Only a few days ago editors Kristoffer Friis Boegh (University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, University of Aarhus, Danmark) and Peter Bakker (University of Aarhus) published the special issue of Scandinavian Studies in Language: Vol. 15 No. 2 (2024): Special issue: Pidgins, creoles, and language contact in Danish and Dutch colonial contexts.
No less than five articles are dedicated to aspects of Virgin Islands Dutch Creole, its history and metalinguistic matters:
Only a few weeks ago Peter Bakker (Aarhus University) informed me that Poul Olsen (Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen) found a Dutch Creole sentence in a police report. He published it as a reply to the Lingoblog article from January 2024 about the six newly found Berbice Dutch Creole sentences.
His reply, in Danish, is the following. The Dutch Creole sentence is made bold by me:
Poul Erik Olsen, 21 June 2024
Mægler Kreutzfeldts gengivelse af kreolsk: Rigsarkivet, København: St. Thomas byfoged. Sager til bytingsprotokoller 1790-1795. [8/340] J.H. Kreutzfeldt til politimester Stenersen, St. Thomas, 1. oktober 1790: Ifølge Deres Velbyrdigheds Forlangende er min efterskrevne Erklæring alt hvad mig er vidende om den udi Fortet arresterede Neger Phelix. Ved under den 12 September om Formiddagen imellem 12 og 1 at gaae need ad Byen, mødte mig frie Vagten med en Spansk Neger kaldende sig Juan Melise og da de kom ved Hercules Hassells Huus, kom ommeldte Neger Phelix dem i møde og betegnede da denne Juan Melise at det var Manden, hvorpaa Vagten gik med Neger Phelix ned ad Byen; Strax derpaa observerede at en Neger tilhørende Hr. Souffrain kom trekkendes med en Oxe ud af Hr. Hassells Plads, og dertil brugte disse Udtryk udi Creolsk (Ha, ha, tender ka thief you, men mi nu ka Krigh you Kanaille) disse Ord giorde mig Opmærksom, og gik derpaa hen og spurgte, hvad det var, hvorpaa der mig af en Barbarie blev svared at det var en Oxe som af en Neger, som Vagten gik med, havde stiaalet fra Hr. Souffrain og solgt til ham, og nu toeg Hr. Souffrain sin Oxe igien, hvorpaa jeg svarede at det ey kunde lade sig giøre, men at Oxen maatte forblive paa det forefundne Stæd indtil der var skeed Anmeldelse hos Hr. Byfogden, som da og skeede, derpaa forføyede mig need ad Byen, søgte PolitieBetienterne , men fant ingen, hvorpaa gik hen til Capt. Peter Tameryn, hvor Vagten var med forbemeldte Neger Phelix, jeg spurgte Capt. Tameryn, hvorfor han opholde og ey sendte denne Neger til Fortet, han svarede, at da Phelix havde declareret at Emanuel tilhørende Enken Madame Schwartzkopff var den der havde leveret ham Oxen, havde han sendt for Emanuel for der paa Stædet at examinere dem; Jeg sagde ham at her var ey Stædet til Examination, men at Hr. Byfgogden var ikkuns den, som dertil var berettiget, og at han kuns giorde best i at lade Negeren Phelix i fortet arrestere, hvilket han da og ordinerede sin Vagt til, jeg spurgte derpaa denne Neger Phelix hvorledes han var kommen til Oxen, han svarede mig , at Emanuel var komme og havde vogned ham ud af Søvn og sagt ham at han havde bragt en Oxe for ham fra Porto Rico, Jeg spurgte ham derefter om han ey vidste at Emanuel var en Slave og ey farede paa Porto Rico, det første besvarede ham med Ja! Men det sidste med Nei! Men at Emanuel daglig var vandt til at fahre, og blev bestandig ved at raabe paa Emanuel, ieg spurgte ham om den omtalte Neger Juan Mellise eller andre ey var med videre udi denne Sag som med Nei! aldeles besvarede, men at Emanuel, Emanuel, det var hans Mand; det haver nu viidere ligeledes hørt af Enken Madame Schmidts Negre at være blevet bekræftet, at virkeligen Emanuel er kommen og haver banket paa Porten for at opvogne Negeren Phelix, efter at han havde transporteret Oxen udi Savannen bag ved Hr. Friborgs Huus, og at Negeren Phelix have derpaa gaaet need ad Byen og siden kommen og med forhen meldte Barbarie som da og kiøbte bemeldte Oxe, hvorvel det var Nat og som da meget vel burde have vist at det var stiaalet Gods. St. Thomas, 1 October 1790 Ærbødigst J.H. Kreutzfeldt
This is a great find. The early sources of Virgin Islands Dutch Creole are mainly missionary texts by German or Danish translators and we only know a handful of texts which have a secular character. See for instance the following article in which seven newly found texts from the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Bøegh, Kristoffer Friis, Peter Bakker, Cefas van Rossem & Rasmus Christensen. 2023. “Seven newly discovered 18th and 19th century Virgin Islands Dutch Creole Texts”, in: Faraclas, N., R. Severing, E. Echteld, S. Delgado & W. Rutgers (eds) Caribbean Convivialities and Caribbean Sciences: Inclusive Approaches tot he Study of the Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the Dutch Caribbean and Beyond. Willemstad: University of Curaçao. pp. 93-116.
