THE POWER OF A WORD

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 134, 3 December 1938, Page 26

THE POWER OF A WORD

It is said that Whitfield, the great English evangelist of the eighteenth century, could reduce an audience to tears or laughter by his pronunciation of the word "Mesopotamia," says the "Christian Science Monitor." The Bantu native of South Africa can reduce Magistrates, employers, and others I set over him to something resembling tears by his pronunciation of the word "Andiyazi." In its ingenious meaning, "Andiyazi" would mean "I don't know, and don't intend to know; I didn't see, and didn't intend to see." If it were merely recalcitrance in his own interest, the adoption of "Andiyazi" would be explicable, but it is just as likely to be used to his own hurt. One example is common in the law courts. A, a native of Umdanzani, has stolen some goats belonging to B, a native of Kei Road. There is no question about A's guilt; the police know it, the Magistrate knows it, and, of course, the accused knows it. The clinching question, a mere formality, really, is put to B. "Will you inform the Court whether these goats are yours?" "Ewe"—"Yes" —is all that should be said. Instead, out from a background of dim, tribal taboos, emerges that obstructing "Andiyazi"—"l don't know; I don't know what you are talking about; I don't know anything"—that one word says. It isn't a word; it's a wall; and just there the case ends. No question of "contempt of court" arises. The Magistrate recognises, sometimes with exasperation, but generally with a practised ' certainty, that the law will be brought to ridicule if he proceeds with the trial, and "A," the miscreant of Umdanzani, "gets away with it."

From a philological sense, "andiyazi" is a meaning as well as a word. It is fundamental to the native language, that one such word will contain a "portmanteau" of detail. It stands to reason that no manner of compression can render feasible that "landscape" effect. A meaning is fully thought out, and that meaning permeates and illumines the word.