Development of a standard language

 

Language consciousness

In the seventeenth century the Netherlands were still an area with differing dialects but without an overarching standard language. These dialects can be split in three groups: southern dialects (Flanders, Brabant), eastern dialects and northern dialects (Holland province).

At this time the development of a new linguistic consciousness began in the Netherlands. The reconstruction of Dutch, initiated principally by the Chambers of Rhetoric, found support in very wide circles. The poet Joost van den Vondel wrote:

"Neemt hy voor in Nederduitsch, zijn moederlijcke tale te zingen; des hoeft hy zich zoo luttel te schamen als de Hebreen, Griecken, Latijnen ... Wat onze spraeck belangt, die is, sedert weinige jaren herwaert, van bastertwoorden en onduits allengs geschuimt, en gebouwt, en geeft den leerling nu veel vooruit"
["If he decides to sing in Dutch, his mother tongue, he needs to be no more ashamed of it than the Hebrews, Greeks, Romans ... As concerns our own language, in recent years it has been cleansed of loan words and un-Dutch usage, improved, and now gives the pupil great advantage"]
(J. van Vondel, Aenleidinge ter Nederduitsche Dichtkunste, 1650).

The first attempts to build up a general language were primarily in the southern Netherlands. Under the influence of radical political changes the centre of such attempts shifted from the south to the north. The Fall of Antwerp in 1585, the break between north and south and the accompanying stream of immigrants to the north, brought about the transfer of economic activities from south to north.

It is as if it was a new Wandering of the Nations towards the north; but it is not so much a question of the quantity but more of the quality of this group of immigrants that caused this northwards shift of the political, economic and cultural centre. Amongst the refugees were certain prominent scientists, printers and merchants. They continued their activities in the northern regions, and played an important (if not decisive) part in the success of the Golden Age of "Holland". These external factors strongly influenced the further development of Dutch as a standard language, since this only took place in the north, starting at the time of these changes in the seventeenth century.

Famous southern Netherlanders often also became members of Chambers of Rhetoric, and tried to breathe new life into "rhetoricianism" in the north too. The scientist Simon Stevin (1548-1620), the statesman Philips van Marnix van St. Aldegonde (1540-1598), author of the satirical Byencorf der H.Roomsche Kercke ["Beehive of the Holy Roman Church"], the famous scholars Daniël Heinsius (1580-1655) and Casper van Baerle (1584-1648), the painter and poet Karel van Mander (1548-1606), and the poet Joost van den Vondel (1587-1679), were all of southern origin.

Many of the southerners adapted themselves partially to northern language habits - Vondel for example did this consciously, yet his works still continued to show certain southern characteristics. Much changed in the field of education because of the influence of the teachers who had come from the south. They frequently brought their own teaching materials with them, and since they founded their own schools they had a very direct influence on language use. These groups had such a status that all their behaviour and beliefs were widely copied.

The standardisation of a language has three important characteristics: codification, function-spread and selection.

Codification

The codification of the language was a new phenomenon in the history of Dutch: the language itself became the object of scientific study. In 1584 the first Dutch grammar "Twe-spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst" appeared, written by Hendrick Laurenszoon Spieghel in collaboration with other members of the Chamber of Rhetoric in Amsterdam. But even before the appearance of the Twe-spraack there had been attempts to standardise the language; here we are thinking of the southern pioneer of Dutch lexicography, Cornelis Kiliaan in Antwerp, who compiled the first Dutch-language dictionary based on scientific principles. The "Dictionarium Teutonico-latinum" appeared in 1574. On the one hand this dictionary is important for the improvement of the language in that it collates the whole of the Dutch vocabulary. On the other hand Kiliaan's work is an important step towards the recognition of Dutch as being on a par with the "civilised" languages such as Latin and French. In the seventeenth century, valuing the features of the mother tongue became the starting point of many writers, rhetoricians and scholars who made the expansion and perfection of the Dutch language one of their most important tasks.

 

Function-spread

Perfection of the language also involves function spread, ie the spread of the mother tongue into various new areas. Until this time Dutch dialects functioned only as everyday languages and were therefore seen by science as being uncivilised.

The scientist Simon Stevin (see illustration) was the first to publish his scientific works in Dutch. He also gave his lectures in Dutch at the University of Leiden (see also language purification / purism).

The Dutch language was also advancing in politics. Hitherto French had been the language of business in civil administration. In 1582 the States-General decided to use Dutch rather than French in the majority of their documents.

 

Selection

The third important characteristic of the standardisation of Dutch is "selection". The selection of certain elements for the standard language is a long process of adding and rejecting regional features. The course of history determined that standard Dutch developed in the north, specifically in the province of Holland, under the strong influence of southern dialects (see also the historical background). However the eastern dialects had no prestige in the seventeenth century, and therefore contributed hardly anything to the expansion of the standard language. Dutch developed exclusively in the confrontation between southern and northern dialects and included both northern and southern elements in its expansion.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century Bredero took the language of Holland province under his protection against that of Brabant, by pointing out that the latter had its own aesthetic faults just as much as Hollands dialect did. In the preface to his Spaenschen Brabander (1618) he writes: "De Brabantsche Tale heb ick tot geen ander eyndt hier in ghevoeght, als om haare arme hovaardy an te wijsen, dat sy also wel haar lebbicheden heeft als de botte Hollanders..." ["I have included the Brabant tongue here for no other purpose than to show its poor pride, that it has ugliness just as does that of the uncouth Hollanders"]. In the Spaenschen Brabander the dialects of Amsterdam and Antwerp are both ridiculed. However neither of these dialects played a rôle in the establishment of the standard language. (see Van der Wal 1995: 33)

Vondel maintained in his Aenleidinge ter Nederduitsche Dichtkunste (1650) that "out Amsterdamsch is te mal, en plat Antwerps te walgelijck" ["old Amsterdam dialect is too ridiculous, and broad Antwerp dialect too nauseating"]. The present standard language did not just develop out of different dialects, but for its standardisation it looked to the Dutch of certain well-educated and influential people, particularly from Holland province and Brabant. Typically regional phonetic characteristics and morphological and lexical idiosyncrasies found no place in the standard language.

Vondel describes it in the Aenleidinge as follows:

Deze spraeck wort tegenwoordigh in 's Gravenhage, de Raetkamer der Heeren Staten, en het hof van hunnen Stedehouder, en t' Amsterdam, de maghtighste koopstadt der weerelt, allervolmaeckst gesproken, by lieden van goede opvoedinge.
(Van der Wal 1995: 33)

["This languages is at present spoken most perfectly in The Hague, the Council Chamber of the States, and the court of their Stadtholder, and in Amsterdam, the mightiest commercial town in the world, by people of good upbringing."]

The rhetoricians therefore played their part not only by their theories about the necessity of developing Dutch; as an influential group of writers, poets, merchants and officials, their version of Dutch had much prestige and was widely followed.

The quest for a general standard language dominated the whole of the seventeenth century, and continued right up to the twentieth century.