All Things Holland

Yes one day I will have a separate blog for my bike posts but until then I will continue to relay an important Dutch cultural obsession, the bicycle.  What can be better than a completely man-powered means of ground transportation.  Maybe a man powered flying vehicle?  Come on Leonardo!  He had to have one for his own personal use.  Anyway, the other day I ran across this interesting ad for a bike made by the brand Republic.  Republic bikes are custom made, like how you can customize cars online, and they seem to focus on fixies or single speed bikes, in fact their limited edition right now is "Portlandia".  All of their bikes begin with a famous Greek thinker's name: Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, ...etc.  This blurb about the bike caught my eye. Plato® Dutch bikes The satisfying spirit of the Dutch bike is upright and relaxed, practical and pleasant ... and  Plato  agrees. The Plato Dutch bicycle is designed as a mix of retro styling and modern twists – because a dos

For a bizarre, uncomfortable approach to this Dutch blog today's post is about the pain of childbirth.  In the news a few months past, were the Dutch duo Dennis Storm and Valerio Zena.  This daring duo decide to take on strange and mainly painful tasks which are then shown on their live TV show "Proefkonijnen", in the past the pair cooked and ate each others' flesh...oh boy.  This time they decided to take on the "worst pain there is", and therefore they subjected themselves to simulated labor. One of the men asked one of the nurses, who were there for breathing exercises and gas masks, if the pain would make them scream?  She calmly answered, "yes, it definitely will."  And so began the pain as the nurses cranked the electrodes that were placed on key muscles of their abdomens in order to mimic birth.  The two were writhing in agony within minutes.  Screaming...check, crying...check.  The agony was cut short as the two finished their exper

Dutch as it stands from a 2005 study is the native language of over 22 million people who reside mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium. (Sijs 348) Dutch as a language in America today is diminishing. (Sijs 107) It looks as if the Dutch language is losing ground it would seem. Apparently one can be proud of one’s Dutch background without being able to speak the Dutch language. A personal anecdote proves this the case. My last name is Dutch and I’m proud of it. Blauvelt means Blue Field in Dutch. I am the 13 th generation living in America since my first ancestor from Holland made the trek to America. I don’t speak Dutch however, I have been trying. I meet a girl whose last name was van Crae (Americanized) and she asked what percentage Dutch I was. I have no idea, probably very small if any. Her father is from Holland, making her 50%. This proves Sijs’ theory. I am proud to be ‘Dutch’ even though I don’t speak it, have never visited, and by now am most likely more a mix of other nat

(One more part left for tomorrow) No borrowing takes place unless two cultures and their languages come into contact with each other. So who would use loanwords?   Those who come in contact with and acquire new knowledge from a foreign culture use foreign words in an attempt to disseminate their new knowledge (Higa 284).   One reason could be linguistic innovation. When new things or concepts are learned by one culture form another there arises a need to name them in the persons own language. Examples of this can be seen with English words spreading throughout the Earth. Words like Internet, Walkman, TV etc. new technologies that don’t have existing words in other languages so they are borrowed and used straight up with little change in the new language. Hence new words may be created or it may directly borrow from the ready-made foreign word. Visitors and immigrants to foreign countries tend to use borrowed words in their native languages to show their progress of acculturations

....Dutch loanwords in American English fall into 13 different areas. Let’s take some of the words mentioned previous and break them down. Coleslaw, which is regarded as a typically American product and is exported to other countries under this American name, was recorded at one time as Cold Slaw which was most likely due to Americans not calling the plant cole; instead calling it cabbage. It was borrowed in the 17 th century from the Dutch koolsla or cabbage salad. Cookie, in Dutch koekje, is a small flat sweet cake. Cookie is one of the most frequently used Dutch loanwords in American English and has been used in many expressions that do not exist in Dutch. Spill your cookies, the way the cookie crumbles, have your cookie and eat it, etc. (Sijs 126) Waffle, or Dutch wafel, is a light flat pastry with a diamond shaped pattern. Derived from weven (to weave) and related to Wabe (honeycomb). Boss, or Dutch baas, meaning master foreman. This loanword has ‘conquered the world’ as it w

...This may seem a lot to take in and remember but the key to remember is there were other colonists in the ‘New World’ besides the British. In fact there were quite a few European nations in the Americas. Sweden had a colony north of New Netherland, France had the area around modern day Louisiana, Spain was attempting one along the southern coast in Florida, and then there’s the well known British colonies. Being the first Europeans in the area and witnessing plant and animal life they had never seen; the Dutch colonists were the first to name these items and many of these have stuck down to this day. A brief look at the map just north of New York City would prove this. Town names of Orangeburg, Sparkill, Tappan, West Nyack, and Blauvelt prove this point. Orangeburg is a take on the Dutch royal color of Orange, Sparkill translates to Spar=spruce and kill=creek, and Nyack and Blauvelt are Dutch surnames.   Many names were even changed from their original Dutch. An example would be th

This video sums it all up. Oh, and this Pim guy seems awesome.

A few weeks ago I hinted at a paper I had to write for my Language class about Dutch loanwords. Well I finished it and got a high grade. It's no work of art but I thought I'd post it piece by piece for you. All grammatical errors and whatnot are my fault. Dutch Loanwords - How They Shaped American English            What’s more American than booze, pickles, coleslaw, and a cookie? The answer is actually lots of things because all four of those words are not ‘English’ (in this case British) in origin. They originate across the sea yes, but from another nautical nation; the Netherlands or more readily known as Holland. But those are only a handful of many words that we can attribute to the Dutch. “Certainly no language was ever composed of such numerous and such diverse elements” quote by Walter W. Skeat 1892 (Speaking about the English Language). Questions arise then; Why do we have words in our everyday language that originate from Holland, What is a loanword, How much of E

  The Giro d'Italia ( Tour of Italy) is an annual multiple-stage bicycle race. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1909. Along with the Tour de France (France) and Vuelta a España (Spain), the Giro makes up cycling's prestigious three-week-long Grand Tours. The Giro is usually held during late May and early June. While the route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same, with the appearance of at least two time trials, the passage through the mountains of the Alps and the finish in the Italian city of Milan. Like the other Grand Tours, the modern editions of the Giro d'Italia normally consist of 21 day-long stages over a 23-day period that includes 2 rest days. All of the stages are timed to the finish. After finishing the riders' times are compounded with their previous stage times. The rider with the lowest aggregate time is the leader of the race and gets to don the coveted pink jersey  (who needs yellow!). So why is thi