Cape-Dutch. 441 



way quite as interesting and as wurthy of study, as any other tongue, 

 but surely resemblance to a language which boasts of a noble litera- 

 ture cannot be justly imputed to any speech as a blemish ! 



Or is it the very fact that Holland e.g. possesses such a literature, 

 which gives it a right to which Cape-Dutch cannot lay claim ? 



He who will maintain this should first make quite sure that his 

 assumption is correct,, and that Cape-Dutch does really not possess any 

 Literature. 



No one will think of den\ ing that to speak in the same breath of 

 the Literatures of say Holland or England, and of Cape-Dutch is a case 

 of parva cum niagnis. of mimma cum maximis componcre. Never- 

 theless, even my own ver\ incomplete collection of publications in 

 C'ape-Dutch occupies quite a respectable space on my bookshelves, and 

 contains poems of the true ring, of warmth and wit, tales and a no\el 

 of no inconsiderable literary value. Though small, there is a beginning, 

 and no one would have denied the title of " language " to English or 

 J<"rench at the time when w'hat was written in them for 

 literar\' purposes was as insignificant in quantitv. Nay. once more : 

 the name of " language " is constanth and unhesitatingly appliefl to 

 dialects in which nothing has as yet been written. And had man- 

 kind no "language" before the art of writing was invented? 



To sav " Cape-Dutch is no^ language " is a mere senseless play ing 

 with words. It sounds like sense, but can only serve to display the 

 speaker's ignorance. 



"Ah well," savs another detractor. "Cape-Dutch may serve lor 

 uneducated people to talk to one another, but it " has no Grammar! " 



Once more we may ask for some greater clearness, more definite- 

 ness in the accusation. Pray, what is meant by this pom|)()us im- 

 putation. whi(^h sounds so fearful, but contains sO' little? 



Let us for a moment consider what IS grammar. What. e.g.. 

 does a missionar\ do when he comes for the first time into contact 

 with some tril)e. amongst whom the art of writing is as yet unknown, 

 and whom he is the first to visit? His position is a very difficult one, 

 but. bv ]3ointing out things, he soon learns their names, he watches 

 what the people sa\ when they act and evidently encourage one an- 

 other, or even him, to act, he picks up an exclamation, soon a phrase 

 here, and a word there, and ere long he acquires greater and greater 

 facilitv in not only understanding what the natives mean, luit also 

 in imparting his own thoughts to them. His superior intellect and 

 knowledge prompts him to utter thoughts quite new to them, ami 

 he eventually becomes a leader, a master instead of a pupil : he uses 

 the words they already possessed in gradually changing" sense, he 

 extends their application, he modifies, or gives them additional 

 meanings. 



This he does not do at random, but — having become familiar, 

 as far as possible, with their \-ocabulary and their mode of thinking, 

 having, more or less consciously, observed the changes of names of 

 things and actions, made by the natives in their words, or in their 

 order of these words, to express various relations of luunber. tense, 

 mood. etc.. etc.. — he introduces, nnv-be, new names for n^w things. 



