The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-11-01
What They Mean.

NNhiNhOC UntD lub DflIlb from dDTOn0
contain unfamiliar words ard expres-
sions idiomatic to the locality from
which they may have been written.
The occurrence Of such "uitandische"
terms will be frequent in the dispatches
which will record the strife between
England and her stubborn height ors in
South Africa, for that country has a
patois all its own.
We therefore propo'e to furnish our
readers with z oSsnry, simply illus
trating the terms which are most likely
to find their way into the war CORE
spondents' ink horns from the dust of
the dry African 'Veldt." \ d this (the
comprehensive term for all open coun-
Try there, and not merely d" he plains'O
will do to start with. Dealing az we
are with 'de Atuksausche taa ," and
not with the "Boers" (meanius farm-
ers and nothing more) called g.. ront
hollaus"-correct European DUTCH
we properly spell this word Vi II a final
vt" because phonetically the word is in
Africa "ielt" even though the .ooks
spell II "veld."
A word as to pronuu citation. The
vowel sounds are as in French or the
Latin OF the schools. But in many
instances the "a' is "ah" go long
drawn out that it ought properly be
written "aa" to express the drawl
which Boer always uses in that word.
This also appears in the word "kweaie,'
immortalized by Uncle Powl when he
described the Queen as "eene kweaie
vrouw." Pundits in three continents
ran their aheads against the phrase
mostly in vain-for it was used as a
term of respectful awe. In its archaic
and therefore Kruegerian sense it is
the explicit equivalent of "dread lady,"
or the consonants only two need be
mentioned-"k" and "g." The first.
when terminal, has the sound of
"ck" and we often therefore 30 spell
it. The "g" is a gutteral so vibrant as
TO have no representative equivalent in
English lettering-even sch" (Scotch)
in "loch' hardly reaches it, as uttered
by plainsman; "kb," deep 10 The
throat, might convey the idea. The
proper name George" as used by
them, has precisely the sound of vio-
lent effort to remove bit of tough
phlegm from ones throat.
"Uip' is one of the most pulling
syllables for the Anglo. Saxon reader to
master; favorite pronunciation is
sweet" Its sound in a Transvaaer's
mouth is exactly as we say "eight" in
English, e. g., uitlanders, "eightland-
ers." Even in South Africa itself the
Saxon tongue boggles at this "uit,"
and for "spruit," or brook or stream
let, most Of them say ''spoot"; never
ihtless, the Beers always pronounce it
"spr g."
Some physical features of landscape
likely to be presented TO their readers
by the newspapers are shown in the
following commentary: "Rand," any
long, rolling hill; range is rand
more specifically the grassy ridge itself
of such formation. Cats Rand and
Witwater's Rand are illustrations.
"Kopje" = pronounced koppe--desig-
mates is lated hills, especially such as
are round and have pointed tops. A
''kop" is larger; it must be an isolated
mountain peak to attain the dignity of
kop. To be a "spitzkop" the peak
must be high, sharp and aggy.
"Berg" or "bergen" signifies extensive
mountain ranges, as the Mahalies ber-
gen, the Drakensber, and the Wer-
zaamebergen.
To descend to the lower features 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 Laing's Mex.
"Nek" means the rounded hollow of
the dip between any two peaks of
mountain chain. But do not make the
error of confounding the mex" with
the "pass." Laing's Mex is pass be-
cause the road goes over it, but there
are "neks" which are not passes.
II, however, we were upon mountain
which offered us no easy "hoogte" to
descend by, we should have to scram-
bic down some narrow and rugged
"kloof." A "kloot" is precisely what
in America is canyon, and, as with the
word canyon, 30 also the word kloof
may with equal propriety be applied to
deep, narrow cut in plain, or level
narrow pass in rocky country, 30 as to
rife (or ascending valey) in a
mountain side. Thus the word spe-
officially means quite other than "a
hollow between two hills" as some
Him ormed Boston writer has explain
ed it lately.
AS we scramble down the windings
of our "kloof" we may come in sight
of the "krantz" of some bee ling kop
above us. "Krantz" is the ring of
abrupt cliff which "wreathes" the brow
of the characteristic "kop" of South
Africa. Rensburg's kop on the road
over Quathlamba from Natal to Harri-
smith, in the Free State (and which
will most probably figure in the ac-
count of some fight soou), is a good
example of a partly "krantzed" kop.
The perfect krantzes, however, are in
Basutoland.
The kloof we have been threading
will invariably lead us to a "spruit."
And that most likely will run into a
"vley," the recipient of a dozen or
more spruitjies from the hills. "Vleys"
when near the mountains, are usually
large, shallow, marshy collections of
the drainage, bespread literally with
great patches of tall reeds and strong
PUSHES, and these are the sources of the