The most intersting one is probably the E-Samja farewell song from 1788 (Van Rossem & Van der Voort 1996: 224-226).
The Danish part of Kreutzfeldt’s report was only accessible for me with the help of Google Translate. The Creole sentence however, is clear and immediately gives context to the story of the stolen ox:
/ : ha, ha sender ka Thief you, men nu mi ka Krigh you Kanaille : /
Ha ha, 3PL PERF rob 2SG, but now 1SG PERF get 2SG, villain/rascal
‘Ha ha They have robbed you, but now I have got you, villain!’
Peter Bakker and Kristoffer Bøegh presented quite interesting information which clarifies the sentence, but also places it in its context. The spelling of Thief (instead of dief ‘to steal, to rob’) and you (instead of joe ‘you’) point to English as the language in which these words from Creole can be represented best. Peter Bakker mentioned that the use of Krigh (Dutch krijgen ‘to get’) instead of kri, which is the common pronunciation in the twentieth century, indicates the consonant at the end of the word was still in use. The use of men is somewhat unclear. I thought it to be a assimilation of manu (Dutch maar ‘but’ nu ‘now’) into men. My colleagues from Aarhus think that the use of Danish men ‘but’ is more obvious.
In Van Rossem & Van der Voort (1996: 227-229) some similar sentences from police reports are published, which were by the way found by Hein van der Voort and Poul Olsen. Although not dated in Die Creol Taal, I know from the photo copies they must have been found in the early nineteenth century reports.
Poul Olsen found this sentence like a needle in a haystack. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of pages of Police and other reports in the online archives of the Danish Westindies. Hopefully, many interested ones will also try to find some Creole sentences, for instance here.
Although the focus of the article is not on Virgin Islands Dutch Creole, I think it quite nice to see which discoveries were made in related Dutch Creole texts in the Caribbean. The following article (in Dutch) was published on the website Neerlandistiek.nl October 24, 2023. During the following day, Peter Bakker and Bart Jacobs have send several comments of which at least one should be included to complete the texts!
Een donders comike taal. Six sentences Berbice Dutch Creole from 1803 (updated version)
Only recently archive researcher Mark Ponte send me a link to a scanned letter from the Dutch National Archives. He assumed I probably already knew these sentenses. However: not so!
The letter was written on March 7, 1803, from Rio Berbice (in nowadays Guyana) by the Dutchman G.H. van Langen. In the letter it comes clear that he is from the Dutch town of Dordrecht. The addressee is his aunt Elisabeth de Loos, also from Dordrecht. The letter consists of three pages in which Van Langen writes about his ups and downs in the colony, about sending a monkey to his uncle in the Netherlands, and he also asks whether his aunt prefers a blue or a red parrot to be sent to her. My attentention was drawn to the following comment on the second page of the letter:
het is hier een donderse comike taal. de duivel magt dat volk verstaan. ik zal u van onderen in mijn brief een paar Reegeltjes Criools schrijven, dan zult UEd eens zien hoe een verdomde Taal het is, nog veel slimmer als hebreeuws of joods
Free translation: Here is a very comical language. The devil may understand that people. I will write some lines of Creole at the end of this letter. Then you will see what a damn language it is, even more difficult than Hebrew or Jewish.’
