Re: "Netherlands Bureau..."

Jitze Couperus wrote:

Well, it hasn't been dumped completely, but there is a distinct discomfort when using it in certain contexts. Partly this hang-up stems from the American tendency to confuse Dutch with Deutsch (cf
Pennsylvania Dutch).

It's been many generations since that was ambiguous in English. I
haven't taken a poll, but I suspect you'd find that the majority of
Americans think that the Pennsylvania Dutch are descended from
Nederlanders. The only people who know that they're really of German
origin are those few well-educated people who know about the old meaning
of the word.

Also it can be a source of ambiguity at the other end of the
knowledge spectrum with people who are aware that Holland is not the
same as The Netherlands. (i.e. which are you referring to when you
day Dutch?)

To me, "Dutch" unambiguously means "of the Netherlands". Until you
brought it up, it had not even occurred to me that there was an
adjective meaning "of Holland". In some older English books you'll find
the word "Hollander", but I think that that also meant "someone from the
Netherlands".

Most of the confusion, I submit, is in Dutch minds rather than in the
minds of English speakers. You could probably solve the remainder of the
confusion by defining "East Holland" to be a shorthand way of referring
to all except two of the provinces of The Netherlands.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org

Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain
eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer
reliably receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses.
The optusnet address still has about 3 months of life left.
.

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