Archive for April, 2011

Tower of Babel by Marten van Valckenborch

Photograph Wikimedia Commons

As some of you may know, I spent much of my childhood abroad in Spain. At home we spoke Dutch and at school I spoke Spanish with my friends. I always thought that the Dutch we spoke was perfectly normal until I returned to Holland and noticed people often gave me a funny look because of my Dutch. They said it was old-fashioned or stiff and some expressions I used were quite unfamiliar to them. I, in turn, did not understand them either, every now and then. I remember a day that I was walking down the hallway with some fellow students when one of the guys said “Oh, just a moment, I’m gonna shake hands with my cousin”. Puzzled I looked down the hallway where I saw nobody and said: “Where is he then, I didn’t know your cousin was studying here too?”. Then everybody burst out in  laughter, and I wondered what the joke was. It finally dawned on me when I saw the student heading for the toilets. I just hadn’t heard that expression before.

My experience is not new. I guess that all Dutch emigrants have had similar experiences. You speak your native tongue as you have always done, you think. However, slowly your pronunciation changes, you start using words from the new language that surrounds you even without noticing. And so, over time, the Dutch you use changes. It becomes “Emigrant Dutch”. It’s the Dutch your ancestors spoke or you even still may speak at home.

The Meertens Institute has started a new research project on this “Emigrant Dutch”, led by Nicoline van der Sijs, author of  Cookies Coleslaw and Stoops. We already mentioned her in our article From Daalder to Dollar. They are trying to find out if and how English has influenced how the Dutch emigrants speak and write overseas. Although this may seem straightforward at first glance, it turns out to be quite complicated to distinguish between alterations in the language due to the specific Dutch dialect spoken by the emigrants or their ancestors and those derived from English influences. To do the research thoroughly, they are composing a large corpus to study. For this they need letters written or audio fragments spoken by Dutch emigrants in their native tongue.

Do you happen to have any old Dutch letters or recordings lying around the house written by you or your Dutch emigrating ancestors? Consider donating a copy to the project via Nicoline.van.der.Sijs@meertens.knaw.nl. If you do decide to donate something, please make sure you mention some basic data about the person who wrote the letters, like name, age, place of birth, when they emigrated etcetera.

Thanks in advance!