411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Netherdutch
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Alternative forms
en Nether-Dutch Nether Dutch
Etymology
From en nether Dutch, probably a en nl Nederduitsch (modern: Nederduits) 1 or a en de Niederdeutsch 1.
Pronunciation
en /ˈnɛðədʌt͡ʃ/ UK
en /ˈnɛðɚdʌt͡ʃ/ US
Adjective
-
en obsolete Dutch, pertaining to the Dutch language 17th 19th c.
en obsolete uncommon Dutch, pertaining to the Netherlands or to Dutch people 17th 19th c.
Proper noun
en obsolete uncommon Low German 17th 19th c.
letter by Strangford, in: Ten Letters to E. A. Freeman, Esq., in: 1878, Original Letters and Papers of the Late Viscount Strangford upon Philological and Kindred Subjects. Edited by Viscountess Strangford, p. 32:
But I have a deadly hatred of sch generally for a clumsy and newfangled corruption—it is either the older sc-, or it is the High Dutch way of pronouncing s followed by a consonant, [...] The Nether Dutch of Germany hasn't got it at all except as the representative of sc-, and that of Holland has kept the old pronunciation of sk, even though written sch, except as a termination, when I believe it is pronounced s. [...] and if the Germans, or rather Nether Dutchmen, of Sleswick have to become Danes in the long run, and to learn Danish at school, [...]
en 1882 Edward A. Freeman Lectures to American Audiences. I. The English People in its three Homes. II. The practical Bearings of general European History. Philadelphia Porter & Coates 75 The truth is that the Nether-Dutch of the European mainland and the Nether-Dutch—that is, the English—of Britain and America have long ceased to be mutually intelligible, but that they can again become mutually intelligible under certain circumstances. [...]. I know by experience that, in the city of Hamburg, where though the polite and literary speech is High-Dutch, the natural speech of the people is Nether-Dutch, if you speak English slowly and carefully, choosing your words well and uttering them distinctly, you will be understood by a common man in the streets of the Hanseatic city.
1917, The Dutch Language, in: De nieuwe gids vol. 32.1, p. 982ff., here p. 984 :
But round about these, in a broken curve are found the represenatives of the Low-German (Nieder-Deutsch, Netherdutch or Netherlandish) family. Along the shores of the Baltic and far inland, where German [= (Standard) High German] is established in the educated ranks, the mass of the population speak Platt-deutsch, which is nothing but a form of Dutch, not German or Hoch-deutsch.
Antonyms
en High-Dutch/en High Dutch
Further reading
en 1841 James Cowles Prichard Researches into the physical history of mankind. Vol. III.—Part I. Containing researches into the ethnography of Europe London 345 The Low-German or Nether-Dutch language and its dialects belonged, according to Adelung and others, to the Saxons, Frisians, and other nations of Western Germany. [...] The Lower German language must not be confounded with the Platt-deutsch, which is only one of its varieties.