Should the Dutch language be renamed into Hollish?

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Ecthy
It's called "Niederlandisch" in Germany, and IIRC it's "Nederlands" or something like that in Dutch.

It's just the English who have to sort it out. Call it Netherlandish or Nether German or something.

In Austria, we call it "Holländisch"...

[germanos]

Originally posted by Aivo½so
What is the etymological relation of "Diets" to "Duits" and "Deutsch"?

Duits=Deutsch in Dutch

[Meticulous Man]

Ik weet

[germanos]

Originally posted by lightblue
Weren't the Belgea a tribe in roman times? Think that's where it came from.

I see.

But there were 'Bataven' (Batavii in Latin?) in the Netherlands though.

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Wernazuma III
In Austria, we call it "Holländisch"...

That too.

[germanos]

Originally posted by Aivo½so
Ik weet

I'll probably piss of some germans here, but both Dutch and Deutsch derived from Diets.
(in other words: Diets is the common ancenstor of both languages)

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Aivo½so
What is the etymological relation of "Diets" to "Duits" and "Deutsch"?

I think it's actually the same word.
In the Kingdom of the Franks, germanic speaking people were commonly called to talk "diutisce".
Actually, to my understanding, it has not been a necessary process that Dutch developed its own written language and thus "seceeded" from German. Swiss German when they talk among themselves is completely uncomprehensible to me and as distant to the dialect I speak as is Dutch. It's just that the Swiss didn't turn that dialect into a proper form with its own grammar but instead have their children learn to speak "proper" (what a stupid term, but still...) German beside their own "Alemannisch".

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by germanos


It was?

Now that you mention it: where does 'Belgium' originate from?
Surely Flanders was part of the 'low countries' or 'nether lands', but I have never seen the low countries being refered to as 'belgian', ever.

To answer the OP: Dutch is derived from 'Diets', a language spoken in the northwestern part of the continent in the 14th/15th century IIRC. This would incorporate the netherlands, flanders and some of the western 'bundesländer' of Germany.
In related news, Holland is only a part of the netherlands (the western part), but as it was the most influential during the Golden Age, it became synonym for the Republic of the United Provinces in the 17th century and beyond. 'Hollands' is sort of a dialect.

As lightblue already said "Belgium" comes from the Belgae, which lived roughly between the Rhine and the Seine. During the Bourgondian and the Habsburg eras (at least until the secession of the Northern Netherlands), the Low Lands were often referred to as "Belgium" in Latin texts, and "Provinces Belgiques" in French texts.

[Meticulous Man]

When and how did Dutch start to differentiate itself from (other forms of) Diets/German and become a language of its own?

[Colonâ„¢]

Diets is not the same as German, and Dutch was not born out of German. Rather, both present day German and present day Dutch have Germanic origines.

I came across this really nice language tree the other day, maybe if I find it back things will be clearer to you.

[Ecthy]

Those language trees are usually invented by people with an inferiority complex.

[Meticulous Man]

Could the Swiss Germans, too, in principle, create a written language of their own (I guess there already are some literary works written in Swiss German) and start calling it Alemannic or something and claim that it was not born out of German?

[Colonâ„¢]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages

Scroll half-way down. It's not because the language is called "German", that it is any more of a direct heir than is English or Dutch.

[Gangerolf]

It's all politics I tells ya

[Gangerolf]

I learned German in school and find Dutch easier to understand than some German "dialects". Like Swiss German, it's Greek to me.

One could speak of one "continental germanic" language with several dialects. It's all about politcs and putting on various labels.