Dunglish
Encyclopedia
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
speakers make when speaking English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
They are closely related Germanic languages
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
. English instruction in the Netherlands begins in elementary school, and Dutch-speaking Belgians are usually taught English from the age of twelve. In addition, like all foreign-language movies, English-spoken movies are subtitled rather than being dubbed in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
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
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
, word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
and the meaning of words. Former Dutch ambassador and prime minister Dries van Agt
Dries van Agt
Andreas Antonius Maria "Dries" van Agt is a retired Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from December 19, 1977, until November 4, 1982....
supposedly once said "I can stand my little man" (ik kan mijn mannetje staan, a Dutch idiom meaning roughly "I can stand up for myself"). The former leader of the Dutch liberal party, Frits Bolkestein
Frits Bolkestein
Frederik "Frits" Bolkestein is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy . He served as a Member of the House of Representatives from 16 January 1978, until 5 November 1982, when he became State Secretary for Economic Affairs from 5 November 1982, until 14 July...
, repeatedly referred to economic prospects as "golden showers
Urolagnia
Urolagnia is a paraphilia in which sexual excitement is associated with the sight or thought of urine or urination. The term has origins in the Greek Language .Those who enjoy urolagnia may enjoy urinating on another person or persons, or being urinated upon...
", unaware of the term's sexual connotation.
Incorrect meaning of words
Errors often occur because of the false friendFalse friend
False friends are pairs of words or phrases in two languages or dialects that look or sound similar, but differ in meaning....
or false cognate
False cognate
False cognates are pairs of words in the same or different languages that are similar in form and meaning but have different roots. That is, they appear to be, or are sometimes considered, cognates, when in fact they are not....
possibility: words are incorrectly translated for understandable reasons. Examples are:
- Former prime-minister Joop den UylJoop den UylJohannes Marten den Uijl, known as Joop den Uyl was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from May 11, 1973 until December 19, 1977....
once remarked that "the Dutch are a nation of undertakers". 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 more specific begrafenisondernemer for a funeral director.) - Former prime-minister GerbrandyPieter Sjoerds GerbrandyPieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy was a Dutch politician of the Anti Revolutionary Party . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from September 3, 1940 until June 24, 1945. He was the Prime Minister of the Dutch government in exile during World War II...
had a meeting with ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
in London. Gerbrandy enters the room and shakes the hand of Churchill, saying: "Goodbye!" Churchill responded: "This is the shortest meeting I have ever had." Gerbrandy had looked up the English translation of goedendag, which in Dutch can be both used as a greeting and a valedictionValedictionA valediction , or complimentary close in American English, is an expression used to say farewell, especially a word or phrase used to end a letter or message, or the act of saying parting words- whether brief, or extensive.For the greetings counterpart to valediction, see salutation.Alternatively,...
. - In spring during the Second World War, ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
said to former prime-minister GerbrandyPieter Sjoerds GerbrandyPieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy was a Dutch politician of the Anti Revolutionary Party . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from September 3, 1940 until June 24, 1945. He was the Prime Minister of the Dutch government in exile during World War II...
while the two were standing on a balcony: "Spring is in the air". Gerbrandy's response was: "Why should I?" Gerbrandy thought Churchill told him: "Spring 'ns in de lucht", which translates into English as: "jump into the air". - One of the best known examples of Dunglish took place between the Dutch foreign minister Joseph LunsJoseph LunsJoseph Marie Antoine Hubert Luns was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the defunct Catholic People's Party now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal . He was the longest-serving Minister of Foreign Affairs from September 2, 1952 until July 6, 1971...
(a man whose main foreign language was French, the language of diplomacy prior to World War II) and John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. At one point Kennedy inquired what hobby Luns had, to which he replied "I fok horses". The Dutch verb fokken meaning to breed. Kennedy then replied "Pardon?" a word which Luns then mistook as the Dutch word for "horses" ("paarden") and enthusiastically responded "Yes, paarden!" - 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 word eventueel in Dutch means potentially (like eventuel in FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
) 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". - "I am a bit in the war" (from the Dutch Ik ben een beetje in de war, translates as "I am a little bit confused") and "I passed the brook." (Ik paste de broek, translates as "I tried on the trousers") are classic examples of too literal Dunglish translations.
Word order
Some Dutch speakers may use Dutch syntax inappropriately when using English, creating errors such as What mean you? instead of What do you mean?This is because English and Dutch do not follow exactly the same word order. English has a SVO word order, but Dutch has this word order only partially having a V2 word order
V2 word order
In syntax, verb-second word order is the rule in some languages that the second constituent of declarative main clauses is always a verb, while this is not necessarily the case in other types of clauses.- V2 effect :...
. Used with modal auxiliaries, Dutch perfect participles are placed at the end of a phrase.
English employs periphrastic constructions involving the verb to do for forming questions, a rare feature crosslinguistically. Dutch does not use this construction, but instead utilizes a VSO word order, inverting the subject and verb.