I really enjoy this kind of metalinguistic comments. Apparently the language sounds funny to him, but he also thinks the language is more difficult than Hebrew or Jewish.
In this quote we also see the oldest find of the word ‘Creole’ when it comes to Berbice Dutch Creole. In the oldest source of this language, a glossary in a travel report from 1794, Peter Constantijn Groen talks about ‘Berbician words’. It was published by Ian Robertson in 1994.
As promised, Van Langen presents some, six, sentences in the last paragraph of the letter, accompanied by the Dutch translations. With the help of three word lists (Kouwenberg 1994, Robertson 1989 and Robertson 1994) I was able to decipher the sentences and compare them to the translations by Van Langen himself.
Facsimile of the six Berbice Dutch Creole sentences (Van Langen 1803: 3)
1.
Van Langen, Creole: Een Pijve Daatje
Van Langen, Dutch: Een hartelijk groete (lit. ‘a heartly greeting’, ‘kind regards’)
Van Langen, Dutch: gij zijt een mooijen mijd (lit. ‘you are a beautiful girl’)
Kouwenberg: fu eke en moi jerma
gloss: for me a beautiful woman
3
Van Langen, Creole: Kom ja ja set a mooij
Van Langen, Dutch: kom Lieffie hoe h*…* gij het (lit. ‘Come, sweetie, how do you *have* it’)
Kouwenberg: kumu ? sete moi
gloss: come maid stay beautiful/good
4
Van Langen, Creole: Ikke zalle joe pioe m*o*sse bottje
Van Langen, Dutch: Ik zal u veel geld geeven (lit. ‘I will give you a lot of money’)
Kouwenberg: eke sa ju pi+ju musu boki
Gloss: I will you give+you much money
5
Van Langen, Creole: Joe soeke mooijen Couta
Van Langen, Dutch: wil je mooijen C*i…* (lit. ‘You want beautiful c*…*’)
Kouwenberg: Ju suku moi kuta
Gloss: you search beautiful beads/bead necklace
(6)
Van Langen, Creole: Pirke m[ij]<+ie> een Glas minjie
Van Langen, Dutch: Geef mij een Glas waater z*…* (lit. ‘Give me a glass of water z*…*.’)
Kouwenberg: Pi+eke mi en glasi minggi
Gloss: give+I me a glass water
The common words jerma ‘woman’ and minjie ‘water’ can be seen as a shiboleth to know this text is in Berbice Dutch Creole. These, but also some of the other words are unmistakenly derived from Easter Ijo, a language spoken in Nigeria’s Kalabari region in the delta of the Niger river. These words are not found in any other Caribbean language. Many, if not all, Caribbean Creole languages emerged from contact between European and African languages, however none of them shows so many words which originate from only one African language (Smith, Robertson, Williamson 1987).
Remarkable in sentence 5 is the word Couta, which appears as kuta ‘bead, bead necklace’ in Kouwenberg (1994: 633). It is also from Eastern Ijo. The use of it in this text immediately reminded me of the oldest text in Skepi Dutch Creole (Van der Wal 2013):
en sok kum kloeke dagka van noom die sitte bi warme lantta
‘And when the big day comes for the uncle who lives in the warm land’
En als um kom weeran bi Bikkelante
‘and when he comes again in the Netherlands (the big country?)’
Hom sel brengk van die 4 blabba moye goeto
‘he will bring for the four children beautiful goods’
Immediately afther this Skepi sentence in the letter in question, the writer provides the following metalinguistic comment:
is dit geen moye taal? Dog als UEd’ er niet uyt kan komen d’Heer Schalkwyk die hier in ’t land geweest is, zal zulks wel vertolken.
‘Isn’t this a beautiful language? However when you cannot understand it, mister Schalkwijk, who has been in the country, will translate it well.’
