Bedrading elektrische stoel naast de bestuurder

Ah, you didn't notice that the discussions are usually in English? Or are you one of the very rare Dutchmen who don't speak English?

Try

if you ever bother to check this group again. Ximinez (reminder: I'm Dutch myself)

That's a bit rude...?...

;-) DAS

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Hey, I even showed him the way to a Dutch-speaking mechanics site, which is actually quite good.

Ximinez

Still rude nevertheless :-) if he wants to post in Dutch, let him. He's probably looking for another Dutchman, like yourself, who might answer him. Now, inquiring minds want to know: why isn't it Netherlander or better still Nederlander rather than 'Dutchman ..... what the heck is 'Dutch' anyway? Is it someone, like an American or Brit, who at some point in histlry screwed up Dutch and Deutsch?? I wonder

cheers, guenter

I'll tell you what's rude as well. Leaving your e-mail address for replies. That's not participating in a group, that's just using it. I'm pretty sure he won't be back anyway.

Truly multi-lingual newsgroups die out anyway. Nobody cares enough to pick out the messages they can read/reply. Ever heard of Babylon?

The Dutch part is historic. Early Dutch language was referred to as 'Diets' in the Middle Ages. The English (with whom we always had an intensive relationship - look at the four Dutch - English wars) probably stuck to that old term. We just call ourselves Nederlanders or Hollanders, although Holland is technically only a part of the country. We call the Germans 'Duits' or 'Duitsers'.

Ximinez

Holland is part of England, too.

(Lincolnshire, eastern England)

And there's Holland Park in London, but that's just named after Lord Holland ...

DAS

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Ximinez, thanks for that... I've learned something that I probably should have known already. Of course your answer just leads to another question... why the similarity between Diets and Duits ... sound pretty much just like a difference in dialect more than anything else. I guess if we go back far enough even english will meld into Diets and Duits. Remids me of reading Chaucer where I recognized a fair bit of the olde english via german ....

cheers, guenter

The German and Dutch languages are clearly from the same roots. I used to know a Dutch/German couple who just spoke to each other in their own language. That worked pretty well for household stuff. Philosophy and technology discussions would be a wholly different matter, but they weren't much interested in that anyway.

In the Middle Ages, what is now Germany was a collection of small independent states. If things had gone differently (and I'm not talking about WWII) Holland might perhaps have ended up as a German province. Dutch probably just started as one of the Germanic dialects.

As to the relationship between German, English and Dutch, you shouldn't leave out the role of the Frisian language (spoken by people in the northern Friesland province of the Netherlands). Apparently, linguists have discovered that the Frisian language is linguistically the closest language to English.

From that article, some interesting word transformations from German to Dutch to Frisian to English:

zurück -> terug -> tebek -> back Schafe -> schapen -> skiep -> sheep

Fascinating stuff...

Ximinez

Plattdeutsch (Low German) spoken in North-Rhine Westphalia not so far from the Dutch border sounds very Dutch. I am told they can understand each other fairly well.

DAS

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