Amerikaens
Amerikaens ([ˌɑː.meː.riːˈkɑːns]) is a Netherlandic language of the Germanic language family widely spoken across northern America. It initially evolved from a number of Dutch dialects spoken in New Netherland during the 17th and 18th centuries, incorporating influences from immigrant languages such as English, French, and German varieties. It began to be widely recognized as an independent language during the late 18th century, leading to its gradual standardization.
Amerikaens | |
Pronunciation | [ˌɑː.meː.riːˈkɑːns] |
Language family | Scythian
|
Early forms | Duits
|
Dialects | (see dialects) |
Writing system | Latin |
Official status | |
Official language in | New Netherland Tussenland South Tussenland Amerikaens Free State Opdamsland Boschland |
Recognised minority language in | |
Regulated by | Amerikaens Taelkomisie |
Today, it serves as the official language of a number of Amerikaener states such as New Netherland, Tussenland, Boschland, and several others. Since 1910, the language had maintained a standard literary form promulgated by the Amerikaens Taelkomisie and codified in an official encyclopedic dictionary known as the Taelbück. The New Netherland accent is often considered the most prestigious form of the spoken language and thus is generally imitated in formal media and politics.
Nomenclature
Speakers of early forms of Amerikaens mainly referred to their language as Lîg Duyts ('Low Dutch', Leeg Duits in European orthography), a dated term referring to Low German and Dutch dialects. With the independence of New Netherland in the late 18th century, the term Amerikaens gained prominence in accordance with the rise of Amerikaener ethnic identity and the formation of a new national consciousness.
The Dutch term for the language is Amerikaans, while some English speakers may refer to the language simply as 'American Dutch', a term which has been deemed inaccurate and misleading by the Amerikaens Taelkomisie.
History
Varieties and distribution
Phonology
Since Amerikaens pronunciation differs greatly across the American continent, the prestige accent of New Netherland is often referred to as the standard. It has a native phonemic inventory of 25 consonants and 17 vowels, though the phonetic realization of them varies according to the speaker's socioeconomic, ethnic, and regional background.
Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Dorsal | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
Plosive | p pʰ b | t tʰ d | tʃ[1] | k kʰ g | |
Fricative | f v[2][3] | s z[4] | ʃ[5] ʒ | χ[6] | h[7] |
Approximant | w[8] | l[9] | j | ||
Rhotic | r[10] |
Front | Central | Back | Diphthongs | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | front | back | ||
Close | i iː | yː | u(ː)[11] | iw | |||
Close-mid | eː | o(ː) | |||||
Mid | ɛ[12] | œ œː[13] | ə | ʌ | ɔ ɔː[14] | œu | ɔw ɔi |
Near-open | æ æː[15] | æi | |||||
Open | ɑ ɑː[16] | ɑw ɑi |
Amerikaens vowel shift
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Amerikaens underwent a mostly qualitative vowel shift. Front short vowels were lowered, open vowels were backed or rounded, some vowels were lengthened, and two had experienced mergers ([ʏ] → /ʌ/, [ø] → /œ/) likely due to non-Dutch influences. In total, four vowels found in Dutch were either eliminated or never adopted ([aː], [ʏ], [ø], [ɪ]) in Amerikaens. Diphthongs had also changed during this process: [œy] to [œu] and ij [ɛi] to ÿ [ɑi]/[æi].
Dutch | Amerikaens | Example | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
ɪ | ɛ | [ɪk] ik | [ɛk] ik | 'I' |
ɛ | æ | [wɛx] weg | [wæχ] weg | 'Road' |
ɑ | ɑ | [bɑŋk] bank | [bɑŋk] banck | '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' | |
o | [oːk] ook | [oːk] ök | 'Also' | |
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' | |
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' | |
ø | œ | [nøːs] neus | [nœz] neus | 'Nose' |
œy | œu | [ɦœy̯s] huis | [hœus] huys | 'House' |
Orthography
Amerikaens orthography was first widely standardized by law in 1910 with the publication of the first edition of the Taelbück in New Netherland. Since then, the Taelbück has been considered the unequivocal authority on Amerikaens spelling in north America. Its conventions, derived mainly from old Dutch orthography, has also incorporated innovations by formalizing the use of diacritics.
Dutch | aa | d | ee | ei | f | ij | k | l | m | oo | oe | ui | uu |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amerikaens | ae | dt[17] | î | ey | v[18] | ÿ | ck | ll[19] | mm[20] | ö | ü | uy | ue |
The use of ö and ü has been controversial as they represent entirely different phonetic values in Amerikaens compared to all other Germanic languages, thus creating confusion. Numerous orthographic reforms have been proposed in order to address issues such as this. However they have all been rejected by the Taelkomisie, which has been characterized as a conservative institution in modern times.
Sound change
Lenition is prevalent in Amerikaens, especially affecting consonants in the middle of words. Most notably, it affects the suffix -tie. Initially, the suffix was realized as /tsi/ but has since shifted solely to /si/. Deletion of final sounds (coda) is also common; final consonants and vowels, commonly n and e, are elided. These changes are markedly reflected in modern Amerikaens orthography; for example, Dutch politie has become Amerikaens polisie (/pʌ.ˈliː.si/, lit. 'police').
- Dutch tevreden → tevrede (/təˈvreː.də/, lit. content, satisfied)
- Dutch zeide → zeyd (/zæit/, lit. said)
Letter-sound correspondence
Amerikaens uses a number of graphemes to represent sounds, including several digraphs, trigraphs, and quadgraphs.