This Skepi sentence is therefore not an isolated ‘joke’, but a fragment of a language that could be spoken by at least one person in The Netherlands. Just like Berbice Dutch Creole was spoken alongside the Berbice and the Wiruni, Skepi (>Isekepi, Essequibo) was known in settlements along the Essequibo. I can hardly imagine that more family members of planters did not receive letters with similar language fragments.
The word goeto ‘good’ appears in the nineteenth-century description of the Skepi Dutch Creole by the English missionary Youd (1837, Jacobs & Parkvall 2020). But, could this perhaps also mean couta, kuta ‘string of beads’? The origin of the word blabba ‘child’ has not yet been found. However, according to Youd, kente is the word for ‘child’. Some colleagues thought of babbelaar ‘chatterbox’ as the origin, which I think is quite possible. In the Youd material by Jacobs and Parkvall (2020) I did find cabba ‘good friend’ and labba ‘agouti’, Sranan ‘kon’koni’, a rodent that is also referred to as rabbit in Surinamese Dutch. Could blabba be a related pet name?
In the available word lists of Berbice Dutch Creole I did not find the translation of ja ja (sentence 3) and at first I thought that it might mean ‘here’ (dja>En here), much like in English-related languages such as Sranan. The word in Kouwenberg (1994) which comes closest to ja ja with the meaning ‘sweetie’ is perhaps junggu ‘young’, or quite possibly jana ‘intimate contact’. Bart Jacobs emailed a very nice opportunity. In Papiamentu, yaya means ‘maid, housekeeper’. I think he is right and that he also establishes a link between the Creole languages in Guyana and those in the Leeward Antilles, just as there is a link between Virgin Islands Dutch Creole and Papiamentu.
Other recent findings
It is a great time for new discoveries of texts written in Creole languages related to Dutch. In 2020, Bart Jacobs (University of Krakow) and Mikael Parkvall (University of Stockholm) published a sensational list of words and phrases of the Skepi Dutch Creole. After publication on Neerlandistiek.nl (Sensationele nieuwe bron van het Skepi Dutch (ivdnt.org)) This discovery even made it to a Dutch newspaper and radio. A few months ago they published another article with newly found Skepi Dutch Creole material, again in Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages (Jacobs & Parkvall 2023).
Kristoffer Friis Boegh, Peter Bakker (both Aarhus University), Rasmus Christensen (University of Copenhagen) and I (Meertens Institute, Amsterdam) have just published seven eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Virgin Islands Dutch Creole texts. Most of them were found by Rasmus in newspapers from the former Danish Antilles (Boegh et al. 2023). One of the published texts deserves extra attention: the runaway ad by Bodo Hansteen (1817). It is a call to bring a fled enslaved person back to Hansteen.
Escaped from me a little boy/young person named Paaty. He/she is nine years and nine days old. Any people who can bring him into the fort [i.e., Fort Christian in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas] with the undersigned, I will give him three patakons (dollars)!! I hear he is in the high grasslands where the white mestizos keep him. (Boegh et al. 2023)
We find these advertisements in all kinds of Caribbean newspapers at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. A quick look in Dutch-language newspapers yields similar Surinamese advertisements and Roland de Bonth already referred to it in his treatment of the Dutch word Absenteer (De Bonth 2021). Enrique Corneiro (2018) published an enormous amount of ‘runaway slave adds’ that appeared in the newspapers in the Danish Antilles (now US Virgin Islands). Some of them indicate that the escapee speaks ‘Dutch Creole’, but the advertisements are generally in English. Hansteen’s Creole advertisement does not appear in this book.
What particularly interests me about Hansteen’s advertisement is that it was written in Dutch Creole in an English-language newspaper. English emerged in the northern Caribbean, especially after independence of the United States, replacing Dutch and Virgin Islands Dutch Creole as the main spoken languages in the Danish Antilles. For example, Hansteen’s text shows that it is still useful to use Virgin Islands Dutch Creole in an advertisement. However, which audience did he have in mind? Are freed people or enslaved ones who can read Creole his audience, the target group to capture escapees? Does he prefer to use Creole because he himself does not have a good command of English?
