S. Africa. [a. Du. taal language, speech, MDu. and MLG. tāle language, speech, tale, = OE. talu tale, story, account: see TALE.] The Dutch word for language, speech (de Nederlandsche taal, the Netherlands or Dutch language): in English, ‘the taal,’ spec. applied to the Cape Dutch, or Dutch patois spoken in South Africa.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 8 Jan., 8/1. He speaks the Taal better than a Hollander can, and can understand the Boers better.
1897. Bryce, Impressions S. Afr., 480. It [Boer Dutch] differs widely from the cultivated Dutch of Holland,… having become vulgarised into a dialect called the Taal. Ibid., 511. Except some of the men from Cape Colony, they could not speak the Boer Taal.
1900. Spectator, 6 Oct., 460. One of the first results … was to establish the Taal, the Cape patois, as an official language.
attrib. and Comb. 1898. Johannesburg Star, 4 June. Sundry clever and humorous volumes of taal-verse.
1901. Daily Chron., 22 July, 5/3. An epitome of all the more unattractive qualities of the taal-speaking Dutch.
