Cape-Dutch. 449 



represented, is I'orlugiiese liesides Malay, which languages are spoken 

 not only (here, hut in the whole of the (Dutch) East Indies." and 

 there is no doubt that his remarks refer tcj the mixture of both these 

 languages. Even in some earlv official documents we find remarkable 

 traces of this dialect, when e.g. the name of the Colony is generally 

 given as Cabo de boa Esperance. and when we are told of the girl 

 Eva, the successor of Harry the first interpreter, as well as of an- 

 other woman who often acted in the same capacity, that they under- 

 stood " good Dutch, and fair Portuguese.' 



It was above all among the numerous slaves that I\lalayo-Por- 

 tuguese served as common language. These slaves belonged to 

 Madagascar, Ceylon, Bengal. Coromandel, Malabar, the West Coast 

 of Africa, Angola, etc.. etc., and the practical need of some common 

 language \- evident . it was found in their corrupted mixture of I'or- 

 tuguese and -.-^alay, and the few but interesting examples quoted here 

 and there in official documents of expressions used by slaves, prove 

 that this was practically the same as that still spoken in some places 

 on Java. 



The numerous slaves imported in the mlildle of the .W'll. cent, 

 (•(jnstituted, also b\ their language, a danger for the i)urity of the 

 Dutch, and that the other languages with which Cape-Dutch came 'ni) 

 by means of promised rewards aJid threats of punishment to encourage 

 anfl promote the learning of Dutch, but though those that had been 

 in the country for any length of time might know Dutch, new-con ers 

 had to be spoken to in the onlv idiom known to both the master ajid 

 the slave. 



Ere long howe\er the |>ower of Portugal in the East Indies was 

 on the wane, and a [)urer form of Malav gradually oiusted the Por- 

 tuguese element in the " Lingua Eranca " here in these parts. Hence 

 it cannot cause any astonishment to find, that though Cape-Dutch 

 in its structure and Grammar strongly shows the effect of the fre- 

 quency with which the " Misch-sprache " had been spoken — the 

 WORDS of foreign origin in Cape-Dutch are mainly derived from 

 Malay, and, of course, those of more recent adoption from English. 



To attempt a sketch of the language and its peculiarities, 

 interesting as the work might be, lies outside the scope of this paper. 

 If I have succeeded in encouraging students of language to turn their 

 attention to Cape-Dutch, they can find an excellent begimiing of all 

 this in the three little books I have quoted and in the works (Gram- 

 mars, etc.) of the Rev. S. J. du Toit. 



There is much to be done still : fresh observations, careful studv 

 of the facts, and above all a good collection of its \ocabularv are 

 wanted. Of the latter there exists as far as [ am aw are but one : 

 Mansvelt's " Idioticon." und<Dubtedly meritorious as a first attem[)t. 

 but miserably inadequate for scientific purposes. Man.svelt gives 

 no examples, no quotations to support his explanations or to illustrate 

 the various uses of the words, and the most casual reading of anv 

 story in Cape-Dutch will supply the student with addenda. And 

 many of the etymologies given by Mansvelt need '' careful revising," 

 to sav the least of them. 



