Amerikaens

Amerikaens
Amerikaens
Pronunciation	[ɑːmɛr.ɛ.kɒːns]
Native to	New Netherland
Region	Northern America
Ethnicity	Amerikaeners
Language family	Scythian Germanic West Germanic Netherlandic Amerikaens
Early forms	Bergen Dutch Early Amerikaens Middle Amerikaens
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	New Netherland Tussenland South Tussenland Amerikaens Free State Opdamsland Boschland
Recognised minority language in	Mexico Panama City Colombia Saint-Domingue

Amerikaens (Dutch: Amerikaans) is a West Germanic language spoken over a dialect continuum spanning New Netherland, Tussenland, the Free State, South Tussenland and, to a lesser extent, Mexico and Opdamsland. It evolved from Hollandic, Zeelandic, and West Flemish dialects spoken by Dutch settlers in northern America, an example of which is Pavonia Dutch. The language developed a distinct identity during the 18th century and is the youngest of the Germanic languages, along with Afrikaans, spoken in southern Africa.

Today, the language is currently spoken over significant portions of northern America and is an official language of the Association of North American Nations. The Amerikaens Language Commission (Amerikaense Taelkomisie) is the official regulating body and central authority for Amerikaens, responsible for developing, preserving, and promoting the language.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k
	aspirated	ph	th		kh
	voiced	b	d		g
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ	χ	h
	voiced	v	z	ʒ		ɦ
Approximant		w	l		j
Rhotic			r

Vowels

	Front			Central			Back
	unrounded		rounded	unrounded	rounded
	short	long			short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	yː					uː
Close-mid		eː						oː
Mid	ɛ			ə	œ	œː	ɔ	ɔː
Near-open	æ	æː
Open	(a)			ʌ			ɑ	ɑː
Diphthongs	ɑi æi ɑu ɛu ɛi œu oːi ɔu ɔi

Sound to spelling correspondences

There are a total of 54 base graphemes in Amerikaens.

Vowels				Consonants
Grapheme	IPA			Grapheme	IPA
	checked	free			normal	final
a	/ɑ/, /ʌ/, /ɔ/	/ɑː/		b	/b/	/p/
ae	/ɑː/, /eː/			d	/d/	/t/
au	/ɑu/, /ɔu/, /ɔ/			dj, dsch	/ʒ/, /dj/
e	/ɛ/, /ə/, /æ/	/eː/, /ə/		f, ph	/f/
o	/ɔ/, /ʌ/	/oː/		g, gh	/χ/, /g/
ö	/oː/			h	/h/, /ɦ/
ai, aei	/ɑi/, /æi/			j	/j/
au(x), eau(x)	/oː/			k, ck	/k/
auw	/ɔu/			l	/l/
i, ie	/i/, /ə/, /ɛ/	/iː/		m	/m/
î	/eː/			n	/n/
îuw, ieuw	/eːu/, /iu/			ng	/ŋ/
ey	/ɛi/			p	/p/
eu	/œː/			r	/r/
oi	/ɔi/			s	/s/, /sj/
ou, ouw	/ɔu/			sch, sh	/ʃ/
ÿ	/ɑi/, /i/			t, th	/t/
ü	/uː/			tsj, tj	/tʃ/, /tj/
uy, üy	/œu/, /ɛu/			v	/f/, /v/
ue	/yː/			w	/w/
uw	/yu/			z	/s/, /z/

Vowel shift from European Dutch

The vowel shift in Amerikaens began in the mid-17th century in New Netherland, gradually developing until its conclusion in the late 19th century. Some dialects of Amerikaens, such as the Voor dialects of Tussenland, preserve European Dutch pronunciations.

