1.4K
Dear readers far and wide: I know there is a question that has lingered unanswered in your mind for a long time. It has caused you sleepless nights and restless days of wondering. Well, no more! Here is the answer! For your edification and entertainment, just watch this video and all will be revealed.
Since the Netherlands is my native country, I found this video rather amusing. One other thing: Some years ago Queen Beatrix abdicated the throne and now her son, Willem-Alexander, is king, the first king we’ve had in a 150 years. Since he has three daughters, the next time around the Netherlands will have a queen again.
* * *
Any thoughts? Comments? Criticisms? Go ahead, get it off your chest.
Loved the video!
I feel more confused now than I did before. 😉
A lot of Dutch are confused too!
The Dutch used to own here too…they fought with the English for years before the English won. But they left us canals, kokers, some villages with interesting names…and (according to locals) the baaaadest jumbies (ghosts) 🙂
Yes, and the Dutch hung around in Surinam (Dutch Guyana) for a while too. I remember when they became independent, but I think there is still a lot of Dutch stuff there as well, even a bit of the language I think. It is strange to see these “leftovers” sometimes. I remember when I lived in Indonesia, a former Dutch colony, and finding Dutch words in the local Indonesian language (a close version of Malay), like the Dutch words for zipper, and office, and things like that.
Oh, very interesting thanks for that. I thought I was quite worldly, especially given how close to the Netherlands I grew up. How embarrassing that I didn’t know the difference between the two names.
Actually, I learned something as well, one of the more obscure bit of information 😉
A marvelous video. Thanks for posting it. Curaçao is probably a Dutch variation of coração, meaning heart and pronounced with a soft or sibilant “c” (like an “s”, not a “k”). Did he just mispronounce it in the video, or do the Dutch pronounce the word with a hard “c”, despite the cedilla?
Yes, the narrator pronounced it incorrectly. The Dutch pronounce the second c as an ‘s’ and not like a hard ‘k’ but kudos to the guy pronouncing all the rest of the Dutch names so well. It’s not an easy language to learn, hear 😉
Thank you for that, very informative! I have often wondered where “Holland” came from as I knew nothing about the provinces. I think we should start a movement to call all countries by the names used by their citizens.
Quite funny indeed! The name Curacao (with cedilla) means heart in Portuguese or Spanish, who were probably the first to discover those Caribbean islands.
Where to start, Karen? Very funny and cleverly compiled. The only thing that puzzled me is that the narrator called Curacao “Coor-a-ko”, whereas in English it’s “Cure-a-say-o”. Assuming your man is correct, why is it always spelt with a cedilla under the second ‘c’? English doesn’t even have cedillas, of course, and c-cedilla is a French letter; is it a Dutch letter too?
A lovely country to visit, by any measure. Amsterdam is my all-time favourite city, probably because of its hospitality to me fifty years ago! And I’ve never met a Dutch person I didn’t like!