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Grammar
Generally speaking, Amerikaens grammar is largely based on the grammars of early modern Dutch, English, and Flemish. It is often considered to have one of the, if not the simplest syntax and morphology of the Germanic languages. The loss and simplification of several features is usually attributed to the language's early role as a lingua franca between several ethnolinguistic groups.
Nouns
Amerikaens only differs between the singular and plural forms, much like English. The plural form is usually created by the addition of the suffix -s. If a word already ends in an s, then an -en is added to signify plurality.
- kind 'child' → kinds 'children'
- cÿns 'feudal tax' → cÿnsen 'feudal taxes'
Amerikaens preserves the possessive genitive case from archaic Dutch declension unlike other Netherlandic varieties. Its survival beyond the late 17th century most probably was influenced by English.
- Dutch de vriend van de man lit. 'the friend of the man' → Amerikaens des mans friendt lit. 'the man's friend'
Pronouns
Like Dutch, Amerikaens pronouns retain case distinction; subject (nominative), object (accusative), and possessive (genitive). Pronouns occur in a stressed form and an unstressed form (shown in brackets). The stressed form retains the whole original vowel and is used mainly in formal situations or when distinction is necessary.
Person | Subject | Object | Possessive |
---|---|---|---|
1st singular | Ik ('k) | Mÿ (me) | Mÿn (men) |
2nd singular | Jÿ (je) | Jou (ju) | Jouw (juw) |
3rd singular, masculine | Hÿ (he) | Hem (em) | Hÿs (hes) |
3rd singular, feminine | Sÿ (se) | Her (er) | Hers (ers) |
1st plural | Wÿ (we) | Ons | |
2nd plural | Jul | Juls | |
3rd plural, for a person | Hun | Huns | |
3rd plural, for an object | It | Its |
Determiners
Only two articles, a definitive (de) and an indefinitive (în), exist in Amerikaens. They may be inflected in the genitive form (for example, Koninckrÿck der Nederlands lit. 'Kingdom of the Netherlands').
Singular | Plural | Indefinite | |
---|---|---|---|
Nominative | de | în ('n) | |
Genitive | des | der | îns ('ns) |
Demonstratives are words used to distinguish entities being referred to. As grammatical gender does not exist, there are only four demonstrative determiners in Amerikaens. Proximal indicates that the entities are close to the speaker, while distal incidates that they are far away.
Singular | Plural | English | |
---|---|---|---|
Proximal | dese | 'This', 'these' | |
Distal | dat | 'That', 'those' | |
Possessive | dies | dier | 'Their's', 'the latter's' |
Verbs
Amerikaens is considered a tenseless language as verbs do not have morphological tenses; they do not conjugate or inflect. The infinitive form of the verb is complimented by a pronoun and an auxiliary verb to indicate different tenses.
Tense | Form | Amerikaens | Dutch | English |
---|---|---|---|---|
Infinitive | Ît(e) | Eten | (To) eat | |
Present | Pronoun + verb | Ik ît | Ik eet | I eat |
Past | Pronoun + hab + verb | Ik hab ît | Ik at | I ate |
Future | Pronoun + zhal + verb | Ik zhal ît | Ik zal eten | I will eat |
Continuous aspect | ||||
Present | Pronoun + dü + verb | Ik dü ît | Ik ben aan het eten | I am eating |
Past | Pronoun + dîd + verb | Ik dîd ît | Ik was aan het eten | I was eating |
Future | Pronoun + zhal dü + verb | Ik zhal dü ît | — | I will be eating |
Vocabulary
Amerikaens vocabulary is predominately Germanic in origin with significant Latinate and indigenous American influences. The language has also adopted numerous terms from Corean, Chinese, as well as Slavic and Semitic languages following waves of immigration to Amerikaener northern America in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some varieties of Amerikaens may show marked influence from a particular language; for example, 20% of the lexicon of Free Stater Amerikaens derives from Spanish.
Notes
- ^ /tʃ/'s allophones include [tɕ], [dʒ], and [c], while /ʃ/ can be realized as [ɕ].
- ^ While the majority of speakers tend to devoice voiced consonants in final position, a significant portion of Amerikaens speakers retain them. This can be attributed to the loss of Dutch assimilation rules in some dialects and sociolects.
- ^ /χ/ formed as a merger of the original Dutch phonemes [ɣ] and [x]. Before the semi-vowel /j/, it can be fronted to [ç].
- ^ /h/ has two allophones, [h] and [ɦ].
- ^ The Dutch /ʋ/ split into phonemes /w/ and /v/ in Amerikaens.
- ^ Amerikaens speakers of a Slavic background often velarize /l/ as [ɫ] more than others.
- ^ /r/ has numerous allophones; [r], [ʁ], [ɹ] and [ɾ].
- ^ Allophones of /u/ include [u], [uː], and [ʊ].
- ^ A process of front vowel lowering occured in Amerikaens. Dutch [ɪ] lowered to [ɛ], [ɛ] to [æ]
- ^ Dutch [ø] and [œ] have lost distinction, with both having phonemically merged into /œ/.
- ^ Dutch /aː/, a development of the late 17th century, corresponds to phonemes /ɑː/ and /ɔː/ in Amerikaens. This phonological feature, characteristic of the southern Netherlands, was brought to the Amerikaener world by the earliest settlers.
- ^ Occurs in word-final position.
- ^ Occurs in word-medial and word-final position.
See also