Dutch in the US

          The American language has adopted some words from the Dutch language. For example:

  • Baas (boss)
  • Waffel (waffle)
  • Koekje (cookie)
  • Dom (dumb)
  • Snoepen (to snoop)
  • Stoep (stoop)
          There is a Reformed church in Overisel, Michigan. There they speak Dutch in their services. Some 4th generation immigrants (their great-grandparents having emigrated to Michigan) can speak Dutch. They learned by listening to their parents, and so one generation taught the next. The Reformed Church in the US uses a mix of Dutch and English in its services because of its large Dutch membership.
          Around 1850, many different dialects of Dutch had formed. This was a problem for many of the immigrants; people from the province of Groningen couldn't understand the people from the province of Brabant and vice versa. However, the immigrants overcame this. They stopped speaking dialects and created a standard Dutch they could all understand.

To Americanize or not

          The people in Holland were quick to pick up English and stopped using Dutch as much. The villages near Holland (e.g. Zeeland, Drenthe and Vriesland) were slower to switch languages, keeping Dutch as their primary language.
          Many fourth generation immigrants can not speak Dutch. The talent is not widespread and as their children grow up in the mainstream English community, they lose much of their ethnicity. The ones who can speak Dutch mostly belong to the Reformed and Christian Reformed Churches because they were led by the Authorized Version of the Bible, which was written in Dutch. They have mostly kept to themselves.

          By World War I, Dutch had all but died out among the people in Michigan. During that time, many made the full switch to English. While the US was at war against Germany, Americans disliked anything German. When Americans heard Dutch spoken, they often mistook it for German and were mistruthful of the Dutch speakers. Even Dutch surnames seemed suspicious to Americans. Because of this, the Dutch made new efforts to learn English and often made slight modifications to their surname.

Yankee Dutch

Yankees

          This word arose because there were many Dutch people living the Northeast early in America's history. There are three theories to the origin of "Yankees." The first is that the English invented it because half of the Dutch were called Jan or Kees and created a combination of both these names. The second theory is that it is a corruption of the names Jan Kaas and English John Cheese to Yankees. The last one hypothesizes that the original is Janke, a nickname of Jan.

          Later on, Yankees would be a honorary sobriquet for the Dutch, and even later for all habitants of the Midatlantic States and New England. During the American Civil War, the people on the side of the North were known as Yankees.

The language

          Americanized Dutch is almost understandable to English speakers. By focusing on the sounds, the meaning can be recognized. Some examples (the being "Yankee Dutch" and the second English):

  • laik evverting
    like everything
  • latse piepel
    lots of people
  • riel fonnie wan
    real funny one
  • piese peeper
    piece of paper
  • kjoet luddel spiets
    cute little speech
 

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