Dunglish

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dunglish on a door in Port Zélande
Dunglish on a door in Port Zélande

Dunglish is a portmanteau of Dutch and English, a name for Dutch English. The word is often used pejoratively to refer to the mistakes native Dutch speakers make when speaking English. Both languages are closely related Germanic languages, and the Dutch are taught English in elementary school. Dutch-speaking Belgians are usually taught English at the age of 12. In addition, English-spoken movies are subtitled instead of dubbed in the Netherlands and in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, as are all foreign-language films.

The Dutch word for the poorest form of Dunglish is Steenkolenengels ("Coal English"). This term goes back to the early twentieth century when Dutch port workers used a rudimentary form of English to communicate with the personnel of English coal ships.

Errors occur mainly in pronunciation, word order and the meaning of words. Former Dutch ambassador and prime minister Dries van Agt supposedly once said "I can stand my little man"[citation needed] (ik kan mijn mannetje staan, a Dutch saying meaning roughly "I can stand up for myself"). Another example of inappropriate English was phrased by the former leader of the Dutch liberal party, Frits Bolkestein. When talking about economic prospects he kept referring to them as "golden showers".[citation needed] In Dutch this phrase does not have the second, more dubious connotation.

Two American counterparts to Dunglish were once common: Jersey or Bergen County Dutch, a pidgin Dutch spoken in parts of New Jersey and a remnant of the days of Dutch possession of the area in the mid 17th century. In the Midwest, a separate pidgin Dutch was used by immigrants who came from the Netherlands in the 19th century, primarily in Western Michigan where the largest group of Dutch immigrants in the U.S. lived.

Jersey Dutch (meaning New Jersey, not Jersey) apparently had quite a long life despite the Dutch disappearing as colonizers early on, and was reputed to have lasted into the 20th century. Yankee Dutch persists to this day, with a few speakers still living, although the likelihood of the pidgin surviving much past the next five to ten years is unlikely. The persistence of both pidgins was attributed to the use of Dutch in church services. It was the anti-German sentiment of World War I that was probably the biggest force in the demise of both pidgins, as the language was mistaken for German by those from outside the communities where the pidgins were spoken.

Contents

[edit] Common errors

[edit] Incorrect meaning of words

Errors often occur because of the false friend or false cognate possibility: words are incorrectly translated for understandable reasons. Examples are:

  • Former prime-minister Joop den Uyl once remarked that "the Dutch are a nation of undertakers".[citation needed] The Dutch verb ondernemen is literally the English undertake (as onder is under and nemen is take). The noun ondernemer is thus literally undertaker, however the idiomatic English usage is instead the French loanword entrepreneur. (Dutch uses the completely unrelated word begrafenisondernemer for a funeral director.)
  • The Dutch verb solliciteren means to apply for a job, which can lead to an embarrassing situation if someone claims that they have come to solicit.
  • The Dutch interject hoor frequently appears at the end of a sentence. This usage is equivalent to the archaic English habit of appending what (more literally, hear) to the end of a sentence. The word is pronounced similarly to the English whore. This can lead to sentences such as "I've already sent the letter to you, hoor", where the hoor indicates indignation or that the sentence is an assertion. Another translation is really but with a partially ironic or sarcastic connotation. For example, the Dutch: "Ik vind de Engelsen een sympathiek volkje, hoor" means "I consider the English quite likable, really".
  • The word eventueel in Dutch means possibly (like eventuel in French) and not eventually, which is uiteindelijk in Dutch. This mistake caused a row between the Scottish and Belgian football associations when the Belgian football association invited delegates from various associations over for the "eventual qualification of the Belgian national football team" before the play-offs against Scotland started. While the Scottish federation accused the Belgians of sheer arrogance, the Belgian association had actually meant to hold the drink after a "possible qualification".[citation needed]

[edit] Word order

English and Dutch don't always follow the same word order. While English is an SVO language [Subject Verb Object], Dutch is a partly SVO and partly SOV language: in sentences with modal auxiliary verbs the perfect participle is placed at the end of the phrase, and in sub-clauses, the order gets reversed, see V2 word order. English, on the other hand, has a particular usage of creating periphrastic sentences with the word "do" (a rare feature cross-linguistically), something Dutch has not, instead reversing to VSO in simple questions. However, some Dutch speakers form sentences in English with exactly the same word order as their native language. This creates errors such as:

  • "I did that already yesterday" instead of "I already did that yesterday".
  • "What mean you?" instead of "What do you mean".

[edit] Verb conjugation

English and Dutch are both Germanic languages, some words/verbs are very similar and sometimes cause speakers of Dutch to conjugate English verbs using Dutch grammar.

  • "We kisse(n) her." (kussen means to kiss in Dutch and in Dutch grammar the nominative case of a plural pronoun is equal to the infinitive which (in most cases) has an en-ending)
  • "What do you now? ("What are you doing?" is "Wat doe je nu?" in Dutch)
  • "How goes it now?" ("How are you doing now?" particularly after someone has had a bad spell. The phrase can be found in Shakespeare, with a slightly different meaning, underlining the fact that English grammar was once closer to Dutch.)

[edit] Errors in pronunciation

  • Words like third and the are commonly mispronounced by Dutch speakers as turd and duh.
  • Many Dutch speakers from the Netherlands have trouble distinguishing between bat, bad, bet and bed.
  • Some pronounce the word idea without the ending sound, making "Do you have an idea?" and "Do you have an ID?" sound the same.

