WHAT IS DUTCH LIKE?
Sra.,—In Mr. C. R. Hewitt's otherwise admirable article there is surely one statement open to criticism. To say that Dutch resembles no other language is a misuse of words. It is closely allied to Low German and Lowland Scots, and might well be called a cross between the two. Once, while skating on a canal in Holland as a young man who in those days had no Dutch, I was accosted by a man with the words: "Hoe laat is het nu, Mynheer ? "—obviously, "How late is it now ? " I showed him my watch ; he thanked me and skated away. It is true that the spoken language has sounds that, as far as I know, are not to be met with in others ; notably such words as "us" and "huis" are very hard to pronounce correctly, while the initial "g" is a stumbling-block to many.—Yours faithfully, M. D. HILL. Uplands Cottage, nr. Ledbury, Herefordshire.
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