Dunglish

Bas, who sent this all in, is absolutely right: you could manage to come up with acceptable excuses for the first two photos, but not the last one.

‘Kits’ could be a play on bad Dutch pronunciation of ‘kids’ or refer to the Dutch word ‘kits’, found in the expression “Alles kits” (“Everything’s alright”).

The second one is a Duchtification of the name ‘Pebbles’, presumably of The Flintstones cartoons, which is just fine.

Number three (‘Het Toddler’s Huis’) doesn’t work because the English word is sandwiched between two Dutch words in turn bastardizing the Dutch spelling rules. Kids and bastards are not a good combo.

And then if you’re still not convinced, Bas also found a daycare centre in his hometown called ‘Heppie’, which is the Dutch pronunciation and Dunglish spelling of the word ‘happy’. To the English ear, it could sound more like ‘hippie’, but in any case, it’s Dunglish.

As I was explaining to people over drinks and after a few myself the other day, the Dutch language is threatened by its own people and an interpretation of their Anglo-Saxon media consumption.

(Photos: Bas)

The quartet over at Taalpuristen posted this a while back and since I missed it, maybe some of you did as well. Oh, and I know people who work for this company and read my blog. This bit’s for you and don’t forget to look over your shoulder in case the boss shows up.

A new Dunglish word: ‘Hardwaar’ – The non-plant items of a gardening centre, like gnomes and stuff. Sprucing up one’s job is what that is.

There’s a Dutch website called ‘Weg met de kids’, which suggests places to go with your kids, although in Dutch it could also mean ‘get rid of your kids’. Wait a minute, maybe there’s something to it after all! Point is, ‘kids’ has almost replaced the Dutch word ‘kinderen’ for reasons no one can explain.