Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/240

216 Taal, in following the Dutch, is consonantly akin to Scots and English, rather than German, as is shown by comparison of the following Boer words with their German cognates:—te=zu, terug=zurück, op=auf, doof=taub, tijd=zeit, ook=auch. We have here also the favourite corruptions of the Taal. Thus a dental, both final and medial, frequently disappears as rij for ride, Ger. reiten, luch for Scots licht, or weer for German wieder (cf. Eng. with-stand, with-hold), drif for drift. А similar softening is seen in vêe for wipe. Such elisions are common in all linguistic growth. Reitz's language, indeed, shows nothing to justify the popular contempt for the Taal as a vulgar hotch-potch of corrupt Dutch, English and Kaffir.

To the Scot the Taal must always sound familiar, for he can turn an intelligent ear to both the Dutch and the German elements in it. The sounds are often exactly his own. The query, "Hae ye faur te gang?" is just the Boer, "He'you vèr te gaan?" The Boer constantly uses kijk, to look, though in Scotland it is but little heard out of the nursery. In South Africa, however, photographic views are kiekjies, and a field-glass is a ver-kiekjer. Similarly in en for and, een for a and one, ure for hour, and lang for long, we are on homely ground. The Scot, again, has ceased to sound the guttural in such (sigh), but to "keep a calm souch," is still for him a discreet silence.

Reitz's rendering is spirited, though we miss some characteristic touches. "On blithe Yule night when we were fou," is discreetly changed so as to suggest the long distances on the lonely Veldt and the pleasures of the Op-sit on the great social evening of the week. In the very expressive skeef, we have what is really only a variant of the Scottish skeigh. The change of final is paralleled in laugh, enough. Of course Ailsa Craig must go, but while to "remain seated" may be de rigueur on such occasions in Boerland, the change is weak. Nor can the Lover's Leap be always practicable in the sun-dried spruits, so "spak o' lowpin owre a linn" is dropped. "Grat his een baith bleert and blin," is feebly rendered by "wipes the tears from his cheeks." The phrase "een gek" is however stronger than "a fool" of the original. "Hunt'e gowk" is to play April fool. The word is also in the familiar play-rhymes, given in a former