Giving kids an unambiguous start in life
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)
Tags: children, daycare centres, kids, signs, toddlers
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:53 pm
‘Heppie’ is awful! It isn’t even a play on words, like ‘kits’ is, because ‘heppie’ is used in Dutch where ‘heb je’ is meant (do you have); what a name for a childrens day care centre is that? ‘Kits’ is great though, the Dutch meaning springs to mind first (at least for me as a native dutch speaker) and just after that I realised it refers to ‘kids’ as well. Really nice.
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:15 pm
“Kindergarden” (from the german “kindergarten”), “Toeties Tender Care”, “De Community School”, “Alles Kids”, “Alles Kidz” etc. they all exist. For some reason daycare centre names are more prone to Dunglish 😉
December 3rd, 2007 at 9:56 am
All those names exist? How scary. Not very original…!
December 4th, 2007 at 12:47 am
not strictly related to children, but anyway…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92884174@N00/2084549351/
this is inside the Burger’s Zoo, Arnhem.
(Pinguin=Dutch; Penguin=English)
December 4th, 2007 at 8:47 am
It still counts as ‘bastard Dutch’, thanks!
December 4th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Flinstones should be Flintstones….
December 4th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
How cheesy :p
December 4th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Gotcha for Flintstones 🙂
January 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am
The Dutch language is threatened by its own people… so true! 🙁
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I suspect that “heppie” might be inspired by Joke Van Leeuwen’s famous poem…
http://www.muurgedichten.nl/leeuwen.html
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Hey! I like your post “Giving kids an unambiguous start in life” so well that I like to ask you whether I should translate into German and linking back. Answer welcome. Greetings Kroatien