Amerikaens

Amerikaens (Dutch: Amerikaans, French: Langue amérikaense) 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. Today, the language is currently spoken over significant portions of north America and is an official language of the Association of North American Nations.

It evolved from Hollandic, Zeelandic, and West Flemish dialects spoken by Dutch settlers in northern America, an example of which is Pavonia Old Dutch. The language developed a distinct identity during the 18th century and is the youngest of the Germanic languages along with Afrikaans.

History

Proto-Amerikaens dialects (1620-1700)

Preliminary Romance influence

Among the earliest settlers in New Netherland were Romance-speaking Walloon immigrants. During the genesis of the Amerikaens language and the Amerikaener ethnicity, several Walloon and French words entered the Amerikaens lexis, mostly words relating to family and household. Examples of these include koetoe (knife; from couteau) and tapie (carpet; from tapiz).

Geographic distribution

Regulation

The Amerikaens Language Commission (Amerikaens: Amerikaense Taelkomisie) is the official regulating body of the Amerikaens language, and the central authority tasked with developing, preserving, and promoting Amerikaens.

Orthography

Major changes from Continental Dutch

In many cases older orthography and spelling is preserved from early modern Dutch. Some regions in Tussenland did not adopt Amerikaner orthography before it was standardized in 1910. As a result, some words of historical value retain their Hollandic spelling. An example of this is the city of Eenheydwyck, which is not written as Înheydswÿck.

• ei → ey (înheid (unity) → înheyd)
• k → ck    (boek → boeck), only when occurring at the end of the syllable
• aa → ae   (Amerikaans → Amerikaens)
• ui → uy   (fruit → fruyt)
• ij → ÿ    (vrijheid → vrÿheyd)
• d  → dt   (stad → stadt), only when at end of syllable
• f → v (kalf → kalv), onlf at the end of words
• In other cases double vowels (long vowels) are reduced and replaced with by a vowel with a diacritic.
• oo → ö (Voorlandt → Vörlandt)
• uu → ue
• ee → î
• oe → ü
• Yet in other cases constants are doubled.
• m → mm (Komen → Komme)
• l → ll

Grammar

In all Amerikaens dialects, noun and adjective genders are removed. For example, the 'the' article in Amerikaens would simply be 'de' for all nouns, eliminating the European de/het distinction altogether. This is one feature of a series of grammar shifts in Amerikaens that was finalised in the mid-19th century.

The last letter of suffixes are often dropped. In words that end in -en (excluding en and een), the -n is dropped in most cases (tevreden → tevrede). In words that end in -de (excluding de) the e is oft dropped (zeide → zeyd, zijde → zÿd).

Corruption of middle-word consonants are also common, such as -tie into -sie (politie → polisie).

Pronouns and verb conjugations

Pronouns and Verb Conjugations
English	Amerikaens	Dutch
			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. The sentence 'de vriend van de man' in Continental Dutch becomes 'des mans vriend' in Amerikaens. Historians & linguistics often debate whether the retaining of this case was a linguistic feature adopted from English.

Vocabulary

Main article: Amerikaens lexicon

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
• Amerikaens lexicon
• Amerikaener