[edit] Overtranslation

Certain Dutch users have a tendency to overtranslate Dutch terms causing a literal, sometimes incomprehensible, translation of the Dutch term into English. For example the English and Dutch know the famous Amsterdam church as the Westerkerk. The term "Western Church" used to help English tourists locate this tourist attraction can cause more confusion than necessary. (However, English users have readily adopted "Dam Square" instead of "Dam", the original form of this Amsterdam open space)

For the Dutch, the prestige of the American English variety over the British English variety can cause other overtranslation issues. Whereas the Dutch and British both use the same word lift, the Dutch, to a British user will helpfully suggest using the elevator. A flat means the same thing in British English and Dutch but most Dutch will suggest 'apartment' as the English form.

[edit] Other examples

"Welcome in Amsterdam"
Should be: "Welcome to Amsterdam" (in Dutch: "Welkom in Amsterdam")
"That can"
Instead of: "that's possible", "sure" or "of course" (in Dutch: "Dat kan")
"Thank you for your reaction"
Instead of: "Thank you for your reply" (in Dutch: "Bedankt voor uw reactie")
"I hate you all very welcome"
Instead of: "I welcome you all" (in Dutch: "Ik heet u allen zeer welkom")
"They hardly worked...."
Should be: "They have been working very well" (in Dutch: "Ze hebben hard gewerkt")
"Gas out of our bottom"
Should be: "Gas from our soil/ground" (in Dutch: "Gas uit onze bodem")
"I learn you..."
Should be "I will teach you..." (in Dutch: "Ik leer je...")
"I fok horses"
Should be "I breed horses" (in Dutch: "Ik fok paarden")
"I first have to look the cat out of the tree."
Should be "I have to wait and see which way the cat jumps" (in Dutch: "Ik moet eerst de kat uit de boom kijken")
Arthur Numan to the British press after his transfer from PSV to Glasgow Rangers. (Supposedly)
"How late is it?"
Should be "What time is it?" (in Dutch: "Hoe laat is het?").
"What is there on the hand?"
Should be "What is going on?" (in Dutch: "Wat is er aan de hand?").
"Go your gang."
Should be "Do your thing" (in Dutch: "Ga je gang").
"Put your mobiles out."
Should be "Turn off your mobile phones" (in Dutch: "Zet je mobieltjes uit").
"I always make craft of the unit circle."
Should be "I always use the unit circle." (in Dutch: "Ik maak altijd gebruik van de eenheidscirkel").
"When I'm walking over this line..."
Should be "When I'm following this line..." (with finger) (in Dutch: "Wanneer ik over deze lijn loop").
"I talk like a broken DVD-Speeler"
Should be "I talk like a broken cassette recorder" (in Dutch: "Ik praat als een kapotte DVD speler").
"I'm sitting on this line."
Should be "I am on this line [when pointing at a line]" (in Dutch: "Ik zit op deze lijn").
"I want you out of it."
(when sending someone out of the classroom) (in Dutch: "Ik wil je uit het klaslokaal.").
"Are you shore of this?"
Should be spelled "Are you sure of this?" (confusion because of the pronunciation) (in Dutch: "Ben je hier zeker van?")

[edit] Jocular reverse use

One can also observe the opposite of Dunglish: the pseudo-stupid literal borrowing of English terms in Dutch. Usually, the speaker doing this will be well aware of his error and wanting to achieve a comical effect, somewhat like a pun. The most famous example of this may be:

"Worst-Kaas scenario"
Refers to "worst case scenario" (literally: "sausage-cheese scenario"). This expression uses the Dutch words that most closely resemble their English counterparts. Amusingly, they are snacks, often served together alongside drinks (at a "borrel"), so that the term worst-kaas scenario may well be used to describe a situation in which snacks are or will have to be served. E.g. "If we continue to drink beers at this rate, this may well develop into a worst-kaas scenario..." - at which the addressed person should normally respond by ordering snacks without further ado.

[edit] Worst Teacher Award

There is an ongoing debate in many Dutch universities on whether, given the increasing number of foreign exchange students, classes should be taught in English rather than Dutch. A common counterargument is that a significant number of professors are not fluent enough to teach classes in English at a university level. In this light, the Student Union of the law faculty of Tilburg University has established the "Worst Teacher Award", given yearly to the most heinous mistake in English made by a professor. Since 'worst' is the Dutch word for 'sausage', the prize awarded is a large sausage. Some examples:

Don't let them eat the cheese off your bread. (Jacques Berenbak)
Dutch: Laat je de kaas niet van het brood eten.
Meaning: Don't lose your competitive edge.
You have to screw up the number.
Dutch: Je moet de waarde opschroeven.
Meaning: You have to increase the number.
This college goes over ramps.
Dutch: Dit college gaat over rampen.
Meaning: This lecture is about disasters.
I tried to lead you around the garden.
Dutch: Ik probeerde je om de tuin te leiden.
Meaning: I tried to deceive you.
I have an equation picked from the sky
Dutch: Ik heb een vergelijking uit de lucht gegrepen.
Meaning: I took a random equation.
You have to meet this with your lat
Dutch: Je moet dit meten met je lat.
Meaning : You have to measure this with your ruler.
Be very aware if you look to this graph
Dutch: Let goed op als je naar deze grafiek kijkt
Meaning: Pay attention when looking at this graph

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Dialects and accents of English
Europe
North America
Oceania
Asia
Africa
Miscellaneous
Languages