The evening times., 1899-10-04
COMMON DUTCH WORDS.
Some Terms in the South African
Dispatches Explained.
(From the New York Tribunel


Matters in South Africa are fast ap-
preaching point where the average news
paper reader viii need a little more than
the average knowledge of Dutch words to
| understand what is going on, and of Dutch
pronunciations to talk about it without con-
fusion and mutual misunderstanding. 1t
| might seem strange TO Paul Kruger that
! the citizens of this originally Dutch set
| tlement should be in any doubt as TO the
pronunciation of Dutch words; but then, if
you came to that the very lineal descend
| ants of the New York Dutch do not always
! know how to pronounce the names they
| have inherited, in which strange igno-
rance they are distanced by the Irish
| Americans, who often turn OMeara into
O'Meerer and 'Mahoney into Ma-HO-ney
/ in two generations
What misleads the English-speaking New
| Yorker in the. language of the Beers is its
similarity in spelling TO German. The con-
fusion is increased by an occasional over
sight of the London transmitters of Trans
vaal news, substituting, for example,
| the German stein for "steen, the
! Dutch for stone" 1t looks as if
| the Dutch were philologically akin to
German more than TO English. The
! fact is just the reverse. English, Dutch,
and Flemish belong in one group of the
Teutonic languages (Low Dutch); German
is. the only surviving written language of
the other group (High Dutch.) This once
understood, it is not very difficult, especial
| ly if one has read little Chaucer, or even
Spenser, to guess correctly the meanings
of the Transvaal names which will soon
fill the European dispatches. Bloomfon-
tein,' for instance-proneunced Bloom
fone-tine"-is Bloom Spring. or Flower
Spring. Laing's Mex needs no explanation
Majuba-pronounced. of course. Ma-yoo-
ba--is not Dutch word, except by right of
adoption and conquest, but Kafir. Boer
general IS called a "veldheer" OF field
lord" The veld' is simply the field
the open country, as when it is said that
an army takes the field The rural
guard or military police of the Transvaal
are the 'velhwachteren" or field watchers.
The weld in many parts of the Transvaal
is much cut up by clefts or ravnes, which
the newspape correspondents are sure to
call by the Cape name of ''kloofs"-pro-
nounced 'klofss," as by the way, Presi-
dent Kruger's pet name should be pro-
nounced "Ome Powl." You must also be
cure, if you would do the proper thing, to
speak of Dom Paul's general, not as if
Joubert were a French name, but with the
pronunciation of Yow-bert. The members
of the first and second ''Raads," or
orders, of the legislatures are called
JOuNueefeH IOuhudlTSH
or Young Lords" and they assemble in
the "Raad Huis,' pronounced Raid
Hoys." The much banded name of the
individuals who are excluded from voting
spelled "Uitlander," is pronounced "Oyt-
lahn-der."
That part of the Transvaal territory
which has been found to contain the
wealth of Ophir and of Golconda combined
is the Rand" the word means division
or border line'-the line that rends or
sewers one state from another. "Witwa-
tersrand' means Edge of the White Wa
ter" Many of the Boer names of places
end in 'dorp,' which is neither more nor
less than "thorp," the Yorkshire name for
hamlet; German "dorf." "Stad" is like
the German "stadt," "a city" ''stroom,"
sometimes printed :'strom,'' is Stream"
Berg means mountain, but ''kopje"
or little head" is also used for smaller
eminences. ax-.ss.
One feature of the South African open
country of which much is likely to be
heard Is the "mealie field" The English
speaking colonists often pronounce the
former of these two words as 1t would be |
in English; the Dutch pronunciation is
more like NELLY" it means just what it !
it looksAa field where you get the vege- |
table material for meal, which material j
in those parts is chiefly what Americans |
call corn, and Englishmen maize. The un-
fortunate young Prince Imperial was killed