Dutch	Amerikaens	Example		English	Notes
ɪ	ɛ	[ɪk] ik	[ɛk] ik	'I'
ɛ	æ	[wɛx] weg	[wæχ] weg	'Road'
ɑ	ɑ	[bɑŋk] bank	[bɑŋk] banck	'Couch', 'bench'
	ɑː	[ɑxt] acht	[ɑːχt] agt	'Eight'
	ʌ	[pɑt] pad	[pʌt] padt	'Toad'
ʏ		[lʏxt] lucht	[lʌχt] lught	'Sky'
o		[os] os	[ʌs] os	'Ox'
	ɔː	[ons]	[ɔːns]	'Us'
i	iː	[tin] tien	[tiːn] tîn	'Ten'
u	uː	[stul] stoel	[stuːl] stül	'Chair', 'seat'
eː	eː	[ˈne.ɣə(n)] negen	[ˈneː.χə] nege	'Nine'
	ɛə, ɛː	[neːr] neer	[nɛːr] nîr	'Near'
	iː	[eːn] een	[iːn] în	'One'	In dialectal speech.
aː	ɑː	[jaːr] jaar	[jɑːr] jaer	'Year'
	ɔː	[ˈɦaː.vər] haver	[ˈhɔː.fər] hafer	'Oats'
ɛi	ɑi	[ˈstrɛi̯kə(n)] strijken	[ˈstrɑikə] strÿcke	'To iron'
	æi	[vɛi̯f] vijf	[væif] vÿf	'Five'
œy	œu	[ɦœy̯s] huis	[hœus] huys	'House'

Orthography

Divergences from Dutch

Amerikaens orthography. first recognized as distinct in the mid-18th century, preserves many forms found in early modern Dutch. In 1910, orthography was officially standardized for literary and legal Amerikaens.

Dutch	Amerikaens	Example
aa	ae	Amerikaans	Amerikaens
ei	ey	Înheid	Înheydt
ui	uy	Fruit	Fruyt
ij	ÿ	Vrijheid	Vrÿheydt
uu	ue	Absoluut	Absoluet
ee	î	Eenheid	Înheydt
oo	ö	Voorland	Vörlandt
oe	ü	Daartoe	Daertü
m	mm	Komen	Komme
l	ll	Graal	Graell
k	ck	Boek	Boeck
d	dt	Stad	Stadt
f	v	Kalf	Kalv

Grammar

Amerikaens grammar gradually shifted from Dutch from the late 17th century up until the mid-19th century.

• In every Amerikaens dialect, noun and adjective genders do not exist.
• The het/de distinction is not present in Amerikaens, with <de> being the sole definite article in the language.
• In Amerikaens, the deletion of the final consonant or final <e> of a syllable (the coda) is formalized. For example, tevreden becomes tevrede, and zeide becomes zeyd.
• Corruption of middle-word consonants are also common, such as -tie into -sie (politie → polisie).

Pronouns and verb conjugations

English	Amerikaens	Dutch	Ik ben
			Singular	Plural
I	Ik/ äk	Ik	Ik ben	-
You	Jÿ	Jij, U	Jij ben
He	Hÿ	Hij	Hÿ is	-
She	Sÿ	Zij	Sÿ is	-
We	Wÿ	Wij	Wÿ is
It	It	Het	It is

Tenses

In Amerikaens, verbs do not conjugate differently depending on the subject.

ît (eat)

Tense	Amerikaens	Dutch	English
Infinitive	ît	eten	(to) eat
Present	Ik ît.	Ik eet.	I eat.
Past	Ik hab ît.	Ik at.	I ate.
Future	Ik wil/zhal ît.	Ik zal eten.	I will eat.
Past Progressive	Ik dîd ît.	Ik was aan het eten.	I was eating.
Present Progressive	Ik doe ît.	Ik ben aan het eten.	I am eating.
Future Progressive	Ik wil/zhal doe ît		I will be eating.

kück (cook)

Tense	Amerikaens	Dutch	English
Infinitive	kück	koken	(to) cook
Present	Ik kück.	Ik kook.	I cook.
Past	Ik hab kück.	Ik kookte.	I cooked.
Future	Ik wil/zhal kück.	Ik zal koken.	I will cook.
Past Progressive	Ik dîd kück.	Ik was aan het koken.	I was cooking.
Present Progressive	Ik doe kück.	Ik ben aan het koken.	I am cooking.
Future Progressive	Ik wil/zhal doe kück		I will be cooking.

Case system

Amerikaens preserves the possessive genitive case from archaic Dutch. Its survival may have been influenced by English.

Dutch	Amerikaens	English	French
De vriend van de man.	Des mans friendt.	The man's friend.	L'ami de l'homme.

Vocabulary

Main article: Amerikaens vocabulary

Tongue twisters

• Ik wil ît it if it is în weynig bît (I will eat it if it's a small beetroot).

See also

• List of languages
• Amerikaeners