Three bits: borrowed, new, funny
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.
April 5th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
If I had that job posting in editable text form (and more time in which to procrastinate),
I would probably be calculating the actual proportion of Dutch to non-Dutch words in it.
I suspect that of the languages used in the ad, Dutch is a distant third after English and
middels, a non-word that’s popular in business jargon
(patterned after German mittels and inexplicably used instead of d.m.v.).
April 5th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Wow, mittels, German jargon voor…. jargon 🙂
April 6th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I am sorry to say that not only in Dutch the word kids is taking over. Here in England it has almost replaced children.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:38 am
There’s English in there? Perhaps English as spoken on the shelf.
April 11th, 2007 at 7:59 am
“De kids” is a phrase sometimes used by the kind of people who go camping yearly and stuff like that. I don’t like the word at all, just say “kinderen”!
Hardwaar… I laughed for like 10 minutes when I read about “hardwaar”. XD
April 11th, 2007 at 9:07 am
I really don’t like the word kids (I have 2 children myself). It makes me feel like children have become a kind of accessory, like a car or a bag, something to show off.
April 15th, 2007 at 11:10 am
For some people, unfortunately, it IS. 🙁
April 16th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
“Weg met de kids” could be literally translated with the joke in tact: “Away with the kids”.
April 18th, 2007 at 6:53 am
“Kids” sounds more modern, flashier (“vlotter”), more “popular”. To me, it sounds a bit ridiculous, but then I don’t have kids yet and I might get tired of pronouncing the 3-syllable dutch word soon.
April 19th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Isn’t it obvious why the word ‘kid’ is replacing ‘kinderen’?
The word ‘kinderen’ symbolizes what we call ‘huisje, boompje beestje’; a settled family, working 8 hours per day, watching TV on Saturday evening instead of going out. ‘kids’ sounds more hip, trendy, etc. It probably makes those people feel they’re still cool, hip, trendy, whatever, despite the ‘kinderen’.
(which is stupid of course)
April 19th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
If replacing words means actively shunning your culture in favour of another, how can someone possibly defend their own culture or even feel a sense of pride?
No wonder foreigners and imimgrants can’t get a hold on Dutch culture: if the natives don’t go native, why should they?
And I work more than 8 hours a day 🙂