Why are Dutch people...
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Looks like you have a nasty cough there!, I know a good doctor that can sort it out for you, he's a Gaul though, answer to the name of Jean Luc... Don't go to one of those nasty Breton Dr's, they speak dodgy English!scumofsociety said:*cough* France/Franks *cough*ColdStorage said:
*coughs*, oh god I think its catching!.
Languages are mad, I love it.Shirastro said:
I've travelled all over Europe, and its enlightening speaking with other cultures, hooray to the Escapist for bringing me closer to someone like you where I can find out these lovely little things.
Remember kids, racism is bad, embrace your neighbours!, or think of my patented X-Men philosophy
Different?, yes, good on them, find out more
Shoots laser beams out of their eyes?, bonus!
Look at theDuckbunnies post; he pretty much has the etymological answer. The word 'Diets' also refers to the ancient Dutch language as it was spoken in the late to high middle ages (approx 1000-1500). It refers to all the regional languages and dialects that where spoken in the Southern-Netherlands (todays Flanders) and Northern-Netherlands(todays Netherlands). It was closely related to the German dialects at that time, but still quite different. To this day for some people it still may seem that Dutch and German are very similar, but as anyone who tries to learn German (or Dutch when you're German) will know; they grew apart a lot throughout the ages.
You speak Dutch?, why don't you speak Nederlandish? or Nederlanderish?kayisking said:
Dutch?, that's our word man.
Dats why Am proud ta be Mercan. We dunt speek that them there weird ole Anglish, we speek Mercan, and just call anawun not frum Merca damd fornears! ;D
EDIT: Yay wikipedia! Germania is the Greek and Latin term for a geographical area of land on the east bank of the Rhine. Diutisc referred to the "language of the [Deutch] people," as opposed to Latin, "language of the learned." It later came to refer to the people who spoke the language as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_peoples
Yeah, that's what I was wondering, too. Maybe because of the Germanic tribes from the region in ancient times. Then again, that may be a name retroactively applied to them by us silly English-speaking people for all I know.Lukeje said:
EDIT: Yay wikipedia! Germania is the Greek and Latin term for a geographical area of land on the east bank of the Rhine. Diutisc referred to the "language of the [Deutch] people," as opposed to Latin, "language of the learned." It later came to refer to the people who spoke the language as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_peoples
probably should of looked it up before posting.Sgt. Sykes said:While we're at it, why is the country called Holland somewhere and Netherlands ('low grounds') elsewhere? That's some schizophrenic country
Either way, researching history of words is very interesting. I think I'll look this up.
I always thought that the common name for that region was Benelux....i just found out that Benelux only refers to some sort of economic union between those countries.Maraveno said:because officially THE NETHERLANDS would mean including belgium luxemburg and the northern part of franceSgt. Sykes said:While we're at it, why is the country called Holland somewhere and Netherlands ('low grounds') elsewhere? That's some schizophrenic country
Either way, researching history of words is very interesting. I think I'll look this up.
The Netherlands blatantly means : the low countries
Live and learn i guess
So, here we go. (German is my major, so beware to ask these kind of questions )
Dutch, as pointed out before, is the equivalent for our "Deutsch" which means "Germans" but is actually derived from Latin "theodiscus" which means "folklike" or "popular" and it was the word used for our language because educated people would speak Latin or French and the farmers and other uneducated people would speak German. It was therefore actually the term for "language of the people". Dutch and German were considered the same language for quite some time, and just as the Germans started to call themselves "Deutsch", the English picked up the word for the region of the "German"-speaking people closest to them - the Dutch. (German has a crazy variety of dialects, it's no surprise Dutch has developed in an own language.)
As for all the weird names for Germany:
We call it Deutschland (literally "land of the people").
