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RE: [OM] Re: [OT] Dutch/Danish (was "Solvang")

Subject: RE: [OM] Re: [OT] Dutch/Danish (was "Solvang")
From: "Olaf Greve" <o.greve@xxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 10:04:01 +0200
Hiya,

Most interesting discussion :)

Many excellent elaborations have already been given, but a few more bits of
trivia that I missed in the post:
-As mentioned by Chris and Garth, Holland is indeed not the same as The
Netherlands, Holland actually consists of _two_ provinces (North Holland,
and... you guessed it: South Holland).
-Dutch and Danish are more similar than one would expect. Actually, just
like English, German and Dutch, Danish has definitely some Germanic roots,
though the language is not as close to Dutch as German is.
-Regarding jokes about the people from Friesland: yes, we do at times make
jokes about them. However, the people with whom we have "the joke thing"
more, is with the Belgians (more specifically, the Dutch make jokes saying
that the Belgians are stupid, and the Belgians in turn make jokes saying the
the Dutch are cheap). The "Fries" are notorious throughout the rest of The
Netherlands for being very stubborn. However, just like all Belgians I have
met were not stupid, the Fries people I have met were not stubborn either.
:)
-Regarding the usage of the words "Holland" vs. "The Netherlands": though
technically not correct, I believe most Dutch do not have big issues with
foreigners using the word "Holland". Often it is much easier when abroad to
simply use the word Holland as more people tend to recognise that. I found
that especially in Hispanic countries the word "Holanda" is used a lot,
whereas the technically more correct "Paises Bajos" is not recognised
equally often. Actually, this is very similar to many peoples (including
many Dutch people) referring to everyone from the UK by calling them
"English" (and not distinguishing between the Welsh, Scottish and English
(and at times they even mix the Irish in!)), as well as many people
referring to the USA as "America". Some people do take offence to these
mistakes, but at the end of the day, it is often easier to not pay too much
attention to these mistakes, and simply "see through" them. :)

Cheers!
Olafo


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