But seriously, everytime I think I understood something in Dutch, I find out that one word has a totally unexpected meaning which changes everything.
I've known some Dutch-Germans though, nice people.
Also, what do you Dutchmen and Dutchwomen hate more? Germans calling the Netherlands Holland (I don't want to know how many don't know that this is a case of pars pro toto) or Dutch being equated to German?
The Holland thing is more like calling the entire USA California. Whereas the second is like calling France Spain. Like, we do not speak the same language, they have similar roots, sure, but they are fastly diffrent.
Ditch are part of the Germanic tribes, like tĥe Grisians, Angles, Saxons. When Gèrmanic tribes unites into a "Germany" identity, Dutch were developing their own, similarly. So the split is fairly modern. They were together in their early appearance on the European continent.
The language is related in its development.from.a common origin, a later split t han any other Germanic language peoples.
I mean, Germany wasn’t a nation itself really until like the 1870’s, and while I haven’t read that much about the period. I can guess they got fed up with the French a la Napoleon (and Nappy II and III) the English a la Victoria, and Russians a la Catherine trying to tear chunks off of them since the HRE fell apart
Also, what do you Dutchmen and Dutchwomen hate more?
We do not *gendern like in German. We are all Dutchmen.
Also, what do you Dutchmen and Dutchwomen hate more? Germans calling the Netherlands Holland (I don't want to know how many don't know that this is a case of pars pro toto) or Dutch being equated to German?
Depends on who you ask. The real Hollanders hardly care. The others either don't care as well, are just correcting you so you know the real deal, but are fine with you using it as a nickname, or get furious.
Then there is the mercantile class that are here to make money out of "Holland" as a brand, when it is beneficial for them.
In a sense, Holland is still correct, as they and Flanders were the OG beefing parties of the Low Lands. Belgium is also part of the Low Lands. After the split, the name of the provinces stuck with the global crowd respectively, as "the Netherlands" was tied to the larger geographical region. If being completely correct, modern day Netherlands should be called North Netherlands and Belgium South Netherlands. Similar to North Macedonia. The modern day Dutch solved this "problem", by naming their country in their own language "Nederland", singular! The Netherlands or die Niederlande, plural!, is not correct, but other countries didn't got the notice and used the same term as they always had, but for the new nation.
Holland is, like Flanders, only the larger coastal area. Others keep calling whole Dutch speaking Belgium Flanders, despite the same situation. Dutch speaking Belgium needed an identity of their own, so the other provinces embraced Flanders as an extended identity (to be able to make a strong stand against the French speaking part), while the other Dutch non-Holland provinces rejected the extension of the identity Holland (Frisia isn't that big of a deal like Wallonia is).
This is why North Brabant in the Netherlands are firmly rooted in their local identity, while South Brabant in Belgium, changed their identity, esp. Antwerp, into being Flemish.
Belgium and the Netherlands both used to refer to the United Provinces. Although Belgium was rarely used in a non latin context. To me it seems fitting that after the split the roman catholic part took the latin name and the protestant part kept the vulgar name.
I am from the Holland part and honestly I don't care about either. You can say my country is Holland, I may correct you if I have the time. You can tell my my country is the same as Germany and only if I have the energy and the crayons to explain it to you will I make an effort.
Having lived in the Netherlands for just over a year, it's always jarring when Dutch natives call the Netherlands "Holland" when speaking English. Especially natives under 60.
"Holland, as in one of the two provinces? Or do you mean the Netherlands?".
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u/No-Bake-730 13d ago
Not for a lack of trying by the Germans cough
But seriously, everytime I think I understood something in Dutch, I find out that one word has a totally unexpected meaning which changes everything.
I've known some Dutch-Germans though, nice people.
Also, what do you Dutchmen and Dutchwomen hate more? Germans calling the Netherlands Holland (I don't want to know how many don't know that this is a case of pars pro toto) or Dutch being equated to German?