We can indicate the period of origin of Creole languages more or less precisely and the languages related to Dutch in the Caribbean can only have emerged after language contact in the seventeenth century between Dutch-speaking planters and enslaved people. Texts in and about these languages from this period not only present us insight into the process of emergence of the language, but also in how its use developed. Online databases such as those of the Dutch National Archives or the Danish State Archives can bring us close to the first stages of Creole languages by recognizing the snippets of Creole in the pieces, as Mark Ponte has done now in the case of Berbice Dutch Creole.
Sources
Langen, D.H. van. 1803, 7 maart. Letter to Elisabeth de Loos. Rio Berbice. 3 p. https://t.co/5RbKL19Xmg
Boegh, Kristoffer Friis, Peter Bakker, Cefas van Rossem & Rasmus Christensen. 2023. “Seven newly discovered 18th and 19th century Virgin Islands Dutch Creole Texts”, in: Faraclas, N., R. Severing, E. Echteld, S. Delgado & W. Rutgers (eds) Caribbean Convivialities and Caribbean Sciences: Inclusive Approaches tot he Study of the Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the Dutch Caribbean and Beyond. Willemstad: University of Curaçao. 93-116.
Corneiro. Enrique. 2018. Runaway Virgins, Danish West Indian slave ads, 1770-1848. Richmond: Triple E Enterprise. 112 p.
Jacobs, Bart, & Mikael Parkvall. 2020. ‘Skepi Dutch Creole, The Youd Papers’. In: Journal for Pidgin and Creole Languages, 35, 1, 360-380.
Jacobs. Bart & Mikael Parkvall. 2023. ‘Skepi Creole Dutch, The Rodschied Papers’. In: Journal for Pidgin and Creole Languages. Published online, 13 Juli 2023.
Kouwenberg, Silvia. 1994. A Grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Robertson, Ian E. 1989. 1989. ‘A comparative wordlist of Berbice Dutch, Skepi Dutch and Negerhollands’. In: Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 105. p. 3-21
Robertson, Ian E. 1994. ‘Berbiciaanse woorde’. In: T. Veenstra (ed), Amsterdam Creole Studies XI, 67-74.
Smith, Norval S.H., Ian E. Robertson & Kay Williamson. 1987. ‘The Ijo element in Berbice Dutch’. In: Language in Society 16, 49-90.
Om 12 uur ’s middags voor Scheveningen. Ongeveer 2 uur de pieren v. IJmuiden binnengevaren. Door allerlei oponthoud pas om 7 uur aan de Surinamekade, Amsterdam.
Via Wikimedia Commons: Surinamekade, prentbriefkaart, Collectie Stadsarchief Amsterdam: prentbriefkaarten, 1935.
Tussen 19 november 2022 en augustus 2023 toon ik op deze website mijn transcriptie van het dagboek van de expeditie van De Josselin de Jong; elke dag honderd jaar nadat het door hem in zijn notitieboek is genoteerd. Meer informatie is op deze website te vinden, net als zijn publicaties die online beschikbaar zijn.
This diary is of course not only of interest or importance for Dutch speakers, but especially for the people of the US Virgin Islands and the islands which were visited by De Josselin de Jong. This is why I try to use my spare time to translate this text into English.
De tekst is (voorlopig) zonder aanpassingen genoteerd en laten dus de taal en de opvattingen zien zoals die aan het begin van de twintigste eeuw gewoon waren. Verschillende pagina’s van dit dagboek zijn inclusief aanvullend materiaal door mij voorgelezen in de podcast Di hou creol en de desbetreffende afleveringen zijn via deze website natuurlijk nog te beluisteren en te bekijken.
Het dagboek wordt bewaard in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, in de collectie Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde:
Josselin de Jong, J.P.B. 1922-1923. Dagboek betr. expeditie naar de Antillen 19 Nov. 1922 – 24 Aug. 1923. 20 x 29 cm, 157 pp.
>EN: Diary on expedition to the Antilles. >UBL: Collection KITLV, signature: OR 385 (5-6).
Weer den heelen dag (tot 4 uur) in de stad geweest met de Rutishauser’s. Om 5.30 vertrokken.
Tussen 19 november 2022 en augustus 2023 toon ik op deze website mijn transcriptie van het dagboek van de expeditie van De Josselin de Jong; elke dag honderd jaar nadat het door hem in zijn notitieboek is genoteerd. Meer informatie is op deze website te vinden, net als zijn publicaties die online beschikbaar zijn.
