Netherlands (toponymy)

More than one name is used to refer to the Netherlands, both in English and in other languages. Some of these names refer to different, but overlapping geographical, linguistic and political areas of the country. This is a common source of confusion for outsiders. In English the country is called 'the Netherlands' (or frequently – but inaccurately – 'Holland'), while the people and the language are called 'Dutch'. In Dutch the official (and predominant) terms for these are 'Nederland' for the country, 'Nederlanders' for the people and 'Nederlands' for the language, although they are occasionally (colloquially) called 'Holland', 'Hollanders' and (less frequently) 'Hollands' respectively.

Occasionally the the is incorrectly capitalised: 'the Netherlands' is similar to names such as 'the United States' and 'the Federal Republic of Germany', so the 't' should usually not be capitalised.

Historically, the English did not distinguish inhabitants of the Low Countries by 'nationality'. In the 15th and the first half of the 16th century, all persons from Germanic lands were called Flemings, Theotonici, Doch, or sometimes Germani. In the second half of the 16th century, all Germanic speakers or inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire were called Dutch or Douch.

The Netherlands

'Netherlands' literally means 'Low countries' or 'Lowlands'. Dutch neder and its English cognate nether both mean 'down(ward), below'. The English word is now uncommon, mostly replaced by lower in English.^[1] Neder or nether may simply have denoted the geographical characteristics of the land, both flat and down river. This may have applied to the singular form Nederland, or Niderland. It was a geographical description of low regions in the Germanic lands. Thus it was also used to refer specifically to the estuaries of the Scheldt, Meuse and Rhine, including the Lower Rhineland.^[2]:37

However the plural form Nederlanden, in use since the 15th century for the area known as the Burgundian Netherlands, probably has a different origin, if only because most of the area that is and was designated by the term is not flat, low-lying, or even down-river. The Francophone Burgundian central government used the deixic terms pays de par deça (lands over here; from the standpoint of the Duke, who at this time resided in Brussels most of the time), as opposed to pays de par dela (lands over there) for the Burgundian homeland. This was literally translated into Dutch at the time as landen van herwaarts over and landen van derwaarts over, respectively. Mary of Hungary started to use the equally deixic expression pays d'embas (lands down-here) interchangeably with pays de par deça in official correspondence, as did Charles V in the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549. This was translated with the deixic construction Neder-landen in contemporary Dutch official documents.^[3] Such constructions with neder were already old at the time. For instance Melis Stoke used the term Neder Zassen for Lower-Saxony in his Rijmkroniek (chronicle in rhyme, c. 1290): "Old books hear I mentioning/ That all the land below Nijmegen/ Formerly was called Lower Saxony(neder Zassen)."^[4] In modern Dutch these constructions are still used, cf. Neder-Oostenrijk (Lower Austria), Neder-Silezië (Lower Silesia). In all cases the word neder does not imply any connection with the character of the landscape, but is used in opposition to constructions with e.g. opper (upper).

Kingdom of the Netherlands

The United Kingdom of the Netherlands existed from 1815 to 1830. When Belgium became independent, the Northern Provinces continued using 'the Netherlands'.

Today the Kingdom of the Netherlands encompasses the Netherlands, one constituent country of the Kingdom, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. In Dutch common practice, the Kingdom of the Netherlands is shortened to 'Kingdom' and not to 'Netherlands', as the latter may confuse the Kingdom with the constituent country. The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands also shortens the Kingdom of the Netherlands to 'Kingdom' rather than 'Netherlands'.^[5] Outside the Kingdom, however, 'Netherlands' is a common name for the Kingdom of the Netherlands (e.g. as a short name in international organizations and during bilateral meetings).

Netherlandish

The English adjective "Netherlandish," meaning "from the Netherlands," is typically used in reference to paintings or music produced anywhere in the Low Countries during the 15th and early 16th century, which are collectively called Early Netherlandish painting (in Dutch Vlaamse primitieven, Flemish primitives—also common in English before the mid 20th century), or (regarding music) the Netherlandish School.

Later art and artists from the southern Catholic provinces are usually called Flemish and those from the northern Protestant provinces called Dutch, but art historians sometimes use "Netherlandish art" for art produced in both areas between 1400 and 1830.

However, "Netherlandish" is used, as well, as a general-purpose adjective; e.g., "Northern Netherlandish humanists."^[6]

Holland

Location of Holland within the Netherlands

In football (soccer), the Dutch national team is commonly referred to as "Holland"; here supporter shirts for sale at Amsterdam Airport

In many languages including English, "Holland" (Hollande, Holanda etc.) is a common name for the Netherlands as a whole. Even the Dutch use this sometimes. Strictly speaking, Holland is only the central-western region of the country comprising two of the twelve provinces, North Holland and South Holland, and thus linguistically a pars pro toto similar to use of Russia for the (former) Soviet Union, and England for the United Kingdom. The use is sometimes discouraged. For example, the "Holland" entry in the style guide of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers states: "Do not use when you mean the Netherlands (of which it is a region), with the exception of the Dutch football team, which is conventionally known as Holland".^[7] The Times style guide states "use the Netherlands ... for all contexts except sports teams, historical uses, or when referring to the provinces of North and South Holland".^[8]

