Why are Hollanders/Netherlands natives called "Dutch"? | Thread profile

...instead of "Hollanders" or "Netherlanders"? And while we're at it, why is Flanders so named? It's the Flemish who live there, so why don't they call it Flemingland, or Flemishland, or Flemland. Or, conversely, why are natives of Flanders not called Flanderites, or something?

Dutch is obviously a form of Deutsch or German. Sorry, no cite, but I read in one of my books on languages that the English originally called all people speaking German (or a facsimile thereof) Dutch-speaking people, and eventually the name became applied solely to their main German-speaking 17th century rivals in mastery of the seas, the people from the Netherlands. P.S. The name that ...

Quote: Originally Posted by Oxford English Dictionary OTeut. *þeudisko-z, meant ‘popular, national’, f. OTeut. *þeudâ-, Goth. þiuda, ON. þjóð, OS. thioda, thiod, OE. þéod (ME. THEDE), OHG. diota, diot, people, nation. In Germany, the adj. was used (in the 9th c.) as a rendering of L. vulgaris, to distinguish the ‘vulgar tongue’ from the ...

IIRC, and until someone who actually is Dutch shows up: They call their language Hollands . A person from The Netherlands is a Nederlander , and I think one who comes from the Province of Holland can also be called a Hollander . I do know for sure that the latter is a family name, suggesting that it's another example of the time-honored and ubiquitous practice in Germanic countries ...

But that just invites the follow-up question; if we're (English speakers) going to call them "Dutch", why don't we go all the way and call their country "Dutchland", or "Dutchsylvania"*, or somesuch? *I realize that since the region is not known for being heavily covered with forests, "Dutchsylvania" would not be very appropriate.

Speakers of Plattdeutsch, the Germanic tongue that did not go through the second sound shift which Hochdeutsch did, were spread from Pomerania to Picardy along the Baltic-North Sea littoral and for some distance inland. In the states that coalesced into Germany (Deutschland), a Hochdeutsch dialect based on a coalescence of Hessian and Brandenburger dialects became the national standard and ...

Quote: Originally Posted by kaylasdad99 But that just invites the follow-up question; if we're (English speakers) going to call them "Dutch", why don't we go all the way and call their country "Dutchland", or "Dutchsylvania"*, or somesuch?. Because language is not required to be consistent.

Quote: Originally Posted by Polycarp The Flanders/Fleming dichotomy is not so great in Flemish: Vlaanderen/Vlaamings. And "Vlaamse", which became "Flemish" when Anglicised.

Quote: Originally Posted by Colophon And "Vlaamse", which became "Flemish" when Anglicised. Good point. "Vlaamings" = noun, [the] Flemish [language] "Vlaamse" = adjective, "Flemish", "of or related to matters pertaining to Flanders and its natives"

By the way, in answer to a related question not yet asked: "Holland" for the Netherlands is the result of synecdoche: the predominant state in the United Provinces, the one where The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Haarkem were all located, became used for the country as a whole. An almost precise parallel exists in American English, where "England" is used as shorthand for "the United ...