De nominum generibus linguarum Africae australis, Copticae, Semiticarum aliarumque sexualium by Bleek, Wilhelm [Guilelmus Bleek]

(Bonn: 1851). 8vo; brown boards; all edges gilt; pp. iv + 60 + (ii); tables. Backstrip fractured; upper hinge starting; moderate foxing. Exceedingly uncommon early treatise by this founding father of southern African philology. (Mendelssohn I, p. 132) "On 6.8.1851 he obtained his Ph.D. degree from Bonn University for his thesis on grammatical gender in the African languages. As with most theses then, it was submitted in Latin under the title De nominum generibus linguarum Africae australis, Copticae, Semiticarum aliarumque sexualium (Bonn, 1851). In this work he postulates a relationship between Hottentot and the Hamitic languages of North Africa, basing his assumption on the morphemes which indicate grammatical gender in the noun. The possibility of this relationship remains a point for discussion." - DSAB I, p. 82 .