Historically Holland was the most powerful region in the current Netherlands. The counts of Holland were also counts of Hainaut, Friesland and Zeeland from the 13th to the 15th centuries. Holland remained most powerful during the period of the Dutch Republic and the cities in Holland were important trading cities. Since Holland was the most economically developed region of the Netherlands, it was historically the region that dominated foreign trade, and hence most of the Dutch traders encountered by foreigners were from Holland, which explains why the Netherlands is often called Holland overseas.^[9] After the demise of the Dutch Republic under Napoleon, that country became known as the Kingdom of Holland (1806–1810). In 1840 the former countship of Holland was split up into two provinces, North Holland and South Holland, because Holland by itself was considered too dominant in area, population and wealth compared to the other provinces. Today the two provinces making up Holland, including the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam, remain politically, economically and demographically dominant – 37% of the Dutch population live there.

In most other Dutch provinces and sometimes Flanders, the word Hollander is sometimes used in a pejorative sense to refer to the perceived superiority or supposed arrogance of people from the Randstad – the main conurbation of Holland and of the Netherlands.

Dutch

Dutch refers to the inhabitants of the Netherlands and their language, and is used as an adjective meaning 'coming from or belonging to the Netherlands'. Dutch is spoken not only in the Netherlands but also by the Flemish community in Belgium (in the Flemish Region and the Brussels-Capital Region), in parts of northern France (around Dunkirk), and in Surinam, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Its southern dialects are sometimes called Flemish. Afrikaans, spoken in South Africa and the southern part of Namibia, is derived from the Dutch language and closely related to it. It is the language of the Dutch 'Boers' (farmers) as they spoke Dutch in the 16th and 17th century when they migrated to South Africa.

The English Dutch, the Dutch dietsch, and the German deutsch are cognate words. They have the same etymological origin, deriving from the Common West Germanic theodisca, which meant '(language) of the (common) people'. During the early Middle Ages, the elite mostly used Latin and the common people used their local languages.

In the United States, the term Dutch has sometimes been used instead of Deutsch to mean German or to indicate a German origin: Dutch Schultz, the Pennsylvania Dutch, 'the Flying Dutchman' for Honus Wagner, etc.

Low Countries

The name Low Countries may refer to the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but it also refers to the historical region de Nederlanden: those principalities located on and near the mostly low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers. Very roughly that region corresponds to all of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. It was called Whole Netherlands by people who sought to unite it. This historical region also was referred to as the Netherlands in English.

Between 1579 and 1794 a region comprising present Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of northern France was called the Southern Netherlands (or the Spanish Netherlands between 1579 and 1713, the Austrian Netherlands after 1713, after the main possession of their Habsburg lord).

The region was united three times, in the Seventeen Provinces as a personal union during the 16th century, in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1815 and 1830 under King William I, and as the Benelux customs union founded in 1948.

Other languages

In most languages, the name for the country literally means Low Countries or is derived from Nederland or Holland. There is great variety between the forms used. Sometimes the name for the country is one form and the adjective to refer to it is another. The use of Dutch as the general adjective for the Netherlands is an international exception, but the use of one word to refer to the country and another to refer to the language is not exceptional.

Passport controversy

In 2009, members of the First Chamber drew attention to the fact that in Dutch passports, for some EU-languages a translation meaning 'Kingdom of Holland' was used, as opposed to 'Kingdom of the Netherlands'. As replacements for the Estonian 'Holandi Kuningriik', Hungarian 'Holland Királyság', Romanian 'Regatul Olandei' and Slovak 'Holandské král'ovstvo', the parliamentarians proposed Madalmaade Kuningriik, Németalföldi Királyság, Regatul Țărilor de Jos and Nizozemské Král’ovstvo, respectively. Their reasoning was that "if in addition to "Holland" a recognisable translation of "The Netherlands" does exist in a foreign language, it should be regarded as the best translation" and that "the Kingdom has a right to use the translation it thinks best, certainly on official documents".^[10] Although the government initially refused to change the text except for the Estonian, recent Dutch passports feature the translation proposed by the First Chamber members.

Other Netherlands-related geographical names

Abel Tasman gave the name New Holland to the continent now known as Australia, a name it retained for 150 years until the United Kingdom renamed it in 1824. Dutch cartographers following Abel Tasman also named New Zealand after Zeeland. There was also a colony called New Holland in South America. Part of Lincolnshire is also known as Holland.

The Dutch colony centred on New Amsterdam (the modern New York City) was called New Netherland. Today, many cities and neighborhoods in and around New York City have a name originally given by the Dutch and referring to places in the Netherlands, such as Brooklyn (Breukelen), Flushing Meadows (Vlissingen), Harlem (Haarlem) and Hoboken (Hoboken, now in Belgium).

See also

• Names for the Dutch language
• Netherlands (disambiguation)

References

External links

• Origin and History of the term "Dutch"