THE FLEMISH LANGUAGE.

We happen to have met with a little book printed at Malines (Mechlin), in the province of Antwerp, which contains some dialogues in Flemish with a French translation opposite. As the Flemish may be considered a fair specimen of the spoken language of that province, the reader may be curious to compare it with his mother tongue, to which it is so near akin. If he has paid a visit into Somersetshire, and has learnt a bit of the Zomerzetshire dialect, he will easily recognise many of the words beginning with z. Those who have any acquaintance with our country dialects, or the common language of the Scotch lower classes, will easily give the right pronunciation to most of the words which we shall present, and will as readily understand their meanings.

274

Flemish. English.

Van waer komt gy? From where come ye?

The word gy is both the singular and plural pronoun thou or you: if the g is pronounced like y, the resemblance to our own ye is apparent, which word in some parts of England is used for the singular pronoun thou. In some parts of this country also, g at the beginning of a word is pronounced like y: thus gate is called yate.

Ik ken u nu. I ken (know) you now.

This second example will cause no difficulty to a Scotchman.

Waer wilt gy gaen? Where will you go?

Wat nieuws? What news?

Hoe gaet het met u? How goes it with you?

The dealer in cloth recommends his wares by saying to his customer,

Ik heb van alle soórten. I have of all sorts.

Van wat kouleur wilt gy? Of what colour will ye (have)? what colour do you choose?

The host says to his friend at table,

Zet u daer, Set ’o there.

or Zit gy daer. or Sit ye there.

Vergeeft my, ik zal my daer niet zetten. Forgive (excuse) me, I shall me there not sit.

The guest asks for some meat and salad; the host says,

Houd, daer ist ’t enn en ’t’ ander. Hold (take), there is tone and tother.

The expression tone and tother, the one and the other, is familiar enough in some parts of this island, and was once used as we have written it, in printed books.

The host and his guests have a friendly altercation about eating and talking:—

Mynheer gy eét niet. Sir, ye eat not.

Ik heb wel gëeéten en wel gedronken, God zy geloófd. I have well eaten and well drunken, God be beloved.

En gy, Mynheer, gy zegt niet een woórd. And ye, sir, ye say not a word.

Gy spreékt niet meer als of gy geene tong had. Ye speak no more than if ye no tongue had.

Again,

De zon is zoo warm dat zy brand. The sun is so warm that she burns.

It should be observed that the Flemings and Germans call the sun she, and the moon is made a he; which is just the reverse of our practice.

Is het niet tyd van te bed te gaen? Is it not time (tide) to bed to go?

Our word tide, which signifies time, is now hardly ever used, except in compounds, such as noon-tide, Whitsuntide, and in the word tidings.

Gy kunt niet beter doen. Ye can’t (can not) better do.

Do-en and ga-en only differ from our do and go in having the en at the end, which, as we have remarked in a former number, still exists among us in such words as quick-en, sharp-en.

The mother is waking her daughter in the morning:

Myne dogter staet op. My daughter stand (get) up.

et is tyd om naer de school te gaen. It is time near to school to go.

Hoe, myne moeder, is het zoo laet? How, my mother, is it so late?

We recommend those who wish to compare the various dialects of that extensively-spread language, of which ours is one, to see some specimens of the Frisian language in the Westminster Review, No. 23.

“In a large part of ancient Friesland,” says the article alluded to, “the language has left no traces behind it in the present day. In East Friesland it has been superseded by the Low German, and in Groningen by the common Dutch, modified by a few provincial idioms of Frisian character.”

The following specimen of the present state of the Frisian language is from the Westminster Review:—

Lijk az Gods sinne swiet uus wrâd oerschijnt,

Like as God’s sun sweetly our world o’ershines,

Her warmte in ljeacht in groed in libben schinkt.

Her warmth and light and growth and life gives.

Lijk az de mijlde rein elk eker fijnt,

Like as the mild rain ilk (each) acre finds,

So dogt eak dat, wat in uus, minsken, tinkt.

So does eke (also) that what in us, men, thinks.

The Rev. John Hartley, who has travelled as a missionary in Greece, records in his Journal the following interesting scriptural illustration:—“Having had my attention directed last night to the words, (John x. 3.)—The sheep hear His voice, and He calleth His own sheep by name, &c., I asked my man if it was usual in Greece to give names to sheep. He informed me that it was, and that the sheep obeyed the shepherd when he called them by their names. This morning I had an opportunity of verifying the truth of this remark. Passing by a flock of sheep, I asked the shepherd the same question which I put to my servant, and he gave me the same answer. I then bade him to call one of his sheep. He did so, and it instantly left its pasturage and its companions, and ran up to the hand of the shepherd, with signs of pleasure, and with a prompt obedience which I had never before observed in any other animal. It is also true of the sheep in this country, that a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of the strangers. The shepherd told me that many of his sheep are still WILD; that they had not yet learned their names; but that by teaching they would all learn them. The others which knew their names, he called TAME.”

Effect of Music in the Conversion of Savages.—Nolrega (a Jesuit) had a school, where he instructed the native children, the orphans from Portugal, and the mestizos, or mixed breed. Reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught them; they were trained to assist at mass, and to sing the church service, and frequently led in procession through the town. This had a great effect, for the natives were passionately fond of music, so passionately, that Nolrega began to hope the fable of Orpheus was a type of his mission, and that by songs he was to convert the pagans of Brazil. This Jesuit usually took with him four or five of these little choristers on his preaching expeditions; when they approached an inhabited place, one carried the crucifix before them, and they began singing the Litany. The savages, like snakes, were won by the voice of the charmer; they received him joyfully, and when he departed with the same ceremony, the children followed the music. He set the catechism, creed, and ordinary prayers to sol fa; and the pleasure of learning to sing was such a temptation, that the little Tupis sometimes ran away from their parents to put themselves under the care of the Jesuit.—Southey’s History of Brazil.

Fossil Remains of the Elephant in New Holland.—In a pamphlet published last year at Sydney, New South Wales, by the Rev. J. D. Lang, detailing the steps which had been taken for the establishment of an Academical Institution, or College, in that Colony, we find the following curious statement: “A collection of fossil bones which had been discovered in a lime-stone cave at Wellington Valley, by George Rankin, Esq. of Bathurst, and to the discovery of which the writer had the honour of calling the attention of the Colonial public, in an anonymous letter published in the Sydney Gazette, about eighteen months ago, was entrusted to the writer by Mr. Rankin, for Professor Jamieson, of the University of Edinburgh. One of the bones had evidently belonged to some large animal; and Professor Jamieson and an eminent naturalist of the College of Surgeons in London, to whom it had afterwards been forwarded, coincided in regarding it as a bone of the hippopotamus. Not satisfied, however, with their own opinion concerning it, it was subsequently sent to M. Le Baron Cuvier of Paris; and that distinguished naturalist (Professor Jamieson informed the writer just before leaving Scotland) had ascertained that it was the thigh-bone of a young elephant; thereby establishing the interesting and important fact, that the wilds of Australia were once traversed by that enormous quadruped.”

275