This diary is of course not only of interest or importance for Dutch speakers, but especially for the people of the US Virgin Islands and the islands which were visited by De Josselin de Jong. This is why I try to use my spare time to translate this text into English.
De tekst is (voorlopig) zonder aanpassingen genoteerd en laten dus de taal en de opvattingen zien zoals die aan het begin van de twintigste eeuw gewoon waren. Verschillende pagina’s van dit dagboek zijn inclusief aanvullend materiaal door mij voorgelezen in de podcast Di hou creol en de desbetreffende afleveringen zijn via deze website natuurlijk nog te beluisteren en te bekijken.
Het dagboek wordt bewaard in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, in de collectie Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde:
Josselin de Jong, J.P.B. 1922-1923. Dagboek betr. expeditie naar de Antillen 19 Nov. 1922 – 24 Aug. 1923. 20 x 29 cm, 157 pp.
>EN: Diary on expedition to the Antilles. >UBL: Collection KITLV, signature: OR 385 (5-6).
’S morgens vroeg de haven binnen gekomen. Moesten hier tot Donderdagmiddag blijven. Met het echtpaar Rutishauser ben ik den heelen dag in de stad geweest. ’S avonds weer naar de stad en een 3e-rangstheater bezocht, vervolgens een cafe met muziek. Met een huurrijtuig weer terug naar de boot.
Tussen 19 november 2022 en augustus 2023 toon ik op deze website mijn transcriptie van het dagboek van de expeditie van De Josselin de Jong; elke dag honderd jaar nadat het door hem in zijn notitieboek is genoteerd. Meer informatie is op deze website te vinden, net als zijn publicaties die online beschikbaar zijn.
This diary is of course not only of interest or importance for Dutch speakers, but especially for the people of the US Virgin Islands and the islands which were visited by De Josselin de Jong. This is why I try to use my spare time to translate this text into English.
De tekst is (voorlopig) zonder aanpassingen genoteerd en laten dus de taal en de opvattingen zien zoals die aan het begin van de twintigste eeuw gewoon waren. Verschillende pagina’s van dit dagboek zijn inclusief aanvullend materiaal door mij voorgelezen in de podcast Di hou creol en de desbetreffende afleveringen zijn via deze website natuurlijk nog te beluisteren en te bekijken.
Het dagboek wordt bewaard in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, in de collectie Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde:
Josselin de Jong, J.P.B. 1922-1923. Dagboek betr. expeditie naar de Antillen 19 Nov. 1922 – 24 Aug. 1923. 20 x 29 cm, 157 pp.
>EN: Diary on expedition to the Antilles. >UBL: Collection KITLV, signature: OR 385 (5-6).
‘S morgens om 8 uur waren we te Plymouth. Koud: 16o. Om 9.30 weer vertrokken. Aanvankelijk harde wind en regen, later opklarend en ook minder koud. ’S avonds om 11 uur te Havre, waar we buiten den haven bleven liggen.
Tussen 19 november 2022 en augustus 2023 toon ik op deze website mijn transcriptie van het dagboek van de expeditie van De Josselin de Jong; elke dag honderd jaar nadat het door hem in zijn notitieboek is genoteerd. Meer informatie is op deze website te vinden, net als zijn publicaties die online beschikbaar zijn.
This diary is of course not only of interest or importance for Dutch speakers, but especially for the people of the US Virgin Islands and the islands which were visited by De Josselin de Jong. This is why I try to use my spare time to translate this text into English.
De tekst is (voorlopig) zonder aanpassingen genoteerd en laten dus de taal en de opvattingen zien zoals die aan het begin van de twintigste eeuw gewoon waren. Verschillende pagina’s van dit dagboek zijn inclusief aanvullend materiaal door mij voorgelezen in de podcast Di hou creol en de desbetreffende afleveringen zijn via deze website natuurlijk nog te beluisteren en te bekijken.
Het dagboek wordt bewaard in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, in de collectie Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde:
Josselin de Jong, J.P.B. 1922-1923. Dagboek betr. expeditie naar de Antillen 19 Nov. 1922 – 24 Aug. 1923. 20 x 29 cm, 157 pp.
