158 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



pronunciation, and particularly intonation. Where English is so 

 much of a foreign language this practice in colloquial English ought 

 to be part of the curriculum, though, of course, our curriculum is 

 overcrowded as it is, for we are slaves to a craze for a smattering 

 of everything, and our own language, whether English or Dutch, 

 has to give equal rights to everything else. 



I may, perhaps, at this stage be allowed to draw a comparison 

 between Welsh and English in North Wales and English and Dutch 

 in South Africa. I have had considerable teaching experience in 

 a bilingual country only four hours' jovuney from London, where 

 a far larger proportion of my pupils thought and dreamt and spoke 

 at home and prayed in Church in Welsh than is the ordinary pro- 

 portion in this country who use Dutch as their Mother Tongue. 

 As a result of my close association with these Welsh people I 

 have always had a great deal of sympathy with those here who 

 resent having the alien English language thrust upon them. The 

 language spoken naturally in the earliest years and in all the most 

 intimate relations of home life and on all occasions when, as in 

 religious and political life, people seem most closely drawn to- 

 gether, must not be rudely pushed on one side. If, as I hope, this 

 country will before the end of this century cease to be bilingual it 

 will be through a preliminary fusion of the races. Reconciliation 

 and fusion have always preceded the dropping of one of two 

 languages, except where, as has rarely happened, a tyrant has 

 succeeded in crushing a language by brute force. Over a large 

 part of Wales there has not so far been fusion with the English, 

 because of the fact that there has been little inter-communication. 

 In Britain people are isolated if living in mountainous country 

 away from railways. Now, these Welsh who are still really Welsh 

 are intensely proud of their language and also of its literature. 

 This suggests the first point of difference between them and the 

 Colonial Dutch. The Welsh are, to a large extent, musicians and 

 poets and are great readers of their own literature. They are also 

 fond of composing poetry in complicated metres, and writing 

 prose essays for their competitions. 



I have myself seen a working-man sitting up half the night in 

 labour over some national epic. Whether the tremendous labour 

 results in the birth of a ridiculously unimportant literar\' mouse 

 does not much matter. The essential point is that language and 

 literature are both beloved. 



Now, in South Africa I have not in my ten years of Colonial 

 life found this literary enthusiasm among the Dutch. I think 

 that this want of the passion for reading the treasures of the past 

 and for trying to emulate them will prevent Dutch from being 

 a dominant language. The colloquial use of a thousand words 

 or so will not preserve the language in the absence of a stimulating 

 tjo-anny to keep it living. 



Another difference between the Welsh conditions and those 

 here is that in the University Examinations in Wales \\'elsh has 

 been kept parallel with English so far as syllabuses go. In South 

 Africa, however, the Dutch authorities who have had control of 

 the examinations and syllabuses in Dutch have {deliberately. I 



