Why we are called the Dutch.

[Crusader]

What's with your country being called "the Netherlands" when the people are called "Dutch"? Well, we'll have no more of this "The Dutch live in the Netherlands" nonsense! Either you live in Dutchland or the lot of you are Nethers!

And, guys, you aren't fooling anyone by taking the French flag and turning it sideways, alright?

-Lemmy

oooooh boy... here we go. History school. Note that I'm not familiar with ALL the inside matter and may make some mistakes here, ebcause as easy as the question sounds, the matter is quite complex, really.

Basically, we were once a fractured collection of duchies and provinces. At some point, they formed the Republic of seven united netherlands in an alliance. Netherlands (as a name) is chosen because we live in Low lands, below sea level, and half of the nation was once swampland next to sea, which was reclaimed and made into farmland. Later, we became the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is still it's current name, although it's called the netherlands for short. Holland is PART of the netherlands, it's made of 2 provinces on our western coast (North Holland and South Holland). However, because the netherlands was an adopted title, Holland was the commonfolk name for the nation. Officially, We're not named Holland. It's the name it's people refer to however. Historically, the two Holland provinces were the most powerful in the netherlands (and still are today if you look at population and economic strength).


As for Dutch, that's a bit more complicated.

Dutch is not only spoken in the Netherlands, but also in Flanders, parts of nothern France, around Dunkirk, Surinam and the Dutch Antilles.

The English word "Dutch" is a cognate to the Dutch word dietsch (meaning middle Dutch) and the German word Deutsch. All these words have the same etymological origin. Both these terms derive from what in Common West Germanic was known as theodisca, which meant "(language) of the (common) people". During the early Middle Ages, it was the elite that mostly used Latin and the common people used their local languages.

Note that We don't have a word like Dutch. it only exists in the english language. We refer to our own language as Nederlands ('Netherlandish'), and we refer to our regional dialects by the region's name.

Because the Dutch (the people) were never a nation before the forming of the republic, they had no common own language, instead they had a wide variety of dialcts. These dialects still linger on today, and are languages by themselves. If an American Language professor who studied Dutch comes here, and I spoke to him with my local dialect (Brabants) he would have an extremely hard time understanduing me. Then there are recognised seperate languages, like Frysian, which are even more alien to the 'standard dutch' which everyone also speaks. Local dialects are slowly fading away however. Later, after the forming of the republic, one common dutch language was devised.

Note that the Dutch are true linguists. In addition to standard dutch, we learn our local dialects (which is, as I said, often a language by itself when spoken in its pure form), and in school we all learn basic english. in addition to that, we all get 3-5 years of education in German and French. Some learn latin and greek in addition to that, at high education levels (age equivalent of high school, but high school is divided in different levels of education here). So a minimum of Dutch, English, german and French is taught to all normal dutch students, andin addition topt hat they get the local dialect from their parents, although those are not official languages, with the exception of for instance frysian.

hope that cleared things a bit up, the matter is somewhat complex due to our equally complex history.

Long story:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Netherlands

The flag:
The Dutch tricolour was first used in the second half of the 16th century when the Dutch provinces revolted against Spain. Their leader was Prince William of Orange. The flag was named "Prinsenvlag" ("Princeflag") after him. At first the flag was orange-white-blue, but later the orange stripe became red.
The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was established in 1581, but did not include the Southern Netherlands (nowadays Belgium and Luxembourg, which were united with the Netherlands 1815-1830). After the Eighty Years' War independence was recognised by Spain in 1648.
Mark Sensen, 28 February 1996

Most of the time under French occupation (1795-1813) Holland, called the Batavian Republic, had the same flag as during the Dutch Republic (end 16th c. -1795), and the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1813-1940 and 1945-now): horizontal red-white-blue. Even Louis Napoleon, King of Holland 1806-1810, maintained this flag, and Dutch history says he did a good job and tried his best.
Only in the early days of French occupation (when Holland was the Batavian Republic, 1795-1806) a horizontal red-white-blue flag existed with a canton showing the "Virgin of Holland", and during incorporation in France (1810-1813) the French tricolore (vertical blue-white-red) predominated.
Gerard van der Vaart, 26 January 1996

During the Second World War the red-white-blue was still the national flag, but its use was restricted by the German occupiers.

Official decree from Queen Wilhelmina:

Order in Council
19 February 1937 no. 93

We Wilhelmina, by the grace of God, Queen of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau, etc., etc., etc.


On the recommendation of Our Minister of State, Minister of Colonies, President of the Council of Ministers of 5 February 1937, No.486, Cabinet M.R.;

Have approved and understand:
to decree:
The colours of the flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands are red, white and blue.

Our Ministers, Heads of Departments of General Administration, are in charge of this resolution, which will be published in the Gazette.

Zell am See, the 19th February 1937.

(signed) Wilhelmina

The Minister of State, Minister of Colonies, President of the Council of Ministers,
(signed) H.Colijn

[[wcip]Angel]

I'm reminded of the first scene of season 9:

George: What is Holland?
Jerry: What you do you mean 'what is it'? It's a country right next to Belgium.
George: No that's the Netherlands
Jerry: Holland is the Netherlands
George: Then who are the dutch?

:lol:

- [wcip]Angel (who really has nothing to contribute but pop-culture references)

[LemmingofGlory]

You took me seriously? :(

-Lemmy
who not only read but wrote all of Wikipedia in a past life, especially the Netherlands articles

[kandrathe]

I'll never forget those nights in Haarlem, swilling warm Oranjeboom, singing what I guess was Nederlander with mobs of soccer hooligans in the local pubs. Isn't it interesting how multilingual we can become with the right libations.

[Munkay]

Interesting read, thanks for the explaination Crusader:)

Cheers,

Munk