For the country Holland, there is the other name "Netherlands" . The for the language and the people, there is Dutch. All of them are so different. I wonder why is it so. How it came that there are two equivalents for the country. Are there any differences in terms of their frequency in real life use?
Why r there 3 names for Holland-related things?
Hello Byllet,
The country is christened… Netherlands (Kingdom of the Netherlands, to be precise). It is a common mistake to call the country Holland; Holland is the name of *one* part (one provinse out of 12) of the country. But for some reason most of us (me included) tend to call the entire country for Holland, which actually is incorrect.
The country is christened… Netherlands (Kingdom of the Netherlands, to be precise). It is a common mistake to call the country Holland; Holland is the name of *one* part (one provinse out of 12) of the country. But for some reason most of us (me included) tend to call the entire country for Holland, which actually is incorrect.
It's true; we can simplify things a bit, because really it's inaccurate to call the whole country "Holland" - so our 3 different terms can be brought down to 2. (The actual "Holland" is just one region of the country, comprising the provinces of Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland.)
Now in Dutch, the situation is simple, with the noun being "Nederland" and the adjective being "Nederlands". So basically it's the English use of "Dutch" that's anomalous.
I've read that in earlier centuries, the English word "Dutch" was an ambiguous term that was used to refer to the Netherlands or Germany. (This ambiguity probably arose from the fact that the Dutch and German dialects are rather similar, and from the fact that Germany, at the time, was a mess of little states, so there wasn't one monolithic "Germany" with which to compare the Netherlands.) A prime example of this ambiguity is the fact that the Pennsylvania Dutch are in fact of German origin, not Dutch origin. Nowadays, the cognates of "Dutch" in other languages tend to refer not to the Netherlands, but to Germany - for instance, the Dutch terms "Duits/Duitsland" and German terms "Deutsch/Deutschland".
So if English had gone the way of other languages, we might have had a more regular system:
Netherland (capital: Amsterdam), Netherlandish
Dutchland (capital: Berlin), Dutch
Now in Dutch, the situation is simple, with the noun being "Nederland" and the adjective being "Nederlands". So basically it's the English use of "Dutch" that's anomalous.
I've read that in earlier centuries, the English word "Dutch" was an ambiguous term that was used to refer to the Netherlands or Germany. (This ambiguity probably arose from the fact that the Dutch and German dialects are rather similar, and from the fact that Germany, at the time, was a mess of little states, so there wasn't one monolithic "Germany" with which to compare the Netherlands.) A prime example of this ambiguity is the fact that the Pennsylvania Dutch are in fact of German origin, not Dutch origin. Nowadays, the cognates of "Dutch" in other languages tend to refer not to the Netherlands, but to Germany - for instance, the Dutch terms "Duits/Duitsland" and German terms "Deutsch/Deutschland".
So if English had gone the way of other languages, we might have had a more regular system:
Netherland (capital: Amsterdam), Netherlandish
Dutchland (capital: Berlin), Dutch
>> Netherland (capital: Amsterdam), Netherlandish <<
Why not call it Netherlandic?
Why not call it Netherlandic?
<<Why not call it Netherlandic?>>
Yes, now that I think about it, that word would be more consistent with other English adjectives like "Icelandic" and "Greenlandic".
Yes, now that I think about it, that word would be more consistent with other English adjectives like "Icelandic" and "Greenlandic".
>>Yes, now that I think about it, that word would be more consistent with other English adjectives like "Icelandic" and "Greenlandic".<<
But don't forget, on the other hand, "Swedish", "Danish", "Spanish", "Finnish", "Polish", "Turkish", though.
But don't forget, on the other hand, "Swedish", "Danish", "Spanish", "Finnish", "Polish", "Turkish", though.