Delaware gazette and state journal., 1899-10-19
BOER NAMES.
Row We Must PronouEce Places in the
Seat of War.

SotN
New York Tribune.
What misleads the English speaking
American in the language of the Beers
is its similarity in spelling to German.
The confusion is increased by an occa
sional oversight of the London trans
>mitters of Transvaal news, substi-
tptihg, e. g., the German "stein" for
"steen, the Dutch for "stone. 1t
looks as If the Dutch were philologi-
cally akin to the Germans more than
to English. The fact is just the re-
verse. English, Dutch and Flemish
belong to one group Of the Teutonio
languages Low Dutch); German is
the only surviving written language of
the other group High Dutchl. This
especially ii one has read little Chnu-
the meanings of the Transvaal names
which will soon fill all the European
dispatches. tBloemfontein, for in
stance pronounced Bloom -fone-t tine''
-isS Bloom Spring, or Flower Spring.
Laing's Mex needs no explanation.
Maioba- pronounced, of course, Ma
yoo oba-is not IA Dutch word, except by
right of adoption and conquest but
katlir. A Boer general is called
"veldheer, or field lord" 1.-THE yeld''
is simply 1.-THE field"-the open coun-
try, as when it is said an army takes
the. field" The rural guard or military
police of the Trunsvaal are the "veld
waohteren," or field watchers The
weld in many parts of the Transvaal is
much cut up by clefts or ravines,
which the newspaper correspondents
are sure to call by the Cape name of
''kloofs pronounced 'klofes, - as, by
the way, President Krnger's pet name
should be pronounced '.Ome Powl."
YOU must also be sure, if you would
do the proper thing, to speak of Dom
Paul's general not asi Juebert were
French name. but with the pro-
nunciation Yow-bert The members OF
the first and second "Raads,'' or
orders, of the Legislature are called
"Jonkheeren" = pronounced "Yonk-
hairen''--or "young lords,' and they
assemble in the "Raad Huis," pro-
nourced "Rahd Hoys.'' The much
banded name of the individuals. who
are excluded from voting, spelled "uit-
lander" is pronounced "oytlahnder. "
That part Of the Transyaal territory
which has been found to contain the
| wealth Of Ohpir and of Golconda COM
bind is the Randi" the word means
division or "border line'-the line
that renders or sewers one State from
another. 'Witwatersrand' means
Edge of tho White Water" Many of
the sBoer names of places end in
"dorp." which is neither more nor less
4 than thorp," the Yorkshire name for
a hamlet; German ''dorf. y .tStad'' is
like the German "stadt, . "a city. ="
"Stroom, sometimes printed "strom, I"
is ''stream. y "Berg'' means 'moun-
tain" but ''kopje, or little head" !"
il also used for smaller emineuces.
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 pro-
nounce the former of these two words
as it would be in English; the Dutch
pronunciation is more like ''meily -
it means just what it looks-a field
where you got the vegetable material
for a meal, which material in those
parts is chiefly what Americans call
corn and Englishmen maize. The un-
fortunate young Prince Imperial was
killed in q mealie field in the Zulu
war. He had gone on Reconnaissance
several miles away from his ''laager'
pronounced something like Lab. her
| which means camp, or, as it would
be called if the host were host of wild
beasts, his layer" in modern spell
ing liar When hunters or soldiers
in the veldt are not in ''laager" they
are on the trek, . or making tracks, .
as the Forty-nipers were in the habit
of saying. And tine Dutch settlers who
made the Great Trek'' across the
Vaal river Go years ago. because the
nAtA rala Il =.
peculiar institution of slavery, and
| who have been blocking up the trek
of advancing civilization ever since,
pronounced their distinctive name
"Boors,' which, like tho German
"bauer'' and the identical English
word, means '.rustics - 1t seems q
little paradoxcal to read of 1.-THE Boel
burghers," because "burgher'
bourgeois, or man of the city, is
essentially contradistinguished from q
"boer.'
l