40.— CAPE-DUTCH. 

 By W. S. Logeman, L.H.C. B.A. 



It may perhaps seem to be no more than a disguised tonri of 

 the captatio benevolcnUae, or of the usual pseudo-modesty of authors, 

 if I start by saying that I do not imagine that I can offer in the 

 following paper the fruit of much original research, or any brilliant 

 contribution to the knowledge of my subject. No, this disclaimer 

 states a sober fact, and my only motive for coming before you, with 

 a few observations on Cape-Dutch, is that I believe the subject 

 interesting, and that I think that a discussion may lead others to 

 take it up, and to pursue it, as it fully deserves. 



It may be as well to state at the outset that I intend to treat my 

 subject exclusively from a philological point of view : I will not discuss 

 the political question of equal rights for the Dutch and the English 

 Languages; I shall not touch upon the question of the greater or 

 less aesthetic value of Cape-Dutch; I shall not ask whether it is an 

 advantage or a disadvantage for any people to have two languages 

 spoken more or less correctly by most, and a third (a miserable 

 mixture of both) by the less educated of its members. 



My purpose is — starting from the undoubted fact that the lang- 

 uage exists, that it is spoken daily by thousands and thousands of 

 people, and is dear to their hearts, — to combat some prejudices againsf 

 it, to defend it against some silly accusations levelled at it, generally b) 

 those who know very little or nothing of or about it, or who know 

 it only in its most debased form, the form which it assumes in the 



mouths of kitchenmaid or Cape-boy, and I am sorry to have to 



add, in the mouths of many who consider themselves educated, and 

 who say they love their language, but give the lie to their assertion 

 by uttering the most awful mixture of Dutch and English that intel- 

 lectual laziness, or shallowness of mind has ever produced. 



If I speak of Cape-Dutch, I do not allude to such talk as I 

 myself, e.g., have heard of a young lady, who at a flower show called 

 the attention of her friend to a bunch of flowers which she had sent 

 in, and communicated this interesting fact with the words : 



" Kijk toch, Minnie, that's one of the pieces wat ik het gebreng." 

 Or of another who stated that she did not much care for the 

 photograph of a group in which her likeness Avas not sufficiently 

 distinct, by declaring : 



" Ik is baai disgusted, jij kan mij features niet sien nie." 



Such olla podrida may be good enough for a servant girl who 

 declares that : 



" De master z"n tie is in de drawer where de missus z'n gloves 

 in le," 



but is unworthy of any one who does not wish to stand on a similar 

 low level. 



The Cape-Dutch I do allude to is the language as spoken by 

 the intelligent farmer, the language written in what literature it pos- 

 sesses, in e.g. the periodical " Ons Klijntji," in the little poems of 