Verb conjugation
English and Dutch are both West Germanic, with many cognateCognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
verbs with identical or nearly identical meanings. This similarity between verbs may cause speakers of Dutch to conjugate English verbs according to Dutch grammar
Dutch grammar
-Word order:Structurally, Dutch is a V2 language, which means that the inflected verb is raised to the second position in the main clause. Word order is SVO in main clauses and SOV in subordinate clauses...
.
- We kisse(n) her. (Dutch kussen means and is cognate with English to kiss. In Dutch grammar, verbs with plural subjects take a form identical to the infinitive, which in most cases has an en suffix.)
- What do you now? for What are you doing right now? (In Dutch, Wat doe je nu?)
- How goes it now? for How are you doing now? (The phrase is used particularly after someone has had a bad spell. A similarly constructed phrase is found in Shakespeare, carrying a slightly different meaning, which underlines the even closer similarities between English and Dutch historically.)
Errors in pronunciation
- Words like third and the are commonly mispronounced by Dutch speakers as turd and duh, replacing the dental fricativeFricative consonantFricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...
consonants that are not present in Dutch with dental plosives, the nearest equivalent. - Many Dutch speakers have trouble distinguishing between bat, bad, bet and bed. This is because Dutch devoices obstruentsFinal obstruent devoicingFinal obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as German, Dutch, Polish, and Russian, among others...
at the end of a word, and also because Dutch does not distinguish between [æ] and [ɛ]. - Some pronounce the word idea (in Dutch: idee) without the ending sound, making "Do you have an idea?" and "Do you have an ID?" sound the same.
Other clues
- Using greetings to end an email as a literal translation of (met vriendelijke) groeten - in English however a greeting is usually to describe the start of an exchange and it is odd to use it at the end. Note also that greeting is general used in English only to describe the act of welcoming someone into your house, usage in text as a form of salutation is restricted to Christmas cards (Season's Greetings) and would always be used at the start (never at the end).
- Using possessive forms like that is the Lamborghini of Patrick instead of the use of an apostropheApostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
to indicate possession. Saying that Lamborghini is Patrick's is a marked improvement, and a native English speaker would say that is Patrick's Lamborghini. - Concatenation of words like officemanager is a common Dutch habit that sometimes also creates unintended mondegreens.
- Excessive and incorrect use of the apostropheApostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
particularly when using acronyms in the plural form - note however that this is quite common in many countries including the US.
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 WesterkerkWesterkerk
The Westerkerk is a church of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands denomination in Amsterdam, built in 1620-1631 after a design by Hendrick de Keyser. It is next to Amsterdam's Jordaan district, on the bank of the Prinsengracht canal....
. 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
Dam Square
Dam Square, or simply the Dam is a town square in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Its notable buildings and frequent events make it one of the most well-known and important locations in the city.- Location and description :...
" instead of "Dam", the original form of this Amsterdam open space.)
Overtranslation can yield some mondegreen
Mondegreen
A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. It most commonly is applied to a line in a poem or a lyric in a song...
s in the language.
Use in media
- Johan van der Smut, GoldmemberGoldmemberJohan van der Smut, better known as Goldmember, is a fictional agent in the third film of the Austin Powers trilogy, Austin Powers in Goldmember. He is played by Mike Myers. The character was partially inspired by the James Bond's Auric Goldfinger...
in Austin Powers in GoldmemberAustin Powers in GoldmemberAustin Powers in Goldmember is a 2002 American spy comedy film and the third installment of the Austin Powers series starring Mike Myers in the title role. The movie was directed by Jay Roach, and co-written by Mike Myers and Michael McCullers. Myers also plays the roles of Dr. Evil, Goldmember,...
, was known to use Dunglish phrases. - A 2009 Dutch TV ad by the EnecoEneco EnergieEneco, the trading name of Eneco Holding N.V., is one of the largest producers and suppliers of gas, electricity and heat in the Netherlands, serving more than 2 million business and residential customers. Eneco headquarters are located in Rotterdam...
utility, promoting wind energyWind energyWind energy is the kinetic energy of air in motion; see also wind power.Total wind energy flowing through an imaginary area A during the time t is:E = ½ m v2 = ½ v 2...
, poked fun at the Dutch peopleDutch peopleThe Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
's tendency to speak Dunglish.
See also
- Non-native pronunciations of EnglishNon-native pronunciations of EnglishNon-native pronunciations of English result from the common linguistic phenomenon in which non-native users of any language tend to carry the intonation, phonological processes and pronunciation rules from their mother tongue into their English speech...
- GlobishGlobishGlobish may refer to:* Globish , a formalized natural language subset of English grammar and vocabulary* Globish , a simplified constructed language related to, but independent of, standard English...
, International EnglishInternational EnglishInternational English is the concept of the English language as a global means of communication in numerous dialects, and also the movement towards an international standard for the language... - EngrishEngrishrefers to unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place...
External links
- Project Dunglish (research project in Vrije UniversiteitVrije UniversiteitThe Vrije Universiteit is a university in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch name is often abbreviated as VU and in English the university uses the name "VU University". The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern part of Amsterdam in the Buitenveldert district...
Amsterdam)