>EN: Diary on expedition to the Antilles. >UBL: Collection KITLV, signature: OR 385 (5-6).
Zelfde weer. Temperat. 11 a.m.: 20o. 283 mijl. ‘Smorgens éen uur langzaam gevaren in de mist.
Tussen 19 november 2022 en augustus 2023 toon ik op deze website mijn transcriptie van het dagboek van de expeditie van De Josselin de Jong; elke dag honderd jaar nadat het door hem in zijn notitieboek is genoteerd. Meer informatie is op deze website te vinden, net als zijn publicaties die online beschikbaar zijn.
This diary is of course not only of interest or importance for Dutch speakers, but especially for the people of the US Virgin Islands and the islands which were visited by De Josselin de Jong. This is why I try to use my spare time to translate this text into English.
De tekst is (voorlopig) zonder aanpassingen genoteerd en laten dus de taal en de opvattingen zien zoals die aan het begin van de twintigste eeuw gewoon waren. Verschillende pagina’s van dit dagboek zijn inclusief aanvullend materiaal door mij voorgelezen in de podcast Di hou creol en de desbetreffende afleveringen zijn via deze website natuurlijk nog te beluisteren en te bekijken.
Het dagboek wordt bewaard in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, in de collectie Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde:
Josselin de Jong, J.P.B. 1922-1923. Dagboek betr. expeditie naar de Antillen 19 Nov. 1922 – 24 Aug. 1923. 20 x 29 cm, 157 pp.
>EN: Diary on expedition to the Antilles. >UBL: Collection KITLV, signature: OR 385 (5-6).
Aanmerkelijk koeler dan gisteren. [-*..*] Flinke bries uit ’t Z.W. 282 mijl.
Tussen 19 november 2022 en augustus 2023 toon ik op deze website mijn transcriptie van het dagboek van de expeditie van De Josselin de Jong; elke dag honderd jaar nadat het door hem in zijn notitieboek is genoteerd. Meer informatie is op deze website te vinden, net als zijn publicaties die online beschikbaar zijn.
This diary is of course not only of interest or importance for Dutch speakers, but especially for the people of the US Virgin Islands and the islands which were visited by De Josselin de Jong. This is why I try to use my spare time to translate this text into English.
De tekst is (voorlopig) zonder aanpassingen genoteerd en laten dus de taal en de opvattingen zien zoals die aan het begin van de twintigste eeuw gewoon waren. Verschillende pagina’s van dit dagboek zijn inclusief aanvullend materiaal door mij voorgelezen in de podcast Di hou creol en de desbetreffende afleveringen zijn via deze website natuurlijk nog te beluisteren en te bekijken.
Het dagboek wordt bewaard in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, in de collectie Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde:
Josselin de Jong, J.P.B. 1922-1923. Dagboek betr. expeditie naar de Antillen 19 Nov. 1922 – 24 Aug. 1923. 20 x 29 cm, 157 pp.
>EN: Diary on expedition to the Antilles. >UBL: Collection KITLV, signature: OR 385 (5-6).
Koel. 23o. Heel weinig wind, maar veel deining. 290 m.
23 Graden Réaumur is ongeveer 28 graden Celcius.
Tussen 19 november 2022 en augustus 2023 toon ik op deze website mijn transcriptie van het dagboek van de expeditie van De Josselin de Jong; elke dag honderd jaar nadat het door hem in zijn notitieboek is genoteerd. Meer informatie is op deze website te vinden, net als zijn publicaties die online beschikbaar zijn.
This diary is of course not only of interest or importance for Dutch speakers, but especially for the people of the US Virgin Islands and the islands which were visited by De Josselin de Jong. This is why I try to use my spare time to translate this text into English.
De tekst is (voorlopig) zonder aanpassingen genoteerd en laten dus de taal en de opvattingen zien zoals die aan het begin van de twintigste eeuw gewoon waren. Verschillende pagina’s van dit dagboek zijn inclusief aanvullend materiaal door mij voorgelezen in de podcast Di hou creol en de desbetreffende afleveringen zijn via deze website natuurlijk nog te beluisteren en te bekijken.
