At the moment the study of Virgin Islands Dutch Creole gets boosts from both sides of the Atlantic. On the US Virgin Islands, Gylchris and Gilbert Sprauve (in coöperation with Peter Stein and me) work on a book with dialogues in Dutch Creole. More about it in near future.
In Europe, at the moment the University of Aarhus is the beating heart. Historian Rasmus Christensen (University of Copenhagen) and linguist/creolist Peter Bakker (Aarhus University) have discovered seven eighteenth and nineteenth century short texts which add interesting information to the history of Virgin Islands Dutch Creole, and especially to the use of the language in newspapers. Recently an article about these texts was published by Kristoffer Friis Boegh (Aarhus University), Peter Bakker (Aarhus University), Rasmus Christensen (University of Copenhagen) and me.
All texts are interesting, but the following is perhaps the most moving. In Enrique Corneiro’s 2018 book Runaway Virgins, Danish West Indian slave adds, several advertisements contain information about the enslaved people being speakers of Dutch Creole. However none of the ads is written in Creole. Rasmus Christensen found the following text (Hansteen, B. (1817, January 23). ‘Notichi’. St. Thomæ Tidende. http://hdl.handle.net/109.3.1/uuid:05863d96-89b4-4272-8dd1-7d91bf06385d)
Escaped from me a small youngster/boy named Paaty. He/she is nine years and
nine days old. Any person/people who are able to bring him/her inside the Fort
[i.e., Fort Christian in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas] to the undersigned, I will
give him/her three dollars!! I have heard that he/she is in the higher grasslands
where the mestizo-whites are keeping him/her.
(Translation by Boegh et al. 2023)
Hopefully the article will soon be widely available!
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. pp. 93-116.
die creol taal 
Dagboek betr. expeditie naar de Antillen, 19 Nov. 1922 – 24 Aug. 1923
24 augustus 1923
Surinamekade, Amsterdam
Vrijdag 24 Augustus
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).
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Posted in De Josselin de Jong, KITLV, Manuscripts, metalinguistic comments