446 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



As subject for his " Thesis " or Essay, required by the University 

 of Strassburg from Candidates for the Degree of D. Lit., he chose : 



Eeitriige zur Geschichte der Cap-Hollan(hschen Sprache, which 

 were published in 1896. 



In 1899 Mr. D. C. HesseHng pubUshed : 



Het Afrikaansch, Bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis der Xederland- 

 sche Taal in Zuid-Afrika. (Leiden, E. J. Brill). 



And in 190] there appeared in Gottingen : 



Die Sprache der Buren. — Einleitung, Sprachlehre und Sprach- 

 proben. von Dr. Heinrich Meyer. (Fr. Wunder). 



The second of these works is by far the most important from our 

 point of view. 



Dr. Viljoen commences with a ver\ short note on such points 

 of the political Histor)- of the white population of this country as he 

 considers of importance for his subject: the settlement of the Dutch, 

 the arrival of the Huguenots, and h(jw these were absorbed by the 

 Dutch, and lf>st their language. (12 pages.) 



A note on the ethnology of the native tribes and on the inter- 

 course f)etween the.se and the white population occupies the next 4 

 pages. 



FT. 17-3:: contain all that Dr. Viljoen tells us on the question 

 that is at the moment occupying our attention. 



This is in its turn followed by a short note on alinosi a 

 bibliographv of what has been published since 1844 in Cape-Dulch. 

 whilst pp. 39-58 contain an excellent first scientific attempt at describ- 

 ing the phonology of the language, as it now exists. This part again, 

 however valual)le in it.self, is for our present ])urpose of no importance. 



The 16 pages which contain Dr. V.'s views on the History of the 

 language are inevitably not to be compared in thorf)Ughness with the 

 work of Dr. Hesseling. whose whole book of 156 })ages is devoted to 

 that subject. 



As far as I am aware. Dr. H.'s results stand uncontradicted : ihe 

 great advance he has made on the work of his predeces.sfir was due 

 to a more extensive study of original documents than Dr. Y had 

 found time for, and to his consequent discovery and demonstration 

 of the great influence which Malaio-Portuguese has exerted fvn the 

 development of Cape-Dutch, an influence the existence of which had 

 been entirely overlooked by Dr. V. 



I intend in what follows to give a VERY short summary of Dr. 

 H.'s work and will here only quote one remark made by Dr. Meyer, 

 in the third little work mentioned above. Dr. Meyer avowedly bases 

 what he says concerning the History of Cape-Dutch upon the two 

 books of Viljoen and Hesseling. and accepts the latter's views. What 

 he gives is- once more we can say ' of course" since the little book 

 contains Grammar and Reading texts, and only discusses the Historv 

 of the language incidentally and in the short space of some 7 pages : 

 a mere sketch. He makes however special mention of one fact 

 which neither Dr. V.. nor Dr. H. seem to ha^•e taken much notice of, 

 and which- just as the immigration of the Huguenots explaiiis the 



