Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-10-20
LANGUAGE OF BOERS,
FURTHER EXTENSION OFvOCA6
ULARY NECESSARY.
Enslands War with the Boers Makes It Neces.
sary to Study Dutch Suffixes and Terminals
to Keep Pace with Movements on the War.
Map in South Africa.

soi " otuuy DutSH SuitiHeS anu iefInlhdls
to Keep Pace with Movements on the War.
Map in South Africa.
New York Tribune
Matters in South Africa have ar.
rived at point where the average
newspaper reader will need Il little
more than the usual knowledge oi
Dutch words to understand what is
going on, and of Dutch pronunciation
to talk about it without confusion
and mutual misunderstanding. 1t
might seem strange to Paul Kruger
that the citizens of this originally
Dutch settlement should be in any
doubt as to the pronunciation of
Dutch words; but then, if you come
to that, the lineal descendants 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 O'Meara
into O'Meerer and Mahoney into Ma
honey in two generations.
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 occasional oversight of the Lon.
don transmitters of Transvaal news,
substituting, e. g., the German "stein,'
the Dutch for stone" 1t looks rs il
the Dutch were philologically akin to
the Germans more than to English
The fact is just the reverse. English
Dutch and Flemish belong to one
group of the Teutonic languages Glow
Dutch); German is the only surviving
written language of the other group
(High Dutch). This once understood
it is not difficult, especially if one has
read little Chaucer, or even Spenser
to guess correctly the meanings OF the
Transvaal names which will soon fill
all the European dispatches. "Blo'
emfontein," for instance-pronounced
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 Kaffir. A Boer general
is called veldheer," or field lord.
"The weld" is simply "the field"-the
open country, as when it is said an
army "takes the field" The rural
guard or military police of the Trans
vaal are the "veldwachteren," 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 sure to call by
the cape name of "kloofs"@pro.
nounced klofes," as, by the way
President Kruger'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 as if Joubert were a
French name, but with the pronunci.
ton Yow.bert. The members of the
first and second Raads," or orders,
of the legislature are called "Yonk.
heeren"-pronounced Yonkhairen"
or Young Lords" and they as
semble in the "Raad Huis," pro.
nounced "Rahd Hoys." The much
banded name of the individuals who
are excluded from voting, spelled cult
lander" is pronounced "oytlahnder." "
That part of the Transvaal territory
which has been found to contain the
wealth of Ophir and of Golconda com.
bined is the Randi" the word means
division" or " border line"-the line
that renders or sewers one State from
another. Witwatersrand" means
edge of the White Water" 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 noun.
tain" but "kopie," or little head" is
is also used for smaller eminences.
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 nelly;
it means just what it loOks-a field
where you get the. vegetable material
for meal, which material in those
parts is chiefly what Americans call
corn and Englishmen maize. The
unfortunate young Prince Imperial
was killed in a mealie field in the
Zulu war. He had gone on reconnois.
sance several miles away from his
"laager"-pronounced something like
lah-her-which means a camp, or, as
it would be called if the host were q
host OF wild beasts, his "layer, in
modern spelling clair" When hunt
ers or soldiers in the weld are not in
"laager" they are on the "trek," OF
making tracks," as the forty-niner.
were in the habit of saying. And the
Dutch settlers who made the "Greal
| Trek" across the Vaal river sixty-tive