History and Language
good vegetables into the canal.” An Arab or a Spaniard can doubtless master this stumbling-block in Dutch pronunciation, but it is doubtful whether an Englishman will succeed.
A few words of Dutch may here be given for the benefit of English-speaking cyclists, who will frequently come across sign-boards bearing the words “Gevaarlijke helling,” which do not mean that the road leads to Hades, but merely “dangerous slope”; “Bondsrijwiel hersteller” are Cyclists' Touring Union repairers, while the amateur photographer will readily recognize “dark chamber” in its equivalent “donkere kamer,” provided he has the merest smattering of German. Both English and Dutch hail a cat as “puss,” the Dutch spelling the word poes, which is pronounced in the same fashion, and is an imitative word, from the noise of the cat spitting.
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