The first dictionaries and grammars of Dutch appeared in the sixteenth century. This is often attributed to a growing national consciousness. But the Dutch at that time were not only interested in the Dutch vernacular, but also in other languages. This is apparent from research by Alisa van de Haar, who researched sources from the period 1540-1620.
The Netherlands was very multilingual in the sixteenth century. In the first place, this was due to the national borders, which were very different from now. At that time, the Netherlands also covered Belgium and part of northern France. People spoke French, Latin or one of the many dialects. The majority of the population spoke a Dutch or French dialect, academics and clergymen used Latin. French was the language of the aristocracy, but also for international communication.
At the same time, there was a growing interest in the vernacular and a need to record it in dictionaries and grammars. But contrary to popular belief, this was not accompanied by a narrow focus on the mother tongue. “Other languages were very important in the discussion about Dutch,” says Van de Haar, who sifted through a large number of sources for her PhD research.
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For her research, the PhD student read very diverse texts:dictionaries and grammars, but also collections of poems, plays, translations of psalms, school books and administrative sources. There was discussion everywhere about which language one should speak and why. The subject lived throughout society and was not limited to a group of scholars. “Schoolmasters, poets and merchants also talked about it,” says Van de Haar. “It was a really hot topic and will probably also have been a topic of conversation on the market square.”
In all those debates, the focus was not limited to Dutch. “There were also people who thought that everyone should start speaking French. Others were for Latin or Hebrew," the researcher said. They also wondered whether the Dutch vocabulary was rich enough or whether it should adopt loanwords from other languages, such as French, Latin or German.
English
English was not at all available at that time. “People are often surprised about that,” says Van de Haar, “but in this period, English really didn't have any prestige. It was seen as a particularly ugly language, a mishmash of other languages. Dutch was more highly regarded by many. Even as an international language, English had no meaning yet. English traders spoke a mixture of Dutch and English or simply switched to French.”
In the sixteenth century there were hardly any schools in the Netherlands where you could learn English. This was also apparent from previous research into administrative sources and city accounts of the city of Antwerp. At that time, it was the trade metropolis of the Netherlands. And not Amsterdam. “In 1576 there were 130 teachers in Antwerp with whom you could learn French as opposed to 1 English teacher. Even if you look at printed books from that time, there are almost no textbooks for learning English, while there are a lot of them for French.”
Calvinists
The researcher looked not only at school books, but also at the writings of Calvinist faith communities. In the 16th century Protestantism and with it Calvinism emerged as a religious movement in the Netherlands. That new congregation had to look for means of communication and a uniform language for translating Bible texts and psalms.
The Calvinists have gone down in history as the proponents of the vernacular, as opposed to the Catholics, who chose Latin. But according to Van de Haar, it was not so black-and-white in practice:“The Calvinists tried to strongly oppose the Catholics by saying that Catholics were not interested in the vernacular. But that was not the case:Catholics too were already using the vernacular in some contexts. It was therefore primarily a propaganda tool of the Calvinists. To present themselves better than the Catholics.”
Diversity
The King James Version of 1637 is often cited as an important event in the development of a standard language. But it remains to be seen to what extent the language use at that time was influenced by it, according to Van de Haar. In any case, in the period she studied, from 1540-1620, there was by no means a standard standard. Each writer used his own spelling. Even among book printers there was not necessarily a striving for uniformity, according to the researcher.
“What my research shows is that people weren't that afraid of diversity at all. There were a number of people working on standardizing the language. But some of them were crying in the wilderness. The idea that one would need a uniform language and a uniform spelling is a very modern idea that we impose on that period. If you actually look at the sources, you will see that the call for uniformity is barely there.”
Language sponges
The Dutch at that time were also known for their broad language skills. There was even a proverb used in Luther's work. “It comes down to this:if you put a Dutchman (often referred to as 'Flemish') in a bag and carried it around Europe, he would speak all languages when he returned home. The Dutch were known for being able to learn other languages very easily. One of the humanists in my research called the Dutch language sponges.”
“There were all kinds of theories about that. Because Dutch would be such a moderate language, without extremes, it was thought that you could easily switch from this language to all other languages. Dutch was also regarded as the golden mean of languages.”
Source:
Van de Haar 2018:The Golden Mean of Languages. Forging Dutch and French in the Early Modern Low Counties (1540-1620). The dissertation will be defended on 26 April 2018 at the University of Groningen. The research is funded by NWO.