Amerikaens

Amerikaens
Amerikaens
A page from a 1655 book by the first Director-General Adriaen van der Donck.
Pronunciation	[ˌɑː.meː.riːˈkɑːns]
Native to	New Netherland
Ethnicity	Amerikaeners
Language family	Scythian Germanic Dutch Amerikaens
Early form	Bergen Dutch
Dialects	Amerikaens dialects
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
Regulated by	Amerikaense Taelkomisie

Amerikaens (/ˌɑː.meː.riːˈkɑːns/) is a West Germanic language and daughter language of Dutch spoken primarily by Amerikaeners across a vast area of North America. It evolved from dialects of Bergen Dutch spoken in 17th century New Netherland, eventually developing several different varieties as well as a standard register over the following centuries. It serves as a primary and official language in the states of New Netherland, Tussenland, South Tussenland, the Free State, Opdamsland, and Boschland. Amerikaens is also spoken by minority communities in nearby Latino countries such as Mexico and Colombia.

The language developed an independent identity during the course of the 18th century. In the early 20th century, a common literary variety of Amerikaens was formally standardized in New Netherland and Tussenland. As a consequence, this register of Amerikaens is the predominant form of the language used in government, education, and literature today.

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

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 Amerikaens.

Dutch	Amerikaens	Example		Usage notes
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	Does not occur at the beginning of a syllable.
l	ll	Graal	Graell
k	ck	Boek	Boeck	Only occurs at the end of a syllable.
d	dt	Stad	Stadt
f	v	Kalf	Kalv

Spelling to sound correspondences

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/, /sχ/
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/

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 read as /tsi/ but has since shifted solely to /si/. It is reflected in modern Amerikaens orthography; for example, Dutch politie has become Amerikaens polisie (/pʌ.ˈliː.si/, lit. 'police').

Deletion of final sounds (coda) in Amerikaens is one of the defining features of the language. Final consonants and vowels, most commonly n and e, are elided and are also represented in writing.

• Dutch tevreden → tevrede (/təˈvreː.də/, lit. content, satisfied)
• Dutch zeide → zeyd (/zæit/, lit. said)

Grammar

Generally speaking, Amerikaens grammar is largely based on the grammars of early modern Dutch, English, and Flemish. It is often considered to have the simplest syntax and morphology of any continental Germanic language.

Amerikaens does not possess grammatical gender. As it was already waning in Dutch, gender was eliminated completely during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, likely sped up due to the language's origin as a lingua franca among diverse settlers as well as English influence.

Plurals

Amerikaens only differs between the singular and plural forms, much like English. The plural form is usually created by adding the suffix -s to a word. If a word already ends in an s, then an -en is added.

Dutch	Kinderen	Cijnsen
Amerikaens	Kinds	Cÿnsen
English	Children	Feudal tax

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
Proximal	dese
Distal	die
Possessive	dies	dier

Dese is equivalent to English 'this' and 'these', while die corresponds to 'that' and 'those'. Dies and dier translate to 'their's' or 'the latter's'.

Genitive case

Amerikaens preserves the possessive genitive case from archaic Dutch declension. Unlike in other varieties from the Netherlands, its survival throughout the late 17th century most probably was influenced by English.

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

Pronouns

Like English and Dutch, Amerikaens pronouns retain case distinction; subject (nominative), object (accusative), and possessive (genitive). Pronouns occur in a stressed form (often ending with ÿ) 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	Les	Leu
3rd plural, for an object	It		Its

The 3rd person plural forms les (/læ/) and leu (/lœː/) come from French les and leur, meaning 'them' and their' respectively. The practice was brought to New Amsterdam by French immigrants and was popularized in the late 18th century, eventually superceding the original Dutch 3rd person plural forms zij, hun, and huns.

Jul(s), the 2nd plural, comes from the Dutch jullie (from jij 'you' + lui 'people'). It is the equivalent of y'all('s) in English, which is used in parts of the United Kingdom as well as Virginia.

Verb tenses

Amerikaens is considered a tenseless language as verbs do not have morphological tenses (verbs 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	Example: ît(e)
		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

Main article: Amerikaens vocabulary

See also

• List of languages
• Amerikaeners