EXGI.ISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN SOUTH AFRICA. I53 



{i) Again, take what I may term sociological words, peasant, 

 yeoman, squire, squarson, duke, footman, butler, game- 

 keeper, crossing-sweeper — all these words are really foreign 

 words in South Africa. 



(2) Secondl}'. many words though current here are current in 

 a more or less different connotation, e.g.. the word farmer in South 

 Africa does not mean the brainless, stolid John Bull type of man, 

 whose wife sells butter and fowls and eggs once a week at a stall 

 inTthe market of the nearest town, the lord of Hodge and of the 

 pretty maid who went a-milking. In South Africa the word 

 farmer suggests a very different jMcture. The root-idea of an 

 agricultural or pastoral specialist with a tendency to grumble 

 at the weather is the same in both countries, but the " wrapping " 

 of the root is different. 



This subject, the widely different connotation which attaches 

 to the same word as used in different geographical areas or in 

 various social classes in the same countr\'. is one of great interest 

 to me, and is, I consider, a matter of importance in the teaching 

 of English Literature in this country. Even such a common 

 word as mother means to the slum child of Liverpool or Battersea 

 something very different from what it means to the middle-class 

 boy or girl. The connotation of such words depends upon indi- 

 vidual experience. To you the word mother suggests all that is 

 loving, brave, patient, gentle and pious : to another it may mean 

 one who was indifferent, noisy, drunken, vicious. 



This variation of meaning, of course, chiefly applies only to 

 words denoting human, animate objects having highly developed 

 volitional characteristics. The word haby, on the other hand, or 

 cat, dog, etc., would mean the same in all parts and ranks of the 

 English-speaking world. I have enlarged upon this topic because 

 I feel that we should try to explain the exact meaning of words 

 in teaching Literature, to convey to the pupil's mind the real 

 meaning of the author. 



Other words current here in a slightly foreign sense are cab 

 (here an open two-horse vehicle is often so termed), cart, dollar 

 ( = is. 6d., a result of depreciation of paper Rix-dollar), couple (not 

 necessarily of two hni — a few), bush (partly due to Dutch bosch), 

 birds ( = ostriches ) . 



An interesting sub-division under this head is the case of old 

 English meanings being revived. In America, as is well known, 

 many words and meanings have been preserved which have either 

 died or only continued to live as members of the " submerged 

 tenth" of language in England itself, e.g., fall (= autumn), slick, 

 bluff, freshet, to rile. 



There are not many similar examples in South African experi- 

 ence, though the new conditions of life have rehabilitated some 

 few provincial paupers or converted some verbal hooligans. 



The diamond and gold-mining industries have given new life 

 to Cornish dialect words and other words previously obscure. 



A good example of an old meaning being revived is the word 

 furrow in the sense of " water-leading." I was once conversing 

 with Mr. J ebb, who was in this country two or three ^-ears ago 



