Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-23
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Boer Language Abounds in Puzzling
Words and Phrases.
some OF TEE MOREPERplEIIhG ONES
Terms That viii Be- Found in
mi III
Reports Of the Wat.
81
ECT PRONUNCIATION
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.

From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
News readers always suffer Inconvenience
when the reports from abroad contain I'M
familiar words and expressions idiomatic to
the locality from which they may have been
written. The occurrence Of such "uitland-
ische" terms will be frequent in the dis
patches which will record the strife be-
tween England and her stubborn neighbors
IN South Africa, for that country has a
patois all its own.
We therefore propose to furnish our read
ers with glossary, simply illustrating the
terms which are most likely to find their
way into the war correspondents ink horns
from the dust of the dry African "veldt. -
And this Qhe comprehensive term for all
open country there. and not merely 1.-The
platns) will do to start with. Dealing
as we are with de Afrikaansche taal."
and not with what the Beers (meanfny
farmers and nothing more) call '.pront hoi-
laus -correct European Dutch-we proper-
ly spell this word with a final It." because
Theoretically the word Is in Africa felt. ;"
even though the books spell it weld
some people mistakenly connect with the
above word the term "velschoens" and
spell this. which stands for the farmer
made skin shoes-whch are only one de-
gree removed from our mOccasins-with an
AIDED DIT, under the impression that the
word means shoes for the veldt
A word as to pronunciation As re-
marked, the "Boer taaF' is not the Ne
derlansche' of today but patois. the
pody OF which consists of archaic 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 in
schools. But in many instances the "a, is
an, so long drawn out that it ought
crawl which a Boer always uses in that
worn. RMS also appears in the word
kweaie," immortalized by Uncle PowI
when he described the great queen as 'ieene
hWeaie vrouw Pundits in three CONT
nents ran their heads against the phrase
mostly In vain-for it was used as a term
OF respectful awe. In its archaic and
therefore krugerian. sense 1t is the explicit
equivalent of dread lady"
TWO Important COnsonants.
or the consonants only two need be men,
doned-"k' and "g.'' The first. when q
terminal. has the sound of eek" and we
o1ten therefore SO spell It, The "g' is a
cultural so vibrant to have no represen
tatlve equivalent in English lettering-even
en- scotch in 'loch' hardly reaches it,
as uttered by plainsman; XII" deep in
the throat, might convey the idea The
proper name George" as used by them
mas precisely the sound of a violent effort
throat. A oiie .
"uit is one of the most puzzling svl,a-
pres Tor the Anglo-Saxon reader to master.
a Iavorte pronunciation is "weet' Its
sound IN a TranSvaaler's mouth is exa,tlv
as we say 49, in English, e. e. uitIa nders
eight-ianders- Even in South Africa it,
sell the Saxon tongue boggles at this ..uit -
ana Tor spruit," a brook or streamlet.
the Beers always pronounce it "snr-S,,
some physical features of landscape like
10 De presented to their readers by the
news writers In 'taaf' words are shown in
long, rolling hill; range is arand. moro
speclhcally the grassy ridge itself of such
d formation. Cats rand and Wftwater's
rand are illustrations. "Kopje'-pro-
hounced koppe-designates isolated hills
especially such as are round and have
pointed tops. A "kop'' is larger; it must
De an Isolated mountain peak to attain the
dignity of kop, To be ''spitzkop the
Berg or bergen signify extensive
mountain ranges, as the Mahaliesbergen.
the Drakensberg and the Northumberland
"Nek" and It's Meaning.
TO descend to the lower features of the
iahuscape-say, from the top of Majuba
kop'-we come down the grassy. rock
strewn ''hoogte.' or braeside and find our
selves in Laing's Mex. Mex" means the
rounded hollow of the dip between any two
peaks of mountain chain. But do not
maze ma, me error of confounding the mex
WIN the pass. Laings Mex is pass
because the road goes over it, but there ar,
nekS which are rot passes
II, however, we were upon mountain
wllich o1ered US no easy ''hoogte" to de-
scehd by. we should have to scramble down
sc me narrow and rugged ''kloof" A kloof
is precisely what in America we call a
canyon. and. as with the word canyon So
ALSO the word kloof may with equal pro-
plain, or level. narrow pass and loses its
identity. AS New Years vley" "a strong
stream, Van Wycks vley," and others.
indeed, Lenberg's vley runs for more than
a hundred miles under that appellation he
lore us identity Is lost by joining the Wilge
river. There are "vleys' on the plains.
aiso; more or less true marshes. having no
outflow. pan again differs from a view
In that, though also a depression in the
plain. catching the drainage of an area, but
having no outflow-it must have hard
bottom. N
A "laagte" again is different. and is one
or the distinctive formations of South Afri-
ca que TO the clear-cut distinction between
the ury ana wet seasons. A laagte IS prop
cry wlde and comparatively shallow de-
preston, dropping suddenly from the pre-
Vaillng country level. 1t is usually full of
pitfalls. and woe betide the foreign general
VINO snail try to push cavalry or big guns
t tha a IN tne lace. lace OF farmers" occupying
when dry. well-grassed turf of rich mold.
no one can say how deep-often two miles,
or more wide. and running twenty to thirty
mlles-mostly level as a billiard board but
with gentle tilt sufficient to let the water
run Elandslaagte is a good example These
nat bottoms are dotted all over with deep
Water-pits c'cyfer-gaten'D, often almost
hidden from the incautious horseman by
the long grass; these swarm with fish, al
though they are totally disconnected from
each otner. ana may be miles from any
river. During the wet season, however, the
floor of a laagte will become a gently flow
ing sheet of shallow rain water, and
through this medium the fish of, the river,
with which the laagte finally connects, will
sl1ther along over the grass to and from
these curious cyfer-gaten. 'tE$
The South African OK Wagon.
The appointments of the great South At
rican OK wagon are sure to be referred to.
OF these. the great freighters lthe "bok-
wagen) run to as much as twenty feet
long by seventeen between the. wheels, and
are drawn by fourteen, sixteen or eighteen
bullocks, "spanned" in pairs
"lnspanning" and "outspanffng" are the
acts OF hitching up and loosing these ami
mails from the yoke. Each OK is harnessed
thus: After the span have been refined
and ranged along the "touw" the end of
a yoke Is laid upon the amman s neck, and
as there are two stout pieces of wood
through hO1 i'm l