Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1899-11-03
IDIOMS OF THE BOERS.
Terms That Will Abound In the
War Reports.
THEIR SPECIFIC MEANING.
MEANING.

.IIng Words - Language of south
Africa Is a Patois Compounded of
Many Others besides the Dutch.
sSuth African OK Wagon.
News readers always suffer incon-
venIence when the reports from abroad
contain unfamiliar words and express
siCns idiomatlc TO the locality from
which they may have been written.
The occurrence of such "uitlandiSChe'
terms will be frequent in the dispatch
es which will record the strife between
England and her stubborn neighbors
in South AFRICA, for that country has 4
patoIs all it, own.
We therefore propose 10 furnish our
readers With glossary, simply Illus
trating the terms which are most tlkely
to lind their way into the war cOrre-
spondents' ink horns from the dust of
the dry African ''Veldt," says the Chi
cago Inter Ocean. And this (he com
prehensive term for all open country
there, and not merely "the plalns'D Will
do to start with. Dealing rs we are
with de Afrikaansche taal." and not
with what the Beers" meaning farm
ers and nothing morel call 'pront hOl-
laus"-Correct European putch-we
properly spell this word with n final
IT." because phoueticR!ly the word Is
in Africa felt even though the books
spell 1t weld" Some people mistaken
~ connect with the above word the
term "velschoens" and spell this, which
stands for the farmer made skin shoes,
which are only one degree removed
from our moccaSins, with an added
DIT" under the impression that the
word means shoes for the yeidt
\ word rs to pronunciation AS re-
marked, the "Boer taal' Is not the
"Nederlansche" Of today, but patols,
the body OF which consists OF archaic
Dutch OF the seventeenth century eked
out by adaptations from French, Span
ish. Malay and some native words. The
vowel sounds are as In French or the
Latin Of the schools, but IN many In
stances the "A" Is "ah." SO long draw L
out that II ought properly be written
"au" to express the drawl which d
| Boer always uses In that word. This
also appears In the word "kweaie,' i'm
mortalized by Uncle Powl when he de
scribed the great queen as "eene
kweaie vrouw." Pundits In three con-
! tinents ran their heads against the
phrase, mostly in vain, for 1t was used
as Il term OF respectful awe. In its
! archaic, and therefore krugeran, sense
II Is the explicit equivalent OF dread
lady"
| OF the consouants only two need be
mentioned. TX" aud g" The first,
when IL terminal, has the sound OF
| "ck," and we often therefore so spell
! II. The e. is cultural SO vibrant "a
10 have no representative equivalent in
| English lettering. Even "ch' Scotch
| In "loch" hardly reaches 1t as uttered
! by plainsman; "Rh." deep in the
throat, might convey the idea.
Tit" Is one of the most puZzlIng syl'
tables for the Anglo Saxon reader 10
master. A favorite pronunciation Is
"weet." Its sound In q Transvaaler q
mouth Is exactly as we say eight" IN
| English--e. &, uitlauders. ''eishtland.
ers." Even IN South Africa itself the
Saxon tongue boggles AZ this "uit," and
for "spruit," brook or streamlet, most
OF them say "sproot." Nevertheless
the Beers always pronounce II
"spr- eight"
Some physical features OF landscape
likely to be presented TO their readers
by the news writer's In "taal" words
are shown in the following comncn.
tary: Rand" any long, rolling hiii
range Is rand; more specifically the
grassy ridge itself OF such forua
ton. Cats rand and Witwater's rand
are illustrations. "kopje," pronounced
koppe. designates Isolated hills, espe
cially such as are round and have
pointed tops. A "kop" is larger; II
must be an isolated mountain peak &c
attain the dignity OF kop. 70 be O
"spitZkop' the peak must be high
sharp and cragYy. Berg" OF bergen
signifies extensive mountain ranges.
To descend to the lower features OF
juha "kop''-we come down the grassy
rock strewn "bOogte," or braeside, and
lnd ourselves IN l.aingsnek. Mex
means the rounded hollow OF the dir
between any two peaks Of mountain
chain. But do not make the error OF
confounding the mex" with the
"pass" l4ningsnek ls pass, because
the road goes over 1t. but there are
'neks" which are not passea.
II, howevey, we were upon a noun
tnin which offered us no easy "hoogte'
to descend by. we should have t(
scramble down some narrow and rug
ged "kloof.' A kloof Is precisely wha
In America we call canyon, and, a:
with the word canyon, SO also the wore
klOof may with equal propriety be ap
piled to u deep. narrow cut In Il plaiI
or level. narrow pass In rocky coun
try, as to Il rift or ascending valley in {
mountain side. AS we scramble d0wI
the windngs of our "kloof' we may
come In sight Of the "krantz" of som'
beetling kop above us. "Krantz' II
the ring Of abrupt cliff whici
"wreathes" the brow Of the character
lstic kop of South Africa. Rensburg'
Eop, on the road over Quathlamb;
from Natal to Harrismith. in the Free
state, is q good example of partl.
"krantZcd" kop.
The kI0of we have been threadin.
will invariably lead us to n "spruit,
and that most likely will run into ,
"vley," the recipient Of dozen or tw'
more spruitiCs from the hills. "Nlcys,
when near the mountains. are usual,