THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN SOUTH 



AFRICA. 



By Professor A. S. Kidd, M.\ 



In no part of the British Colonial Territories are so many 

 languages commonly spoken as in South Africa. In addition to 

 English we have : 



(i) The language of the majority of the people; tlie vari(Hi> Native 

 varieties of language. *■ ' 



(2) Dutch, spoken by the greatest number of Europeans ; of two main 



types. European Dutch with its devotion to literary standards, and 

 Cape Dutch with its disregard of all standards. 



(3) German, spoken as a mother tongue in certain areas, particularly 



between East London and Kingwilliamstown. 

 ^4) In the streets of Cape Town and Johannesburg one may frequently 

 hear Modern Greek, Russian, Yiddish, French, and various Eastern 

 tongues. 



As I have sub-divided Dutch, perhaps I ought to sub-divide English 

 also, viz., into Standard English. Lowland Scotch. Colonial English, 

 Dialect English and. worst of all. American. 



Now in a Colony far away from the Motherland it is not un- 

 natural that the Home language should be greatly modified by 

 two causes in particular : (1.) the new local conditions, and (II.) 

 the contaminating influence of alien tongues where there are 

 such, as here we have both Dutch and Native elements at work. 

 I. I shall first show : How the new local conditions in Sov.ih Africa 

 have necessarily influenced the traditional English vocabulary. 



(i) Very many words current at Home have become obsolete 

 here or only literary, e.g. : 



(«) Geological words such as pond, pit. brook. 



{,0) Zoological words such as beagle, dace, minnow, nightingale, 

 pike, linnet. 



(y) Botanical terms — well, here we ma}^ dismiss en bloc all 

 those dearly lo\'ed English popular flower-names such as 

 I Ragged Robin, Sheep's Bane, Saint John's Wort. May- 



flower, Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon, Butcher's Broom, etc. 



Again, even though the South African may use such words as 

 daisy, buttercup, honeysuckle, these words do not mean what they 

 mean to those of us who were reared in the English rural parts. 

 Take the lines : 



" Every shepherd tells his tale 

 Beneath the hawthorn in the dale." 



These lines suggest to my mind a definite picture ; to th- South 

 African they can only mean much less. 



Again, many words which are only semi-current in England, 

 i.e., semi-poetical, are here quite obsolete— such words as beck, 

 tarn, dell, dingle, and such words of typical English country as 

 nieadotV, close, copse, fell, fen, moor, Jiedgerow. 



