Double Dutch

The Netherlands and Great Britain are separated by a small sea. Geographically both are small countries who have punched above their weight, historically, due to their Navy’s. From a farming point of view you put sheep on hills and cattle on flat land, where they are less likely to break legs! So the wool trade between the two Nations became very lucrative. This led to Merchants relocating across the water. Veere, is a port town in the Netherlands that still has links with Scotland. Evidence of merchants moving the other way include, James Bond Author, Ian Fleming’s surname. Anyone with this surname are likely to have ancestors who were Flemings/Flemish-from Flanders. Dutch engineers helped drain the land in the East of England and due to the wealth of the wool trade, Norwich was once Britains biggest city.

 

 

However, when your neighbours become your economic rivals you make up stories about them. This has led to a few idioms that include the word “Dutch.” To go Dutch on a dinner date shows miserliness as both parties pay a share of the bill. Dutch courage implies that Dutch people are cowards, needing an alcoholic beverage to give them courage to fight! English and Fries are similar languages. Linguists debate which one informed the other. If you are incomprehensible you are talking Double Dutch…………………….. The word Dutch is a misunderstanding of Deutsch, meaning German! So English speakers are speaking double dutch when discussing people from the Netherlands. North and South Holland are provinces of the Netherlands, there is no country called “Holland”!!! And so it goes on…………

Done