Archive for the ‘Language’ Category
Chasing A Hare
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
A hare, by Lorenz Frølich
Photograph Wikimedia Commons
Maybe it was a nice sunny spring morning or a stormy autumn afternoon when, sometime in the late 1800s, Cornelis de Haas set sail for the biggest voyage of his life. He left everything he knew behind to seek a new and better life in Australia.
When the ship finally arrived, Cornelis reported to an immigration officer and told him his name, in the best English he could. The officer gave him a puzzled look. Could you repeat that, sir? And Cornelis said it again. The officer gave him another puzzled look. “Haas”, said Cornelis. “H-A-A-S, like in hare.” He put his fingers on top of his head to mimic a hare’s ears. The officer finally smiled and said “Oh, a hare!” and then scribbled down: “Cornelius de Hayr from Sassenheim, Holland.”
150 years later, one of his descendents started tracing his family tree and got stuck on Cornelis. Understandably, he couldn’t find any “de Hayr”s in the Netherlands, and nobody knew the name had originally been “de Haas”…
Of course, we don’t know for sure whether the above is what actually happened. But incidents like it have been very common with Dutch emigrants in English speaking territories. The Dutch language has sounds very unfamiliar to the English ear and names that seem impossible to pronounce. In an era where written identification was non-existent and names were passed on orally to government officials, many Dutch names underwent “creative” transformations.
Some examples:
– “Stoffel” became “Stephen”.
– “Pieterke” (short for “Petronella”) became “Nellie”.
– “den Coonink” became “King”.
– “Jeichje” became “Jennie”.
– “Nieuwenhuizen” became “Newhouse”.
Obviously, you are not going to find any of these people in the Dutch records by their anglicized name. Hence, the first task for anyone with Dutch roots is to reverse-engineer their ancestor’s name back to the original Dutch writing. Read our in-depth article on how to go about this….
Yankee Dutch
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
Photograph Wikimedia Commons
When people emigrate, the most valuable possessions they take along are their culture and their language. Much of that erodes over time and usually the third and fourth generations know little about their foreign cultural baggage. However, sometimes something special happens and culture and language do not fade but are still passed on from one generation to the next albeit with alterations and influences of the surrounding new culture.
Nice examples of this are Jersey Dutch from Bergen and Passaic counties, New Jersey and Yankee Dutch from Michigan. Especially in Michigan some communities have fourth generation Dutch that still speak (some) Dutch. It is assumed that these communities were able to stick to their Dutch language because of their faith. These reformed Dutch still use a Dutch translation of the Bible and continue to hold their services (partially) in Dutch. Although this will have played a role, it is more likely that the original Dutch settlers of Michigan just kept pretty much to themselves, which made the adoption of English a much slower process.
Larry van Otterloo was so kind as to share some of the Yankee Dutch they speak at home with me. Between brackets, I have added the spelling of the original, present day Dutch words they were derived from:
benout (benauwd) = upset
fees (vies) = disgusting
klein betje (klein beetje) = a little bit
schlukje (slokje) = little sip
dominie (dominee) = pastor
vet and stroop (vet en stroop) = grease and syrup
bontjes (boontjes) = green beans
dote (dood) = dead
coffee kletz (koffieklets) = talk over coffee
hoe je beck jongen (hou je bek, jongen) = shut up
verekte ding (verrekt ding) = stupid thing
smakelik eten (smakelijk eten) = have a nice meal
rokies (rookies) = cigarette
katje (katje) = cat
hoont (hond) = dog
pooperij (poeperij) =diarrhea
mooie verr (mooi weer) = good weather
kippa (kip) = chicken
leefa fentje (lief ventje) = cute baby
frieskop (frieskop) = stubborn person (Frisian head)
Dr. J. Dyneley Prince made a short study of Jersey Dutch in 1910. He stated that it was derived from Southern Dutch or Flemish and was mixed with English and some Mindi Indian words. He saw little future for the language and thought it would soon die out. He may have been right about Jersey Dutch; however, the little list above proves that a hundred years later Yankee Dutch is still very much alive in Michigan. I do hope it stays that way because it is a very natural and beautiful way to keep some of the Dutch culture alive overseas!
Dig further:
A nice little article on Dutch in the United States:
http://www.bartleby.com/185/a12.html
The talking map of the Meertens Institute, to get an idea what Dutch sounds like:
http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/projecten/sprekende_kaart/svg/
More details on Jersey Dutch:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Dutch
When people emigrate, the most valuable possessions they take along are their culture and their language. Much of that erodes over time and usually the third and fourth generations know little about their foreign cultural baggage.
However, sometimes something special happens and culture and language do not fade but are still passed on from one generation to the next albeit with alterations and influences of the surrounding new culture.
Nice examples of this are Jersey Dutch from Bergen and Passaic counties, New Jersey and Yankee Dutch from Michigan. Especially in Michigan some communities have fourth generation Dutch that still speak (some) Dutch. It is assumed that these communities were able to stick to their Dutch language because of their faith. These reformed Dutch still use a Dutch translation of the Bible and continue to hold their services (partially) in Dutch. Although this will have played a role, it is more likely that the original Dutch settlers of Michigan just kept pretty much to themselves, which made the adoption of English a much slower process.
Larry van Otterloo was so kind as to share some of the Yankee Dutch they speak at home with me. Between brackets, I have added the spelling of the original, present day Dutch words they were derived from:
benout (benauwd) = upset
fees (vies) = disgusting
klein betje (klein beetje) = a little bit
schlukje (slokje) = little sip
dominie (dominee) = pastor
vet and stroop (vet en stroop) = grease and syrup
bontjes (boontjes) = green beans
dote (dood) = dead
coffee kletz (koffieklets) = talk over coffee
hoe je beck jongen (hou je bek, jongen) = shut up
verekte ding (verrekt ding) = stupid thing
smakelik eten (smakelijk eten) = have a nice meal
rokies (rookies) = cigarette
katje (katje) = cat
hoont (hond) = dog
pooperij (poeperij) =diarrhea
mooie verr (mooi weer) = good weather
kippa (kip) = chicken
leefa fentje (lief ventje) = cute baby
frieskop (frieskop) = stubborn person (Frisian head)
Dr. J. Dyneley Prince made a short study of Jersey Dutch in 1910. He stated that it was derived from Southern Dutch or Flemish and was mixed with English and some Mindi Indian words. He saw little future for the language and thought it would soon die out. He may have been right about Jersey Dutch; however, the little list above proves that a hundred years later Yankee Dutch is still very much alive in Michigan. I do hope it stays that way because it is a very natural and beautiful way to keep some of the Dutch culture alive overseas!
Dig further:
A nice little article on Dutch in the United States:
http://www.bartleby.com/185/a12.html
The talking map of the Meertens Institute, to get an idea what Dutch sounds like:
http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/projecten/sprekende_kaart/svg/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Dutch
