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McB

McB Report 25 Apr 2010 21:02

.

McB

McB Report 25 Apr 2010 21:02

If people are from

say Germany they are German
France they are French
Poland they are Polish
Spain they are Spanish

& so on

Why are people from Holland DUTCH ?

Why not Hollish


You can tell i'm bored can't you.

The Night Watchman

The Night Watchman Report 25 Apr 2010 21:13

That is a very good question! if a blue house is made with blue bricks and a red house is made with red bricks why is a green house made of glass? ... and did someone really forget to put the stairs on a bungalow?

**Ann**

**Ann** Report 25 Apr 2010 22:38

This will bore you to tears! lol.........posted by Carl
Hello Simon,

Well, people from Holland are called Dutch by English speaking people only. In German and French and even in Russian they are called

- German: Holländer, Niederländer
- French: les Hollandais
- Russisn: gollantskij

As you can see all these words are derived from the Dutch word Holland.
Strictly spoken even Holland is wrong. Holland was the name of the county Holland until 1795. But as the economic and cultural centre of The Netherlands was situated in the old county of Holland, this last name stood for the whole of The Netherlands. Moreover the name "The Netherlands" also applies for Belgium historically. Originally there were 17 counties united as the Low Countries, in French Les Pays Bas. History divided them into two groups which became Belgium and Netherlands.
Now about Dutch. This word is the English counterpart of the Dutch words "Diets" and "Duits". In Dutch "Duits" means "German", where the Germans call themselves "Deutsche". Around 1290 in the northern and eastern part of the Netherlands the word was: "duutsc" and as the Frisian people (living in the North) spoke a language much more alike English, the English adapted "dutch" from Frisian "duutsc". Later "duutsc" became the Dutch word for our eastern neighbors: Duits (German).
I know that one can find a lot of expressions in an English dictionary related to habits which are supposed to be typically Dutch. But here as in so many cases the pot calls the kettle black.

Have a nice day,

Carel Janssen

Annx

Dianne

Dianne Report 25 Apr 2010 23:13

Funny you should that McB. When I was a little girl I was telling my mother that my friend's brother had got married to a girl called Hendrika, and those were my exact words ........................... "She's Hollish you know"

Dianne xx