Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-11-06
BOER NAMES.
How We Must Pronounce Places in the
Seat of War.

Seat of War.
What misleads the English-speaking
American in the language of the Beers
is it's similarity in spelling to German.
The confusion is increased by an oc-
casional oversight of the London trans
mitters of Transvaal news, substitu-
ting, e. g., the German ''stein" for
"steen," the Dutch for "stons." 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 be-
long to one group of the Teutonic Ian
guages Glow Dutch); German is the
only surviving written language of the
other group (H1gh Dutch). This once
understood, it is not difficult, especially
if one has read a little Chaucer, or even
Spenser, to guess correctly the mean
ings of the Transvaal names which
will soon fill all the European dis
patches. "Bloemfontein," for instance
pronounced Bloom-fone-tine" = is
Bloom Spring, or Flower Spring
Laing's Mex needs no explanation
Majuba pronounced of course, Ma
yoo-be-is not Dutch word. except by
right of adoption and conquest, but
Kaffir. A Loer general is called a
"veldheer, or field lord" '"The weld
is simply "the fielu'-the open country
as when it is said an army takes the
field" The rural guard or military
police of the Transvaal are the weld
wachteren," or field watchers. The
weld in many parts of the Transvaal is
much cut up by slefts or ravines, which
the newspaper correspondents are sure
to call by the Cape name of "kloofs p
pronounced "klofes,' as, by the way
President Kruger's pet name should be
pronounced come 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 French name
but with the pronunciation YOW-bert
The members of the first and second
"Raads," or orders, of the Legislature
are called "Jonkheerer''-pron
''Yonkhairen"-or young lords" and
they assemble in "Raad Huis,' pro-
nounced "Rahd Hoys.' The much
banded name of the individuals who
are excluded from voting, spelled "uit-
lander" is pronounced "oytlahnder.'
That part of the Transvaal territory
which has been found to contain the
wealth of Ohpir and of Golconda com.
bined is the Rand" the word menas
"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 ham
let; German "dorf" "Stad" is like the
German "stadt," ga city" "Stroom, >
sometimes printed 'strom," is
stream Berg means mountain,
but "kopje," or little head" 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 "melly; .
it means just what it looks-a field
where you get the vegetable material
for a meal, which material in those
parts is chiefly what Americans call
corn and Englishmen maize. The I'M
fortunate young Prince Imperial was
killed in a mealie field in the Zulu war.
He had gone on reconnaissance sever
al miles away from his "laager"-prO-
nounced something like lah-her-
which means camp, or, as it would be
called if the host we're a host of wild
beasts, his layer" in modern spelling
clair" When hunters or soldiers in
the veldt are not in 'laager" they are
on the trek" or making tracks," as
the Forty-niners were in the habit of
saying And the Dutch settlers who
made the "Great Trek" across the Vaal
river IS years ago, because the British
authorities suppressed their peculiar
institution" of slavery, and who have
been blocking up the trek" of advanc-
ing civilization ever since, pronounced
their distinctive name "Boors," which,
like the German "bauer" and the iden-
teal English word, means 'rustics. ="
It seems little paradoxical to read of
1.-The Boer burghers," because burg
her" bourgeois, or man of the city,
is essentially contradistinguished from
a "boer. New York Tribune.