An easy guide to the South African Dutch language

Abstract

PREFACE: The present volume has been prepared for the benefit of those Englishmen whose profession or business brings them in close contact with the Dutch-speaking section of the South African population. Many of them would naturally wish to acquire so much of South African Dutch as would suffice for carrying on the ordinary transactions of daily life in this language. Care has been taken to avoid long grammatical explanations, but to make up for these by giving copious examples and a full set of exercises. The Dutch-English vocabulary at the end of the book contains close on fifteen hundred words, and may prove handy for conversational or business purposes. The work makes no absurd pretence at teaching "Dutch without a Master." The more help the reader can get from a competent teacher the better it will be, especially with regard to pronunciation. The Method of Spelling adopted by the author is not strictly phonetical, as perhaps it ought to be, but made to conform as much as possible to the spelling of "High Dutch" or Netherlands Dutch. In this way the reader will be enabled to use a Dictionary in the latter language, for as yet there is no work of this kind in South African Dutch.