Oranje Vrystaat or Vrijstaat Artillerie

[craigen]

Hello All

Earlier today I was looking at an "Oranje Vrystaat" "Staatsartillerie" badge, supposedly from before 1900. An interesting coincidence given that Kevin just posted images of a corresponding belt buckle in this forum (http://http://www.britishbadgeforum....ad.php?t=54128).

I have always avoided these badges (in spite of Colin Owen's listing) because the name of the Republic was always spelled "Vrijstaat", as far as I know, and the "Vrystaat" spelling only introduced during the Union period, around the time that Afrikaans officially replaced Dutch. My thinking was that these items must have been for some post-Union provincial or military purpose.

Can anyone help to clarify this?

Regards
Craig

[RobD]

Craig,
I hadn't noted it previously, but on coins, emblems etc. note the official name of the OVS before the ABW was in fact spelt Oranje Vrystaat, and their slogan was spelt Vryheid, geduld en moed, Immigratie
Why they adopted Afrikaans spelling so early is beyond me.
MC Heunis of the Boer War study and re-enactors group, Oranje Vrysaat Artillerie Corps, is the man to ask.
PM me and I shall send you his email address.
But the short answer is, a badge which is spelt Vrystaat could indeed be pre-ABW.
Rob

[Milmed]

Just to add something to this thread that has always fascinated me... the way these ZAR and OVS coat-of-arms badges are always attributed to the artillery. Yes I believe there is photographic evidence that they were used by the artillery, but they were in fact generic badges used by more than just the military forces of the time. I have seen the same badges used by Railway personel and uniformed civil servants, so could be considered a General Service badge.

As for Vrijstaat vs. Vrystaat it appears both were used in the early days. see this site for info on the OVS coat-of-arms http://www.hubert-herald.nl/RSAOrange.htm
I see postage stamps of the OVS used Vrijstaat.

Here is also an interesting article on the OVS Artillery Picklehaube... http://www.pickelhauben.net/articles/Boer%20War.html

Steven

[milhistry]

The way I understand it, y and ij were historically used interchangeably in Dutch until the language was standardised in the 20th Century. Afrikaans, a language derived from Dutch chose to use the y spelling while the Dutch language authorities chose ij. One often sees alternative spellings for Dutch surnames e.g. van Rijn vs van Ryn, van Dijk vs van Dyk, etc.

[Wmr-RHB]

Originally Posted by milhistry

The way I understand it, y and ij were historically used interchangeably in Dutch until the language was standardised in the 20th Century. Afrikaans, a language derived from Dutch chose to use the y spelling while the Dutch language authorities chose ij. One often sees alternative spellings for Dutch surnames e.g. van Rijn vs van Ryn, van Dijk vs van Dyk, etc.

IMHO these remarks are correct. Even an y with dots above it was used (by some people during some time). Spelling wasn't that regulated by officialdom in those times.

When you find names like van Dyk, this is often due to the fact that those names where spelled like that once and got into the records (of churches, municipalities, etc.). For children this was then copied and the spelling never changed.

Also usage of y is often to be found in Frisian names. Often pronounced as ij (I hope you know how to pronounce Dutch ij, it is not easy for many foreign speakers ), but often people having these names insist that it should be pronounced as i (not like English i, but more like English ee).

Originally in Dutch there where short i and long ii (like there still are short a and long aa, etc.) To make writing clearer, ii was often written ij. Somewhere in history the sound of long ii/ij was changed to today's ij sound (which we had already written ei). Apparently as a fashion. And we all know that fashions strike like lightning.

There is still confusion in Dutch if ij is one or two characters. That is of course important in sorting (telephone directories, dictionaries). In the computer age that confusion goes on. There is a Unicode point for Dutch ij, but it is very seldom used as the ij key is not on the American English keyboards used in the Netherlands (there is an "official" Dutch keyboard layout, but I have never seen one). So everybody types an i and a j.

Nevertheless Dutch people normally see it as one character (and use IJ instead of Y between X and Z in the alphabet). Thus when capitalized e.g. at the start of names it is IJselmeer and IJmuiden. Again something that often eludes foreigners and computer programs

[craigen]

Thanks to everyone for the all the very helpful responses, it is good to have clarity on this at last.

Henk, thank you for the nice explanation; it is very interesting and far more nuanced than I had ever suspected.

Steven, the "general service" use of the ZAR and OVS badges, which I think you have discussed before, does make sense in the context of the Republics. Unfortunately, most references to these badges are either dealers trying to emphasise a particular (most profitable) context or people relying on a very quick look at Colin Owen's book or their favourite Internet search engine.

All the best
Craig