Jersey Dutch language
{{Short description|Extinct dialect of New Jersey and New York, US}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Jersey Dutch
|nativename= Laag Duits (Low Dutch)
|ethnicity=
|region= New Jersey and New York, United States
| image = File:Prinsenvlag.svg
| imagecaption = The Jersey Dutch, descendants of New Netherlanders.
|extinct = Early 20th century
| map =
| mapcaption =
|familycolor=Indo-European
|fam2 = Germanic
|fam3 = West Germanic
|fam4 = Istvaeonic
|fam5 = Low Franconian
|fam6 = Dutch
|script = Latin (Dutch alphabet)
|isoexception=dialect
|ietf =nl-u-sd-usnj
}}
{{Dutch dialects}}
Jersey Dutch ({{langx|nl|Laag Duits}}) (Low Dutch),{{Cite book |first=John Dyneley |last=Prince |title=The Jersey Dutch dialect |oclc=68458100 |date=1910 |location= |pages=1–484}}{{Cite journal |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106014720251&view=1up&seq=467 |last=Prince |first=J. Dyneley |date=1910 |title=The Jersey Dutch dialect |journal=Dialect Notes |volume=3 |pages=459–484}}{{cite book |title=Yankees, cookies en Dollars: De invloed van het Nederlands op de Noord-Amerikaanse Talen |author=Nicoline van der Sijs |year=2009 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |pages=25,41 |language=Dutch}} also known as Bergen Dutch,{{cite book|title=The American Language|author=Mencken, H.L.|year=1921|url=http://www.bartleby.com/185/a12.html}} was a Dutch dialect formerly spoken in northeastern New Jersey from the late 17th century until the early 20th century.{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/453863 | jstor=453863 | title=A Final Word on Jersey Dutch | last1=Shetter | first1=William Z. | journal=American Speech | date=1958 | volume=33 | issue=4 | pages=243–251 | doi=10.2307/453863 }} It evolved in one of the two Dutch-speaking enclaves that remained for over two centuries after the dissolution of Dutch control in North America, the other (around Albany, New York) giving rise to Mohawk Dutch.{{cite web | url=https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/when-did-new-york-stop-speaking-dutch | title=When Did New York Stop Speaking Dutch? }} It may have been a partial creole language{{cite book | author = Holm, John A. | year = 1989 | title = Pidgins and Creoles |url=https://archive.org/details/pidginscreoles00holm | url-access = registration | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 0-521-35940-6 | pages = 335–8}}{{Failed verification|date=August 2023}} based on Zeelandic and West Flemish Dutch dialects with English and possibly some elements of Lenape.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}
Jersey Dutch was spoken by the descendants of New Netherlanders who settled in Bergen, New Netherland, in 1630, and by Black slaves and free people of color also residing in that region, as well as the American Indian people known as the Ramapough Lenape Nation.
Varieties
By the mid-eighteenth century, according to one estimate, up to 20% of the population of the areas of New Jersey with "a strong Dutch element" were enslaved people.{{Cite book |last=White |first=Shane |title=Somewhat More Independent: The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770–1810 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |year=1991 |location=Athens |pages=18–20}} Blacks who grew up in insular Dutch communities were raised speaking the Dutch language, or adopted it later in life, to speak both with their white Dutch-descendant counterparts and with each other.{{Cite journal |last=Dewulf |first=Jeroen |date=2015-05-01 |title="A Strong Barbaric Accent": America's Dutch-Speaking Black Community from Seventeenth-Century New Netherland to Nineteenth-Century New York and New Jersey |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/american-speech/article/90/2/131/55451/A-STRONG-BARBARIC-Accent-America-s-Dutch-Speaking |journal=American Speech |language=en |volume=90 |issue=2 |pages=131–153 |doi=10.1215/00031283-3130302 |issn=0003-1283}} Some blacks during this period spoke Dutch as their primary or only language, and for some knowing the language was a point of pride:
"They were Dutch and proud of it. I can remember my Aunt Sebania telling me about her great-grandmother, a stern old lady who both spoke and understood English, but who refused to speak it except in the privacy of her home. In public she spoke Dutch, as any proper person should do, a dignified language."{{Cite journal |last=Irvis |first=K. Leroy |date=1955 |title=Negro Tales from Eastern New York |journal=New York Folklore Quarterly |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=165–176}}Some contemporary reports from white speakers of Jersey Dutch reported a distinct variety of the language unique to the black population, which they called {{lang|nl-US|Negerduits}} ("Negro Dutch", not to be confused with the Dutch creole {{lang|dcr|Negerhollands}}). This term was used both for the speech of the Ramapough (a distinct community of black, white, and Lenape descent), and of other blacks in Bergen County.
