448 REroRX S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



(p) thai:, though there are exceptions to the rule thai the lang- 

 uage of a colon} is more conservative than that (j1 the mother- 

 country, it would he very difficult, if not im]jossible, to find any 

 example of so great a deviation from the moiher-tongue. WITHOUT 

 THE INFLUENCE OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. 



Li the ca.se of Cape-Dutch, he says, it is absolutely impossible to 

 think of spontaneous development of Dutch idiom when \\ e see that as 

 early as 1739, i-C- only 87 years after the founding of the colony, a 

 language is used in Avritten documents that differs widely from any- 

 thing known in any dialect of Holland. In the manifestoes, issued 

 by a Sergeant Barbier, leader of rebelUon against the (jouvernor. we 

 alreadv notice o/is for wij. the loss of the termination of the infinitives 

 of the verb, and many of these simplifications in ihe inn jugations 

 which now sound so strange tO' a Dutchman's ear. 



Cape-Dutch is a " Mischsprat'he."' " Mengeltaal." a "Mixed 

 Language,'' and if we wish to understand its histor\ and develop- 

 ment, we must first of all try to find out of what people the Hollan- 

 ders in South .\frica began to speak the language, bv the side of 

 their own. If we can find out that, our conclusion must i)e that it 

 is that language which became the cause of the transfonnation of 

 Dutch, and that the other languages with which Cajie-Dutch came 

 into contact may have most probably enriched its vocabulary by new 

 names for unknown things or ideas, but that their share in producing 

 so characteristic and new an idiom has been insignificant. 



The Dutch settlers looked down with contempt upon the natives, 

 and for a long time did not even try tO', or at least did not succeed 

 in, learning their language. The intercourse which was inevitable, 

 and naturally desired for the purpxise of trading, was sought with the 

 help of interpreters, the first of whom was a Hottentot whoi had in 

 India learned something like English and the Lingua-Franca which 

 there served for all international trade, the Malaio-Portuguese. 



Gradually some Europeans however did learn the dialect of the 

 Hottentots, but far more commonly it was the Hottentots who learn- 

 ed to speak something like Dutch. 



Though the Colonists no doubt borrowed some words from the 

 natives, they never spoke their language to any large extent, and 

 there is no reason to think that Dutch was sensibly modified or — if 

 any one jirefers the term — corrupted by its influence. 



Nor has either French or German left many traces in the Dutch 

 of the Cape. 



The settlement here was at lirst only a calling station lor refresh- 

 ments, etc., for ships on their way to the Dutch Indies. 'I'hese ships 

 belonged indeed for by far the greater number to the Dutch East 

 India Compan\'. but their crews were composed of representatives of 

 most European nations. The language which served them for inter- 

 communication we know from various and reliable sources, and 

 consisted of a mixed language whose vocabularv was dt-rived from 

 Malay, Portuguese and Dutch 



Kolbe, in his " Naukeurige Beschrijving,'" tells us that the best 

 language to get along with at the Cape, " where so many nations are 





