The Dominion. SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1917. WAR AND LANGUAGE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3106, 9 June 1917, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 1917. WAR AND LANGUAGE

Both amusement and instruction were liberally provided tbe other day by a correspondent who dealt with the, obviously extensive assimilative- powers possessed by our soldiers overseas in the matter of .foreign languages. Egypt ?a well a.s France, it would seem, has contributed considerably to the leavening process in the current speech of the Anzacs. Whether or not, however, the quaintly Anglicised words will retain a permanent place in tho home speech of tho Australian and New Zealand-soldiers" is a highly interesting- consideration. Tbo probability is that a very, small number may linger on for some timo and gradually disappear, though it is absolutely : in keeping-with, the law of language thai; a few might becomo fixtures. What our soldiers are doing in France-in the way of appropriating _ words and phrases from the inhabitants of the country is precisely what has been going on sinco the very earliest times. We may hope- that'the French-have added to - their tongue not a. few expressions which ' \iro to-day among their friends from tho Antipodes. In this way is tho structure of a ]anguage>slowly. changed, developed it may be into a higher form. In this way has tho English tongue itself undergone-' modifications and improvements until it is the seemingly perfect medium which wc now enjoy. Tho English language of tho present time possesses a strangely composite character, and tho intermingling continues, alongside of the actual creation of new -words, as for example in the domains of modern art, and science, and thought. Wars havo been probably one- of the greatest of tho agencies which lias -gradually transformed tho tongue of the Eng-lish-speaking peoples. Invading hosts from the north and cast and south'carried to England'tho languages of Scandinavia, of France, and of Europe generally; and English expeditions sent abroad returned, as New Zealand's.soldiers will return', each with its assortment of new words and phrases.' The study of languages is not tho dry-as-dust subject unbcloved by schoolboys, and often by thoso of more mature age. On tho. contrary, the history of the tongue wo speak brings us very near to tho realities of the past. Tho rude and primitive facts of life,_ no less than a people's loftiest aspirations, are rovealed in tho vocables which havo expressed alike their physical and mental activities concerning which written history is frequently altogether silent. Tho English people have : always displayed a singular readiness to adopt foreign words which for one reason or another appealed to them. Indeed, before those who made tho ■ English nation ever saw England they had begun _ to. mix their own language by adding to it a number of Latin words. They had reached Rome itself, or, it may be, met the armies of Rome on the Continent. In any case, by the time they settled in England: they were speaking in Latin of wine, butter, cheese, and other articles. They found that the native Colts had to somo extent been Romanised, and, through them, added a few more Latin words to their list. Afterwards the conversion of tho inhabitants to Roman Christianity steadily carried on tho process of intermingling. Nor has this intermingling ceased since those far-off days. Warriors, missionaries, traders, explorers, and others havo'been unceasingly adding to tho speech of the English. Tho result now is that very often when New Zealanders imagine that they are speaking English, they assuredly aro not. When a Cadet or a Territorial, for ( instance, speaks of being "drilled, he is speaking Dutch, for the- word was conveyed to England by soldiers from their campaigns m tho Low Countries, along with other military terms, such as "furlough and "onslaught." Everyone within tho Dominion will hope that our New Zealand troops will never be railed upon to lead a, ' forlorn .hone." If 1 hey do, and the eliterpriso has to be' described, it may ho as-well in remind' ibem'that' .tho phrase is duo to a mispronunciation ■

of the Dutch "vcrloren hoop," the original signification being "a. lost troop." Mr. Logan Peaiisall Smith, in his delightful volume, The Eiir/lish Language, states that when the Netherlands ,was the cockpit of Europe, Dutch and English soldiers borrowed a word from the Spanish to express the sentiment bom of association in tho field, and that word was "comrade." The Germans h«ve a somewhat repellent form of the same word in their "kamerad," ■which in their case, as might be expected, signifies anything but intimate and friendly associations. Over in South Africa a few Germanisms have found their way into tho Dutch "taal," and one interesting specimen is the word "swaap," which means a foolish person, or one from "Sohwabe," moaning the Duchy of Swabia. Swabia was supposed to bo the homo of dull-witted people, just as tho Greeks of old dubbed a fool a Boetian, a native of Boetia. The Hohenzollcrns, whoso head is the Kaiser, arc Swabians, a circumstance which may help to explain certain mysteries which at the present time He heavily upon the world. The New Zealand farmer, when he speaks of'his wool "pack," is probably unaware that he is speaking Duteh-i-or rather Dutch as well as English, seeing that the word was taken to England by the Flemish traders as eai'ly as the twelfth century. Similarly ."spool"_ and "scour" are-, technical terms introduced by -the Flemish workmen whom Edward 111 settled in Eng-. land in order to improve- English manufacture. "Hops," some readers ma.y be relieved by.learning, is a. foreign word, not English,, for it reached England, along with a lot of brewing terms—like "tub" and "scum," for instance—in . the fifteenth century, also from the Netherlands. Quite a long list of words which have been traced with more or less certainty to Dutch, Flemish, or .- Low German sources may be heard any morning along Wellington's waterfront. "Bowsprit" and "skipper" are found in the fourteenth century, while in tho. fifteenth appeared "keel," "lighter," "pump," "leak," "orlop," "marline," "freight," and "buoy." ■Among later additions to the English sea-vocabulary which arc- probably Dutch in origin' are "reef," "belay," "dock," "sloop," "yacht," "commodore,"' "yawl," "cruise," "bow," "boom," "keelhaul," "gybe," and "avast." Tho punishmc'ufc of keelhauling, by the way, was not abolished in Holland until tho middle of last century. These have been aptly styled old, hardshelled, . .wellruscd tools: the more elegant, the learned words. were ■_ largely imported and' popularised by the writers of. tho Renaissance period. Extensive though tho infusion of new terms has been', the English language lias clung-with almost inexplicable tenacity to certain words. A good dictionary indicates that .while many hundreds of words have been discarded, others again have been scrupulously preserved. From ' the latter is extracted tho last fraction of utility. The reviewer of a, recent instalment of 27ie Oxford English Dictionary has pointed out. that tho word "turn" is quite astonishing in its activity. -The verb "to turn" has, in its latest analysis. '17 main senses and 65.sub-senses. Then there are 25 senses on special phrases, such as "turn the- scale," "turn colour," "turn tail." and so on, and 16 combinations with adverbs,' as "turn in," "turn off,", "turn about," and theso too. have their subdivisions—"turn up" is used in 27 distinct ways—so that, in all the sense divisions 1 of this busy little vocable numbers 286. Finally should be mentioned the happy name which has been coined for Australasia,'namely, the Anzac Dominions.