Cookies, Coleslaw, and Stoops
The Influence of Dutch on the North American Languages
Distributed for Amsterdam University Press
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.
“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.”
Language and Linguistics: Language Studies
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