| Jersey Dutch | |
|---|---|
| Laag Duits (Low Dutch) | |
 The Jersey Dutch, descendants ofNew Netherlanders. | |
| Region | New Jersey andNew York, United States |
| Extinct | Early 20th century[1] |
| Latin (Dutch alphabet) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| IETF | nl-u-sd-usnj |
| This article is a part of a series on |
| Dutch |
|---|
| Low Saxon dialects |
| West Low Franconian dialects |
| East Low Franconian dialects |
Jersey Dutch (Dutch:Laag Duits) (Low Dutch),[2][3][4] also known asBergen Dutch,[5] was aDutch dialect formerly spoken in northeasternNew Jersey from the late 17th century until the early 20th century.[6] It evolved in one of the twoDutch-speaking enclaves that remained for over two centuries after the dissolution ofDutch control in North America, the other (aroundAlbany, New York) giving rise toMohawk Dutch.[7] It may have been a partialcreole language[8][failed verification] based onZeelandic andWest Flemish Dutch dialects withEnglish and possibly some elements ofLenape.[citation needed]
Jersey Dutch was spoken by the descendants ofNew Netherlanders who settled inBergen, New Netherland, in 1630, and byBlack slaves andfree people of color also residing in that region, as well as the American Indian people known as theRamapough Lenape Nation.
By the mid-eighteenth century, according to one estimate, up to 20% of the population of the areas of New Jersey with "a strong Dutch element" were enslaved people.[9] Black people who grew up in insular Dutch communities were raised speaking the Dutch language, or adopted it later in life, to speak both with their white Dutch-descendant counterparts and with each other.[10] Some Blacks during this period spoke Dutch as their primary or only language, and for some knowing the language was a point of pride:[10]
"They were Dutch and proud of it. I can remember my Aunt Sebania telling me about her great-grandmother, a stern old lady who both spoke and understood English, but who refused to speak it except in the privacy of her home. In public she spoke Dutch, as any proper person should do, a dignified language."[11]
Some contemporary reports from white speakers of Jersey Dutch reported a distinctvariety of the language unique to the black population, which they calledNegerduits[4] ("Negro Dutch", not to be confused with theDutch creoleNegerhollands). This term was used both for the speech of theRamapough (a distinct community of black, white, andLenape descent), and of other blacks inBergen County.
However, as attestation of Jersey Dutch from black and Ramapough speakers is scarce, scholars disagree whetherNegerduits can be considered a distinct variety.[10] Sojourner Truth's Dutch, for example, was described by her owner's daughter around 1810 as "very similar to that of the unlettered white people of her time."[12] The only contemporaneous linguistic treatment of Jersey Dutch draws primarily on the speech of three white Jersey Dutch speakers and one Ramapough speaker, and notes phonetic, syntactic, and lexical differences between the two groups.[3]
The vowel system of Jersey Dutch differs markedly fromStandard Dutch, as well as from the Dutch dialects from which it derives, perhaps due to the influence ofAmerican English.[13] The following chart is based on the speech of two white Jersey Dutch speakers recorded in 1910 and 1941 respectively. Parentheses "indicate that the vowel is attested in few forms."[14]
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | ||||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | ||
| Close | (ɪ) | iː | yː | (ʊ) | uː | ||
| Close-mid | eː | œ | œː | oː | |||
| Open-mid | ɛ | (ʌ) | ɔ | ɔː | |||
| Open | æ | æː | ɑ | ɑː | |||
| Diphthongs | ai̯ (æi̯)ɛu̯ (œːu̯)aːu̯ | ||||||
Jersey Dutch consonants are largely the same as those of Standard Dutch, with a few exceptions.[13]
| Labial | Alveolar | Dorsal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |
| voiced | b | d | (ɡ) | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | x | h |
| voiced | v | z | (ɣ) | ||
| Approximant | w | ɫ | j | ||
| Rhotic | ɹ | ||||
An example of Jersey Dutch, transcribed in 1913, spoken by Matthew Hicks ofMahwah, the white sexton of a Dutch church.[15][3]
De v'lôrene zön:
En kääd’l had twî jongers; de êne blêv täus;
de andere xöng vôrt f’n häus f’r en stât.
Hāi wāz nît tevrêde täus en dârkîs tû râkni ārm.
Hāi doǵti ôm dāt täus en z’n vâders pläk.
Tû zāide: äk zāl na häus xâne. Māin vâder hät plänti.
Below is a word-by-word translation of the Jersey Dutch quote, rather than a fluent Dutch rendering.[15]
De verloren zoon:
Een kerel had twee jongens; de ene bleef thuis;
de andere ging voort van huis voor een vermogen.
Hij was niet tevreden thuis en daardoor toen raakte hij arm.
Hij dacht aan dat thuis en zijn vaders plek.
Toen zei hij: ik zal naar huis gaan. Mijn vader heeft overvloed.
The prodigal/lost son:
A man had two sons; the one stayed at home;
the other went abroad from home to make his fortune.
He was not content at home and therefore then he became poor.
He thought about it at home and his father’s place.
Then said: I shall go home. My father has plenty.