Cookies, Coleslaw, and Stoops

The Influence of Dutch on the North American Languages

Nicoline van der Sijs

Cookies, Coleslaw, and Stoops

Nicoline van der Sijs

Distributed for Amsterdam University Press

384 pages | 100 halftones | 6 3/10 x 9 1/2
Paper $35.95 ISBN: 9789089641243 Published September 2009 For sale only in the United States, its dependencies, the Philippines, and Canada

From Santa Claus (after the Dutch folklore saint Sinterklaas) and his sleigh (the pronunciation of the Dutch slee is almost identical) to a dumbhead talking poppycock, the contributions of the Dutch language to American English are indelibly embedded to some of our most vernacular terms and expressions. In Cookies, Coleslaw and Stoops, the renowned linguist Nicoline van der Sijs glosses over 300 Dutch loan words like these that travelled to the New World on board the Henry Hudson’s ship the Halve Maan, which dropped anchor in Manhattan more than 400 years ago.

Lively and accessible, the information presented in this volume charts the journey of these words into the American territory and languages, from more obscure uses which maybe have survived in only regional dialects to such ubiquitous contributions to our language like Yankee, cookie, and dope. Each entry marks the original arrival of its term into American English and adds up-do-date information on its evolving meaning, etymology, and regional spread. Not to be missed by anyone with a passion for the history behind our everyday expressions,this charming volume is the perfect gift for the linguistic adventurer in us all.

Contents
Preface
 
1.   The Dutch language in North America
      1.0   "The last real speaker of the dialect"
      1.1   Dutch colonists and Native Americans
      1.2   The Dutch language on the American East Coast: Low Dutch
      1.3   Dutch place-names from the seventeenth century
      1.4   Dutch and double Dutch
      1.5   The American Dutch, American Flemish and American Frisian of nineteenth-and twentieth-century immigrants
      1.6   Dutch place-names from the nineteenth and twentieth century
      1.7   The Dutch language and culture in the US, anno 2009
 
2.   Dutch words that have left their mark on American English: a thematic glossary
      2.0   Introduction: sources and structure of the glossary
      2.1   Food, drink, and stimulants
      2.2   Flora and fauna
      2.3   Household effects and everyday implements
      2.4   Polity and citizens
      2.5   The American landscape
      2.6   Human traits and characterizations
      2.7   Religion and religious festivals
      2.8   In and around the house
      2.9   Trade
      2.10  Money and units of measure
      2.11  Children’s language
      2.12  Transport by sea and land
      2.13  Clothing
      2.14  Miscellaneous
      2.15  Dutch loanwords that did not originiate from immigrants
      2.16  Conclusion
 
3.   Dutch influence on North American Indian languages
      3.0   Introduction
      3.1   Delaware Jargon
      3.2   Amerindian languages that were spoken on the East Coast in the seventeenth century
      3.3   Thematic overview of Dutch loanwords
      3.4   Alphabetical survey of Dutch loanwords
      3.5   Conclusion
 
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index to the American English words in chapter 2
Review Quotes
Charles Gehring, New York State Library

“As a kid in New York’s Mohawk Valley I played along the laag kill, called out Kip, Kip, Kip! to our chickens at feeding time, talked to friends on their stoeps after school, and got winklehawks in my blue jeans from scrambling through barbed wire fences. It wasn’t until years later that I realized how many Dutch expressions survived in my dialect. This book is a linguistic treasure chest for anyone who grew up in the area covered by the Dutch colony of New Netherland.”

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