Het dagboek wordt bewaard in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, in de collectie Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde:
Josselin de Jong, J.P.B. 1922-1923. Dagboek betr. expeditie naar de Antillen 19 Nov. 1922 – 24 Aug. 1923. 20 x 29 cm, 157 pp.
>EN: Diary on expedition to the Antilles. >UBL: Collection KITLV, signature: OR 385 (5-6).
die creol taal 
Special issue of Scandinavian Studies in Language!
Only a few days ago editors Kristoffer Friis Boegh (University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, University of Aarhus, Danmark) and Peter Bakker (University of Aarhus) published the special issue of Scandinavian Studies in Language: Vol. 15 No. 2 (2024): Special issue: Pidgins, creoles, and language contact in Danish and Dutch colonial contexts.
No less than five articles are dedicated to aspects of Virgin Islands Dutch Creole, its history and metalinguistic matters:
Bøegh, Kristoffer Friis & Peter Bakker. 2024, Decmber 20. ‘Pidgins, creoles, and language contact in Danish and Dutch colonial contexts, a presentation of the special issue.’In: Bøegh, Kristoffer Friis & Peter Bakker (eds). 2024. Pidgins, creoles, and language contact in Danish and Dutch colonial contexts. Special issue of Scandinavian Studies in Language. Vol. 15, No. 2. 2024. Pp. 1-15. > Pidgins, creoles, and language contact in Danish and Dutch colonial contexts: A presentation of the special issue | Scandinavian Studies in Language
Rossem, Cefas van. 2024. ‘The suspicion confirmed, J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong’s 1923 linguistic fieldwork in St. Thomas and St. John on Virgin Islands Dutch Creole’ In: Bøegh, Kristoffer Friis & Peter Bakker (eds.). 2024, December 20. Pidgins, creoles, and language contact in Danish and Dutch colonial contexts. Special issue of Scandinavian Studies in Language. Vol. 15, No. 2. Pp. 16-55. > The suspicion confirmed: J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong’s 1923 linguistic fieldwork in St. Thomas and St. John on Virgin Islands Dutch Creole | Scandinavian Studies in Language
Stein, Peter. 2024. ‘Grammaticography of Virgin Islands Dutch Creole (Negerhollands) from the Danish West Indies, Oldendorp and Magens’ In: Bøegh, Kristoffer Friis & Peter Bakker (eds.). 2024, December 20. Pidgins, creoles, and language contact in Danish and Dutch colonial contexts. Special issue of Scandinavian Studies in Language. Vol. 15, No. 2. Pp. 180-197. > Grammaticography of Virgin Islands Dutch Creole (Negerhollands) from the Danish West Indies: Oldendorp and Magens | Scandinavian Studies in Language
Appel, Charlotte, Peter Bakker & Joost Robbe. 2024. ‘Initiating reading in Creole.’ In: Bøegh, Kristoffer Friis & Peter Bakker (eds.). 2024, December 20. Pidgins, creoles, and language contact in Danish and Dutch colonial contexts. Special issue of Scandinavian Studies in Language. Vol. 15, No. 2. Pp. 198-239. > Initiating reading in Creole: Contents and contexts of primers in the Danish West Indies, 1770–1825 | Scandinavian Studies in Language
Robbe, Joost & Peter Bakker. 2024. ‘A grammatical and graphematic comparison of five Creole primers from the Danish West Indies (1770-1825), with a preliminary phonemic inventory.’In: Bøegh, Kristoffer Friis & Peter Bakker (eds.). 2024, December 20. Pidgins, creoles, and language contact in Danish and Dutch colonial contexts. Special issue of Scandinavian Studies in Language. Vol. 15, No. 2. Pp. 240-288. > A grammatical and graphematic comparison of five Creole primers from the Danish West Indies (1770–1825), with a preliminary phonemic inventory | Scandinavian Studies in Language
Please visit this link: https://tidsskrift.dk/sss/issue/view/11790 to also see which other articles were published in this digital volume!
Hopefully I will soon have the possibility to get into these articles.
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Posted in Announcements and reviews, Danish sources, De Josselin de Jong, Magens, metalinguistic comments, Moravian Archives
Tagged caribbean, Dutch, history, language, travel