Dutch (redirected from dutches)

Dutch

1. the language of the Netherlands, belonging to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family and quite closely related to German and English

2. the Dutch the natives, citizens, or inhabitants of the Netherlands

3. See Pennsylvania Dutch

---

Dutch 

a nation (natsiia, nation in the historical sense), the principal inhabitants of the Netherlands. They number approximately 12.6 million (1970, estimate). In addition, approximately 1 million Dutch live in the USA, Canada, the West Indies, Indonesia, and other countries. They speak Dutch. The majority of believers are Protestants (Calvinists and others); there are Catholics, Baptists, and others as well.

The nucleus of the Dutch nationality, which was formed in the 14th and 15th centuries, was composed of Germanic tribes of Frisians, Batavi, Saxons, and Franks, mixed with Celts, all of whom lived in the historical area of Holland in the early Middle Ages. The bourgeois revolution of the 16th century in the Netherlands and the national liberation movement against Spain, promoted the national consolidation of the Dutch people. Regional ethnographic differences among the Dutch are now insignificant. The majority of the Dutch are engaged in industry. The rural population forms a relatively small part of the total population and is engaged mainly in livestock raising, truck farming and floriculture and, in the coastal regions, in fishing. The Flemings, living in the southern provinces of the country, are very closely related to the Dutch in language, origin, and culture.

REFERENCES

Narody zarubezhnoiEvropy, vol. 2.Moscow, 1965.(Bibliography.)
Byvanch, A.W. Nederland in den romeinschein tijd, parts 1–2.Leiden, 1943.
Barnouw, A.J. Dutch: A Portrait Study of the People of Holland. Oxford, 1940.

I. N. GROZDOVA

---

Dutch 

the official language of the Netherlands and one of the two official languages of Belgium; also spoken in the USA and the West Indies. Dutch is spoken by approximately 14 million people (1970, estimate).

Dutch belongs to the West Germanic group of the Indo-European language family. It has the following dialects: northwestern (North Dutch), south central (Brabantine and East Flemish), southwestern (West Flemish and Zeeland), northeastern (Saxon), and southeastern (Limburg).

Phonetic features of Dutch include the presence of the voiceless plosive consonants p, t, and k and an abundance of diphthongs. Stress is dynamic, falling usually on the root syllable. Dutch is an analytic language. Its declensional system has few inflections: nouns are inflected in the common and possessive cases, and personal pronouns are inflected in the subject and object cases. A common gender, opposed to the neuter gender, has evolved from the masculine and feminine genders. Adjectives are not declined. Verbs have two simple and six compound tenses, two voices (active and passive), and three moods (indicative, imperative, and subjunctive). A single supradialectal literary language was formed in the 17th century. However, there are regional differences in the written and spoken forms of the literary language. Dutch uses the Latin alphabet.

F. Engels’ work The Frankish Dialect (1st ed., 1935) pointed out the most important problems in the diachronic study of the Dutch language, and also treated questions of Dutch phonetics, morphology, and lexicology.

REFERENCES

Engels, F. ”Frankskii period.” In K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 19.
Mironov, S. A. Niderlandskii (gollandskii) iazyk. Moscow, 1965.
Mironov, S. A. Morfologiia imeni ν niderlandskom iazyke. Moscow, 1967. (Contains a bibliography.)
Mironov, S. A. Stanovlenie literaturnoi normy sovremennogo niderlandskogo iazyka. Moscow, 1973.
Franck, J. Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed. The Hague, 1930. (Supplemented by C. B. van Haeringen, 1936.)
Fonologie van het Nederlands en het Fries. The Hague, 1959.
Haeringen, C. B. van. Netherlandic Language Research, 2nd ed. Leiden, 1960.
Schönfeld, M. , and Van Loey, A. Historische grammatica van het Nederlands, 7th ed. Zutphen, 1965.
Dale, Van. Groot woordenboek der Nederlandse taal, 9th ed. The Hague, 1970.

S. A. MIRONOV