. The first Xhosa and Zulu grammars appeared in 1832 and 1850,respectively; and for Zulu, since that time, at least 11 dictionaries and 30grammatical works have been published- For Ndebele, before the Fellings'present contributions, the scene was indeed bleak: despite Dr R. Moffat'spioneering efforts, over a century ago, towards treating Ndebele quiteseparately from Zulu, the only linguistic works produced appear to have beenW. A. Elliott's Notes for a Sindebele Dictionary and Grammar in 1911 (afteran earlier rudimentary vocabulary), and J. O'Neil's Grammar of the SindebeleDialect of Zulu in 1912, plus a pamphlet, A Sindebele Phrase Book by S.Mpofu and T. Harvey in 1962 (Bulawayo, Pilgrim Press). The sparcity is ofcourse explainable by the 'convenient' availability of published materialfor Zulu, which was used instead. There are arguments both for and againsta policy of dialectal unification. Latterly, particularly over the past years,feelings have been very strong in Rhodesia that Ndebele should depend lessupon Zulu and become self-reliant.Pelling's Practical Ndebele Dictionary, which originally appeared in 1966,is an excellently produced little work, of modest proportions and attractivelylow price. The present revised edition contains additional entries includinga supplementary list of more specialized terms. The first half of the bookprovides Ndebele-English, and the second English-Ndebele. Appendices 1 and2 contain very brief grammatical notes, and Appendix 3 provides a shortselection of Ndebele proverbs. The book is clearly not intended to fulfil allthe critical demands of lingustic specialists, but rather to serve as a handypractical aid for those who wish to communicate, and it certainly goes along way towards meeting this fundamental need. Like many concise worksof this kind, a fair amount of supplementary self-help by the user is calledfor. Firstly, the very brief introductory notes on pronunciation (offeredas 'a guide only') should not be relied upon without obtaining help from othersources Š and it is to be hoped that in so doing, users will discover that toneis semantic: there is no mention of this in the book. Of course, without tone-marking, certain words appear to be homonyms when they are not: like theverbs 'sinda' (be heavy or escape) and 'sinda' (smear a floor). These are infact tonal opposites: high-low and low-high, respectively, sinda and sinda.)It would be unfair to labour this point, however, since there is considerableprecedent for such shortcomings in Southern Africa. Incidentally, whenchecking back from the English-Ndebele side, neither of the English entries'heavy' or 'escape' gives us 'sinda'Providing that outside help with pronunciation is readily available, andthat the user already has some idea of the essentials of Bantu grammatical98BOOK REVIEWSstructure, this little dictionary should prove invaluable; but those with noinkling of Bantu languages at all might be deeply puzzled to find no entrieswhatever for 'I, me, we, us, you, he, him, she, her, it, they or them'. Appendix2 does not in fact offer a cryptic solution, with a bare list of 'personal pro-nouns and concords for all noun classes', but there is no clue at all as tohow these are used (i.e. whether or not they get attached to a verb, and towhich end of it). Tn the circumstances, absolute beginners may be relieved tofind that the Fellings' Lessons in Ndebele provides just the kind of groundingthey need in order to make best use of the Dictionary.Lessons in Ndebele is a beginner's manual that represents the outcomeof many years of practical experience in teaching Ndebele to English speakers.The benefit of such experience is clearly evident throughout. The presentationof material is excellently organized: elements of structure, and essentialvocabulary, are introduced in a series of concise, well-ordered instalments,with an absolute minimum of grammatical jargon, and are put to immediateuse in providing a good stock of useful and practical sentences. No exercisesare included, but this need is admirably supplied in the companion volumeproduced by Mrs Pelling, entitled Ndebele Work Book, which contains prac-tical exercises relating precisely to each of the lessons in the main book.Used either as a basis for class work, or individually, these two volumesshould provide the basis for an excellent and thorough grounding in thelanguage, provided Š and this is important Š that outside guidance is soughtconcerning pronunciation, as the authors do indeed advocate. A very roughguide to pronunciation is offered in Lesson 1 but this is sometimes ratherwide of the mark. For example there is a paragraph of instructions for makingthe implosive 'b' Š 'a very difficult sound to articulate'- In my own experience,this sound, though common in Zulu, does not actually occur in Ndebele atall: instead, they use something like a 'w' (but without lip-rounding), solearners might be well advised not to disregard the initial injunction inLesson 1, namely that 4it is essential for the student to spend time with aNdebele person, practising Jhe speech sounds, and imitating intonations ofwords and sentences'.School of Oriental and African Studies, LondonD. K. RYCROFTRhodesian Company Law By M. Tett and N. Chadwick with Contributionsby W. J. Millar and Members of the Rhodesia Society of CharteredAccountants. Salisbury, Rhodesian Law Journal, 1976, 296pp., Rh$ 14,30.Rhodesian Income Tax By E. E. Skeet. Salisbury, The Chartered Account-ants of Rhodesia Education Trust, 1976, 157pp., Rh$10,00.Basic Guide to Rhodesian Income Tax By A. Katz. Salisbury, Pioneer Head,revised edit., 1976, 62pp., Rh$2,00.It seems that in Rhodesia, Company Law, like much else, stands still. InEngland and South Africa substantive changes have been made in the past25 years, but the Rhodesian Companies Act, modelled on the English Act of1948, has remained materially unchanged. These developments elsewhere andthe lively debate accompanying them have been largely passed over by the