However, as attestation of Jersey Dutch from black and Ramapough speakers is scarce, scholars disagree whether Negerduits can be considered a distinct variety. Sojourner Truth's Dutch, for example, was described by her owner's daughter around 1810 as "very similar to that of the unlettered white people of her time."{{Cite journal |last=Hendricks |first=H. |date=1892 |title=Sojourner Truth |journal=The National Magazine: A Monthly Journal of American History |volume=16 |issue=6 |pages=665–71}} The only contemporaneous linguistic treatment of Jersey Dutch draws primarily on the speech of three white Jersey Dutch speakers and one Ramapough speaker, and notes phonetic, syntactic, and lexical differences between the two groups.
Phonology
= Vowels =
The vowel system of Jersey Dutch differs markedly from Standard Dutch, as well as from the Dutch dialects from which it derives, perhaps due to the influence of American English.{{Cite journal |last=Shetter |first=William Z. |date=1958 |title=A Final Word on Jersey Dutch |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/453863 |journal=American Speech |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=243–251 |doi=10.2307/453863 |jstor=453863 |issn=0003-1283}} The following chart is based on the speech of two white Jersey Dutch speakers recorded in 1910 and 1941 respectively. Parentheses "indicate that the vowel is attested in few forms."{{Cite journal |last=Buccini |first=Anthony F. |date=1995 |title=The Dialectal Origins of New Netherland Dutch |url=https://anthonybuccini.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/buccini-1995-new-netherland-dutch.pdf |journal=The Berkeley Conference on Dutch Linguistics 1993 |pages=211–63}}
| class="wikitable"
|+Jersey Dutch vowel phonemes ! rowspan="3" | ! colspan="4" |Front ! rowspan="3" |Central ! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Back |
| colspan="2" |unrounded
! colspan="2" |rounded |
|---|
| short
!long !short !long !short !long |
| Close
|({{IPA link|ɪ}}) |{{IPA|{{IPA link|i}}ː}} | |{{IPA|{{IPA link|y}}ː}} | |({{IPA link|ʊ}}) |{{IPA|{{IPA link|u}}ː}} |
| Close-mid
| |{{IPA|{{IPA link|e}}ː}} |{{IPA link|œ}} |{{IPA|{{IPA link|œ}}ː}} | | |{{IPA|{{IPA link|o}}ː}} |
| Open-mid
|{{IPA link|ɛ}} | | | |({{IPA link|ʌ}}) |{{IPA link|ɔ}} |{{IPA|{{IPA link|ɔ}}ː}} |
| Open
|{{IPA link|æ}} |{{IPA|{{IPA link|æ}}ː}} | colspan="2" | | |{{IPA link|ɑ}} |{{IPA|{{IPA link|ɑ}}ː}} |
| Diphthongs
| colspan="7" |{{IPA|ai̯}} ({{IPA|æi̯}}) {{IPA|ɛu̯}} ({{IPA|œːu̯}}) {{IPA|aːu̯}} |
= Consonants =
Jersey Dutch consonants are largely the same as those of Standard Dutch, with a few exceptions.
| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" | |
| colspan="2" |Nasal
|{{IPA link|m}} |{{IPA link|n}} |{{IPA link|ŋ}} | |
|---|
| rowspan="2" |Plosive
|{{IPA link|p}} |{{IPA link|t}} |{{IPA link|k}} | |
| voiced
|{{IPA link|b}} |{{IPA link|d}} |({{IPA link|ɡ}}) | |
| rowspan="2" |Fricative
|{{IPA link|f}} |{{IPA link|s}} |{{IPA link|x}} |{{IPA link|h}} |
| voiced
|{{IPA link|v}} |{{IPA link|z}} |({{IPA link|ɣ}}) | |
| colspan="2" |Approximant
|{{IPA link|w}} |{{IPA link|ɫ}} |{{IPA link|j}} | |
| colspan="2" |Rhotic
| | colspan="2" |{{IPA link|ɹ}} | |
Example
An example of Jersey Dutch, transcribed in 1913, spoken by Matthew Hicks of Mahwah, the white sexton of a Dutch church.{{Cite journal |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_tij003191301_01/_tij003191301_01_0032.php |journal=Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde |volume=32 |series=Nieuwe reeks |publisher=Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde te Leiden / Brill |location=Leiden |title=A Text in Jersey Dutch |date=1913 |first=J. Dyneley |last=Prince}}
= Jersey Dutch =
{{lang|nl-US|
De v'lôrene zön:
En kääd’l had twî jongers; de êne blêv täus;
de andere xöng vôrt f’n häus f’r en stât.
Hāi wāz nît tevrêde täus en dârkîs tû râkni ārm.
