The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-10-28
STRANGE B(|ER WORDS
Which are Now to be Seen in
Press Dispatches.
HOW TO BE PRONOUNCED
In English. and What They
Mean in Dutch.


may have been written. The occurance 0
such "uitlandische" terms will be frequen
in the dispatches which will record thu
strife between England and her stubborn
neighbor in South Africa, for that coun
try has a patois all it's own.
We therefore propose to furnish oul
! readers with a glossary simply iuustrat
! ing the terms which are most likely t.
! find their way into the war correspon,
dents ink horns, from the dust of the
dry African "veldt" And this (the com
prehensive term for all open country
there-and not merely 1.-The plains'O will
do to start with:
VELDT-Dealing as we are with "de
Afrikaansche taal," and not with the
"Boers" (meaning farmers, and nothing
more) call ''pront hollans" correct Eu-
ropean Dutch we properly spell this word
with a final st" because phonetically the
word is in Africa "felt''-even though the
books spell it weld"
VELSCHOENS-So people mistaken
" connect with the above word the term
"velschoens," and spell this, which stands
for the farmer-made skin shoes-Whlch
are only one degree removed from onr
moccasins-with an added 'dt," under the
impression that the word means shoes
for the veldt.
BOER TAA-A word as to pronuncia-
ton: As remarked, the ''Boer taaP' Is
not the "nederlansche" Of to-day, but
patois the body of which consists of ar
chaic Dutch of the seventeenth century,
eked out by adaptations from French,
Spanish, Malay and some native words.
The vowel sounds are as in French, or the
Latin of the schools.
But in many instances, the "a" Is "ah,
so long drawn out that 1t ought properly
be written "aa"-and l always write 1t
so in "Afrikander," to express the drawl
which a Boer always uses in that word.
KWAAIE-This also appears IN the word
''kwaaie," immcrtalized by Uucle Powl,
when he described the Great Queen as
"eene kwaaie vrouw." Pundits in three
continents ran their heads against the
phrase-mostly in vain-for it was a term
used as term of respectful awe. In its
archaic-and therefore Krugerian sense
it is the explicit equivalent Of dread
lady"
OF the consonants, only two need be
mentioned, 'k'' and "g." The first, when
a terminal, has the sound of eek" and
we often, therefore, so spell it. The go
is a gutteral, so vibrant as to have no
representative equivalent by English let
tering-even "ch' (Scotch) in 'Ioch'' hard
ly reaches it, as uttered by a plainsman;
'kh"-thought of deep in the throat
might convey the idea. The proper name
George" as used by them, has precise
ly the sound of violent effort to remove
bit of tough phlegm from ones throat.
UIT-This is one of the most puzzling
syllables for the Anglo-Saxon reader to
master; a favorite pronunciation is
"weet." Its sound in a Transvaaler's
mouth is exactly as we say "eight" in
English e. G., Uitlanders, "eight-land-
ers''
SPRUIT-Even in South Africa Itself
the Saxon tongue boggles at this ''uit,''
and for "spruit" a brook or streamlet
most of them say "sproot;" nevertheless,
the Beers always pronounce it "spr-
eight
Some physical features of landscape
likely to be presented TO their readers by
the news writers in "taal" words are
shown in the following commentary:
RAND-Any long, rolling hin range is
a rand-more specifically the grassy ridge
itself of such forma ton. Cats Rand, and
Whitwaters Rand are Illustrations.
KOPJE-Pronounced koope-designates
isolated hills especially such as are round
and have pointed tops.
KOP-This is Iarger-it must be an iso-
lated mountain peak to attain the digni-
ty of a kop To be a "spitz-kop." the
peak must be high, sharp and kraggy.
BERG, OR BERGEN-These signify
extensive mountain ranges--as the Maha-
Iiesbergen, the Drakensberg and the Yer
zaamelbergen.
HOOGTE-To descend to the lower eaf-
lures OF the landscape. say from the top
of Majuba "kop,' we come down the
grassy. rock-strewn "hoogte." or brae-
side, and find ourselves in Baing's Mex.
NEK-This means the rounded hollow
of the dip between the two peaks of a
mountain chain. But do not make the
error of coundfounding the mex" with
the pass" Laing's Mex is a pass, be
cause the road goes over it. but there are
''neks' which are not passes. Talking OF
necks. an ortritch put his long neck
though the window of the little hotel
that. of old, used to nestle under Majuba
in Laings Nek.>and over the neck of this
scribe, annexed the beefsteak off his plate
but that's another story.
KLOOF-Lf however. We were upon
mountain which offered US no easy
"hoogte'' to descend by, We should have
to scramble down some narrow and rug
ged "kloof" a kloof is precisely what.
in America. we call a conyon. and as with
the word canyon. 50 also the word kloof
may with equal propriety, he applied 70
a deep. narrow cut or level. narrow
pass in rocky country. as To rift (or
ascending valev) in 2 mountainsjde Thus
the word specifically means quite other
than - hollow between two hills" as
some nl-informed Boston writer has ex-
planned Il lately.
HRANTZ-As We scramble down the
windings OF our "kl3of' We may come n
sight OF the "krautz" OF some bsetliug
kop above Us. "Krantz" = the ring OF
abrupt cliff. which ''wreathes" the brow
OF the characteristic "koD" OF South At
RIGA RensburE's Kop. on the road over
Quathiamha, from Natal 70 Harrismith-
in the Free State land which VIII most
probably figure in the account OF some
fight SOON Is a good example Of q partly
''krantzed" kop. The perfect krantzes.
however. are IN Basutoland.
VLEY-The kloof We have been treadinE
viii invariably lead Us 70 a ''spruit' =
the pronunciation OF which word mention !
has been made. And tha;. most likely. !
viii run into "viey" the recipient % a /
dozen or more -'s2ruiUies from the rll,s
''vleys." when near the mountains. are
=Nagf
Of ghe drainage. 5espreAd literally with /
great patches Of tall reeds ard strong
rushes; and as these are the sources % 1