Negerhollands

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Negerhollands is a Zeeuws creole that was once spoken in the Danish West Indies, now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands. Dutch is its superstrate language with Danish, English, French, Spanish, and African elements incorporated.

Moravian and Danish missionaries introduce an acrolectal version of the language, called Hoch Kreol. In 1770, they printed a primer and a small Lutheran catechism, followed in 1781 by a translation of the New Testament into Hoch Kreol.

The language began to decline in the early 19th century as English became the dominant language of the islands. The service in the Lutheran church was held in Hoch Kreol for the native congregation until the 1830's. As younger generations learned English as a native language, use of Hoch Kreol, whose use became limited to church services, was slowly abandoned. Probably the last native speaker, Mrs. Alice Stevenson, died in 1987.

There was a continued use of Negerhollands by the Moravian Orphanage at Nyherrenhut near Tutu well into the Twentieth Century. As older former orphans were volunteers the old Creole dialect persisted around the orphanage with the encouragement of the elders of the denomination. There was a TV special on WBNB in the 1970s which had some former orphans who were by that time quite old.

[edit] Text sample

"Maer wanneer ons sa krieg Tee van Dag? Die Waeter no ka kook nogal. Die Boterham sender no ka snie? Ja, maer die no hab Kaes, en Tata no keer voor Botterham soso. Lastaen sender braen van die rook Karang sender. Kassavie sa wees meer suet mit die Karang as Broot. Ju bin een Creol waer-waer." (from 1770)

"Die how cirj bin fol, en sal gaw ha calluf. Die boricka ka marro en caló over die bergi, mi ka stier die jung fo lo fang die. Die farki bin na cot, mi lolo suk bateta-tow fo jeet fo die. Een cuj ka kom over die barcad en ka destroi alga die jung plantsoon; wen mi fang die mi sal drag die na fort, mak die eigenaer betal. Mi lolo na taphus, mi lolo suk stekki sowed gut fo mi goj na pot." (from 1880)