Hāi doǵti ôm dāt täus en z’n vâders pläk.
Tû zāide: äk zāl na häus xâne. Māin vâder hät plänti.}}
=Standard Modern Dutch=
Below is a word-by-word translation of the Jersey Dutch quote, rather than a fluent Dutch rendering.{{lang|nl|
De verloren zoon:
Een kerel had twee jongens; de ene bleef thuis;
de andere ging voort van huis voor een vermogen.
Hij was niet tevreden thuis en daardoor toen raakte hij arm.
Hij dacht aan dat thuis en zijn vaders plek.
Toen zei hij: ik zal naar huis gaan. Mijn vader heeft overvloed.
}}
=English=
The prodigal/lost son:
A man had two sons; the one stayed at home;
the other went abroad from home to make his fortune.
He was not content at home and therefore then he became poor.
He thought about it at home and his father’s place.
Then said: I shall go home. My father has plenty.
See also
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{in lang|nl}} Handboek der Nederlandsche taal: Deel I. De sociologische structuur der Nederlandsche taal I., Jac. van Ginneken and L.C.G. Malmberg, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. 1928. [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/ginn001hand01/ginn001hand01_0012.htm Chapter 10: Het Amerikaansch. [1o. Het oude Amerikaansch-Nederlandsch.] ]
- {{in lang|nl}} Ik was te bissie...Nederlanders en hun taal in de Verenigde Staten: 2.3 Het taalgebruik van de 17e-eeuwse immigranten en hun nakomelingen, Jo Daan, De Walburg Pers. 2007. [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/daan001ikwa01_01/daan001ikwa01_01_0003.htm] (Click on link and then scroll down.)
- Mencken, H.L. The American Language. 1921. [http://www.bartleby.com/185/a12.html Appendix II - Non-English Dialects in America: Dutch]
Further reading
- Bachman, Van Cleaf. 1982. ‘The story of the Low Dutch language’. De Halve Maen 56: 3, 1–3, 21; 57: 1, 10–13.
- Bachman, Van Cleaf. 1983. ‘What is Low Dutch?’ De Halve Maen 57: 3, 14–17, 23–24.
- Buccini, Anthony F. 1995. ‘The Dialectical Origins of New Netherland Dutch’. Dutch Linguistics in a Changing Europe. The Berkeley Conference on Dutch Linguistics 1993. Ed. by Thomas Shannon & Johan P. Snapper. Lanham etc., 211–263. (Publications of the American Association for Netherlandic Studies, 8).
- Noordegraaf, Jan. 2008. 'Nederlands in Noord-Amerika. Over de studie van het Laag Nederlands (Low Dutch)'. Trefwoord, tijdschrift voor lexicografie, December 2008, 1-29. {{Cite web |url=http://www.fryske-akademy.nl/trefwoord/ |first=Jan |last=Noordegraaf |title=Nederlands in Noord-Amerika. Over de studie van het Laag Nederlands (Low Dutch) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040215024441/http://www.fryske-akademy.nl/trefwoord/ |archive-date=2004-02-15 |language=Dutch}}
- {{Cite web |url=https://ivdnt.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Noordegraaf_Storms_woordenlijst_Jersey_Dutch |first=Jan |last=Noordegraaf |website=ivdnt.org |title=Een woordenlijst van het Jersey Dutch. Over James B.H. Storms en zijn Jersey Dutch vocabulary |access-date=3 January 2024 |language=Dutch}}
- {{Cite book |first=John Dyneley |last=Prince |title=The Jersey Dutch dialect |oclc=68458100 |date=1910 |location= |pages=1–484}}
- {{Cite journal |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_tij003191301_01/_tij003191301_01_0032.php |journal=Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsche Taal- en Letterkunde |volume=32 |series=Nieuwe reeks |publisher=Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde te Leiden / Brill |location=Leiden |title=A Text in Jersey Dutch |date=1913 |first=J. Dyneley |last=Prince |access-date=3 January 2024}}
- Scheltema, Gajus and Westerhuijs, Heleen (eds.),Exploring Historic Dutch New York. Museum of the City of New York/Dover Publications, New York (2011) {{ISBN|978-0-486-48637-6}}
- Storms, James B.H. 1964. A Jersey Dutch vocabulary. Park Ridge, N.J.: Pascack Historical Society
Category:Languages of New York (state)
Category:Languages of New Jersey
Category:Bergen County, New Jersey
Category:Dutch-American culture in New Jersey
Category:Dutch-based pidgins and creoles
Category:Dutch language in the United States
Category:Extinct languages of North America
Category:Passaic County, New Jersey
Category:Ramapough Mountain Indians
Category:Languages attested from the 17th century