Should the Dutch language be renamed into Hollish?

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Aivo½so
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?

Actually, some do. There even is a Wiki in "Alemannic": http://als.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houptsyte

[MarkG]

in greek it's "Olanthia" ("th" as in "the") and "Olanthika"...

[Lawrence of Arabia]

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".

apparently, a person who speaks Zueritütsch (a swiss german from zurich) can have a conversation with a dutch.

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?

its already written, but not formalized (swiss germans do send text msgs in dialect.) they call it Schweizerdeutsch (or Schwiizertütsch in dialect)

[Lawrence of Arabia]

its a farmer language as far as im concered - i mean, some of them cant even speak high german properly, and they all speak it with an accent. its a totally different language. and its a real mess, since each canton has their own dialect of the dialect, and they sometimes cannot even understand each other.

[Wernazuma III]

Colon is in some aspect right (though I don't completely agree. I put it wrong when I spoke of a splitting. I'd rather say, the different German(ic, if you wish) dialects in central Europe were similar enough to accept the late developped common grammar (and, partly, ortography). The Dutch however, surely because of their political/religous struggle AND their economic success, turned their own "dialect" into a proper high level language at the same time or probably earlier than the "high German" did.
Why the Swiss, after all also a rich Protestant nation and political outlier, didn't do so - I don't know.

[Wernazuma III]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia


apparently, a person who speaks Zueritütsch (a swiss german from zurich) can have a conversation with a dutch.

Maybe the Burgundian heritage?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Why the Swiss, after all also a rich Protestant nation and political outlier, didn't do so - I don't know.

its very simple - in the 1930s, the swiss were about to completely ban the dialect and just learn german. however, when hitler took power, the swiss didnt want to be associated with germany and hitler, and since then, its been swiss-german.

btw, there are more catholics in switzerland than protestants

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Maybe the Burgundian heritage?

no, the burgundians were in western switzerland. they settled the parts that speak french. the german speaking part was settled by the alamans.


and yeah, the swiss germans have many many many complexes, including their language (dont make fun of it) and western switzerland (they all come here because its soooo cool)

[Q Classic]

Chinese => Cinch would belie the fact that Mandarin is anything but a cinch to learn.

The change from Dutch to Hollish on all those signs would be a hellish thing to undertake.

[Colonâ„¢]

Originally posted by Wernazuma III
Colon is in some aspect right (though I don't completely agree. I put it wrong when I spoke of a splitting. I'd rather say, the different German(ic, if you wish) dialects in central Europe were similar enough to accept the late developped common grammar (and, partly, ortography). The Dutch however, surely because of their political/religous struggle AND their economic success, turned their own "dialect" into a proper high level language at the same time or probably earlier than the "high German" did.
Why the Swiss, after all also a rich Protestant nation and political outlier, didn't do so - I don't know.

I think it's mostly improper translation and confusing terminology that's the problem, not so much disagreement over when the languages split. With what you referred to as "German" you probably meant "Germanisch", or "Germanic" in English. The proper translation for "German" is (modern-day) "Deutsch".

[Locutus]

The Netherlands is NOT called 'Holland', it's called the Netherlands You could make a case for calling it Netherlandish (which is basically what it's called in Dutch), but not any kind of variation of Holland, which is a province of the Netherlands (or rather 2 provinces these days).

[Timexwatch]

If people from Poland are called Poles, how come people from Holland aren't called Holes?

[DanS]

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Timexwatch
If people from Poland are called Poles, how come people from Holland aren't called Holes?

Great. Just leave out an "L" for comic effect. At our expense

[Locutus]

I think it's funny

Of course, I'm not from Holland