LL-L "Language history" 2008.01.18 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

L O W L A N D S - L  -  18 January 2008 - Volume 07
=========================================================================

From: Elsie Zinsser <ezinsser at icon.co.za>
Subject: LL-L "Language history"

Hi all,

Jacqueline, the Dutch East India Company administered the Cape supply post
from 1652 until 1806, when the British annexed the strategic colony in terms
of the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic wars.

Dutch farmers were not 'sent' to the Cape to grow food and it is unlikely
that the indigenous Khoi-Khoin people knew how to cultivate European
vegetables, including wheat and grapes, which were mostly needed for the
sailors *en route* to the East. They did trade fresh meat with the Dutch
East India company officials.

These original inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope had already been
introduced to European languages (Portuguese since 1488, French and Dutch)
and whilst Dutch East India officials were forbidden to learn indigenous
languages (according to Grevenbroeck's writings and studies of 1695), the
Khoi-Khoin proved to be valuable translators and speakers of Dutch. (See
Raidt, *Afrikaans en sy Europese Verlede, 1991*).

Certain officials (mostly tradesmen and soldiers) were allowed to farm as
"Vryburgers" to bolster the growing of fruit and vegetables outside the
official company grounds. By the time they have moved onto semi-private
farms to grow provisions for the VOIC, they have already acquired freed
slave women as wives. Their offspring resulted in a strong and vibrant 'Cape
Dutch' speaking population, which absorbed the languages of the French
Huguenots
(1688-1689) and the 15,000 German immigrants (after 1850).

So, by the time that the British Settlers arrived in the Cape after 1820 to
defend the eastern Cape frontier against Xhosa attacks, the 'Cape Dutch'
lingua franca has already been established for more than a century. The
British governors, Cradock, and later Charles Somerset implemented a severe
language political process of anglization resulting in the language becoming
denigrated as kitchen tongue and bastard jargon.

Afrikaans is a mixed-race African tongue and perhaps the reason for its
strength and vivacity.

Elsie Zinsser

From: Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong <Dutchmatters at comcast.net>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2008.01.15 (01) [E]

Hello  Elsie, Ron Mark and others.

Elsie makes an interesting remark: "I think the difference
of 'indigenousness' between American English and Afrikaans, for instance, is
that English has been carried, as is, to the US. Its linguistic structures
have not been influenced by any first nation or any other language, for that
matter. The same is not true of Afrikaans."

I think there may be a reason for that phenomenon.

The first argument is that the Dutch were more interested in trading than in
anything else and that the English immigrants were more interested in
farming *their *way. The Dutch also tended to try and trade in the language
of the people they traded with. The first Dutch settlement in South Africa
was mainly a "watering hole" used to restock the trading ships on their way
to the Spice Islands and that the farmers being sent there by the East Indië
Company to provide food for the sailors did not come in large enough numbers
to start farming without the help of the Indigenous people. There are some
examples of Dutch based creoles in North America like "Black Jersey  Dutch"
, which was a mixture of Dutch, English and Mohawk. It was still being
spoken in some areas along the New York-New Jersey border at the beginning
of the 20th century by some people of mixed racial ancestry .

The other argument is that I have the impression that the English
immigration to America was much heavier and consisted mainly of farmers.
They were also more interested in the expansion of the Empire.  There was
less interaction with the local Indians and that the relationship between
settlers and the locals was much more painful.
So that's my two cents worth. Jacqueline
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20080118/b6839059/attachment.htm>