All other names are derived from the variety of tribes that originally made up the "Germans" (So that's just an umbrella term). Most of the times, languages picked up the name of the tribe they had the most dealings with:
French/Spanish -> Allemagne/Alemania = Allemannen
Finnish -> Saksa = Sachsen (Related to the Anglo-Saxons)
Italian -> "tedesco" -> Actually the word we use (derived from "theodiscus" as well)
I hope that helped. =)
(And the Netherlands were never part of Germany, that all happend before there even was a Germany. Germany was founded 1871, the Netherlands were founded in the 1500s.)
)Dutch, as pointed out before, is the equivalent for our "Deutsch" which means "Germans" but is actually derived from Latin "theodiscus" which means "folklike" or "popular" and it was the word used for our language because educated people would speak Latin or French and the farmers and other uneducated people would speak German. It was therefore actually the term for "language of the people". Dutch and German were considered the same language for quite some time, and just as the Germans started to call themselves "Deutsch", the English picked up the word for the region of the "German"-speaking people closest to them - the Dutch. (German has a crazy variety of dialects, it's no surprise Dutch has developed in an own language.)
As for all the weird names for Germany:
We call it Deutschland (literally "land of the people").
All other names are derived from the variety of tribes that originally made up the "Germans" (So that's just an umbrella term). Most of the times, languages picked up the name of the tribe they had the most dealings with:
French/Spanish -> Allemagne/Alemania = Allemannen
Finnish -> Saksa = Sachsen (Related to the Anglo-Saxons)
Italian -> "tedesco" -> Actually the word we use (derived from "theodiscus" as well)
I hope that helped. =)
(And the Netherlands were never part of Germany, that all happend before there even was a Germany. Germany was founded 1871, the Netherlands were founded in the 1500s.)
Diets(which gives us the word) was the original language of most of the people of the region. The Netherlands is the name given much MUCH later, and means the Low Country(/ies), due to the fact that they basically drown every time there's a storm.
As for those asking about different names for Germany, that's to do with the relationship each country/language had with the region. The Frankish people(who were Germanic themselves) knew the Alamans quite well, so the French now call Germany Allemagne. The English, having little contact with the area apart from the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons(who were based around Denmark if memory serves), decided to lump the tribes together in one big mess. Hence Germany(which incidentally comes from a Celto-Latin word meaning "neighbour"). And Deutschland comes from Deutsch, which originally means "people" or "tribe" in old Germanic. So Deutschland means "land of the tribes/people". A bit like most of the names of American Indian tribes. Interestingly enough, most Slavic languages use a word based on their word for "foreigner" as the name for Germany.
As for those asking about different names for Germany, that's to do with the relationship each country/language had with the region. The Frankish people(who were Germanic themselves) knew the Alamans quite well, so the French now call Germany Allemagne. The English, having little contact with the area apart from the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons(who were based around Denmark if memory serves), decided to lump the tribes together in one big mess. Hence Germany(which incidentally comes from a Celto-Latin word meaning "neighbour"). And Deutschland comes from Deutsch, which originally means "people" or "tribe" in old Germanic. So Deutschland means "land of the tribes/people". A bit like most of the names of American Indian tribes. Interestingly enough, most Slavic languages use a word based on their word for "foreigner" as the name for Germany.
You are actually right. Our country is called The Netherlands. No matter what it actually means, it's just the country. I don't think you'll make many friends in Belgium if you lop them in with the Netherlands.Shirastro said:I always thought that the common name for that region was Benelux....i just found out that Benelux only refers to some sort of economic union between those countries.Maraveno said:because officially THE NETHERLANDS would mean including belgium luxemburg and the northern part of franceSgt. Sykes said:While we're at it, why is the country called Holland somewhere and Netherlands ('low grounds') elsewhere? That's some schizophrenic country
Either way, researching history of words is very interesting. I think I'll look this up.
The Netherlands blatantly means : the low countries
Live and learn i guess
Anyway people should really stop calling it Holland, it's annoying. Ask any Brit what they think about people calling their entire continent just 'England'.