Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/219

Rh show forms like fader, breeder, neeper (neighbour). This last, again, is the Irish "Napper Tandy" in the "Wearin' o' the Green." South African speech has further remarkable affinities with Scottish dialects. "Is dit die naaste pad?" for Is't the nearest (nighest) path or road? might almost be heard here at home. We regularly find neest for nearest in Scottish verse. "When one hears in some country districts in Scotland such words as nearder and faarder for nearer and faarer (Eng. farther is wrongly formed), one is apt to regard them as ignorant corruptions, but they are really double comparatives (naa-re-d-er, faar-re-d-er), showing the older affix—re as in more—and the latter er with d inserted to separate the liquids. Now in Dutch it is the rule to insert d before er in adjectives ending in re, as vere, verder (far, farther) and zwaare, zwaarder (sweerer).

The wearing-down process is still more apparent where affinity with German is most direct. Thus we have na'ant (guten Abend, good evening), eers (erste, first), lus (Lust, pleasure). klere (Kleider, clothes), rus-plaas (Rust-platz, rest-place), rek (reeht, right), eenvoudig (einfaltig, onefold), gen (kein, no), blij (bleiben, remain), glo (glauben, believe), krij (kriegen, obtain), spreck (sprechen, speak), slaan (schlagen, strike), snij (schneiden, cut), verjaa (verjagen, drive off). But the consonantal changes generally incline to the English or Low rather than to the German or High Dutch type, as these examples show: Oudste or ouste (älteste, oldest), deur (Thüre, door), ook (auch, eke), diep (tief, deep), twede (zweite, second). It is curious to find that Cape Dutch, like Scots, prefers to harden initial sch into sk in contrast to German, as shown in skrij (Sc. skrive, Ger. sehreiben, write) and schade (Sc. skaid, Ger. Schade, damage). As Heeren Logeman and Oordt say, the rule is absolute, we ought to call the prominent politician Schreiner, Skreiner, in Taal fashion, and this connects the name with the old Scottish trade of the skriners, originally shrine-workers, and latterly cabinet-makers.

The most interesting affinities of the Taal are with Lowland Scots, and this quite apart from borrowings. One of the most characteristic features of our dialects is the fondness for diminutives to north of Tay, evidently a survival of Norse and Frisian influences. This is well marked in the Taal as in merrie (mare), beitjie (bit), meisie (miss), wortjie (word), hartjie (heart), kereltje