Comment on What's the rule for which 'national identity adjective' suffix to use?
sailingbythelee@lemmy.world 3 months agoDutch is the English name for the dominant language of the Netherlands, and in English we often name people after their language. The Netherlands is also called Holland in English, even though Holland is just the most economically-dominant sub-region of the Netherlands, and the location of its main trading ports, rather than the whole country. Which makes sense if you are an English sailor who only knows the Netherlands through its trading ports and has little need to go inland.
gerryflap@feddit.nl 3 months ago
But we also don’t call our language “Dutch”, we call it Nederlands. It’s a relic of an old time, but actually German should be called Dutch and Dutch should be Netherlandish. It’d help a lot with the confusion of young German and Dutch people learning English for the first time haha. Would also resolve the confusion around “Pennsylvanian Dutch” being German.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
Also resolve the confusion around the “dutch angle” in film… it was actually a thing that was started in Germany.
sailingbythelee@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Yes, you are right. I had never put it together that Dutch and Deutch are so close, but it’s obvious now that you pointed it out. Thanks for the info.