The presence of two Dutch speaking teams in the imminent FIFA World Cup finals, the Netherlands (Nederland) and Curaçao, set me to thinking.
If you look at a world map of languages, you can see that languages are by no means confined to geo-political boundaries.
Some languages spread well beyond such boundaries, the primary example being English, spoken in countries as geographically distant as the United Kingdom and the United States of America, albeit with some considerable differences in spelling, meaning, and pronunciation.
Such variations, often formalising into specific dialects, can also exist with one country. A dialect goes beyond the way words are pronounced to include differences in syntax, grammar and vocabulary, while remaining largely intelligible to speakers of the same language family. England alone has 115 variations in accents and dialects.
Some people may be surprised to learn that the country with the highest number of languages, language families, and dialects is Papua New Guinea with 840, some 10% of all the languages spoken in the world.
In some countries, two or more languages co-exist, each with some quirks. For example, Belgium is split between a version of Dutch (Vlaams or Flemish) in the north and French in the south. A small percentage of people in the east speak German, and Brussels is officially bilingual but mostly French. Even Flemish itself has at least four distinct dialects.
The Netherlands also has two languages, the vastly predominant Dutch (again with regional dialects and variations) and Frys, the distinctly different language spoken in parts of the north (where I was born). Frys, or Frisian, is itself a language family with variants spoken in north west Germany and parts of Denmark.
That Dutch is spoken in Curaçao is the result, inevitably, of colonialism. Like several other European countries, the Netherlands pursued a commercially driven and politically approved policy of global imperial colonialism enabled by the technological advances of maritime trade.
The Dutch colonised what became Indonesia, northern-eastern America, the Caribbean and northern South America, and southern Africa. Their rule over these territories was exploitative, brutal, and focused on the enrichment of Dutch coffers.
The American colonies were the first to go, ceded to the British in 1664, the year after the Netherlands abolished slavery in all its territories.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands had since 1815 included Belgium and Luxembourg, but they seceded in 1830 and 1839, respectively.
The Dutch had established a colony on the southernmost tip of Africa, a key port for international trade, in 1652. By 1795, the French and British fought to gain control, and in 1806 the Dutch ceded control to the British.
After World War II, influenced by the USA’s negative view of colonialism expressed to the Dutch and the Japanese occupation of what had been the Dutch East Indies, Indonesia declared independence in 1945.
When a temporary consitutional union of the two countries collapsed in 1954 over the possession of Western New Guinea, the Netherlands reorganised their remaining colonial holdings into the tripartite Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of the home country, its Caribbean colonies comprising the Netherlands Antilles, and the territory of Suriname on the northern South American mainland. The two colonies were declared autonomous countries, part of the Kingdom but with some some self-rule.
Suriname became an independent republic in 1975. The six parts of the Netherlands Antilles took different routes. Three became constituent countries of the Kingdom, Aruba (since 1986), Curaçao and Sint Maarten (since 2010), while Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba became special municipalities of the Netherlands proper.
This is why Curaçao could qualify for the World Cup. It is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, just as the Netherlands itself is.
Dutch colonial influence continues to this day. One example is the Afrikaans language, Dutch-based but heavily influenced by local languages, and is now the third most spoken language in South Africa. A less direct example is the American doughnut, the deep fried pastry made from leavened dough, brought to New York (then Nieuw Amsterdam) by the Dutch as olykoeken in the early 18th century. Olykoeken didn’t have the hole – it was when the central “nut” was removed before frying that the current name was adopted.
That influence can go both ways, though, often driven by other cultural influences. While the Dutch imported the Indonesian nasi goreng (fried rice) to become a standard part of their national cuisine, they left behind the rijsttafel (rice table) a feast of many Indonesian side dishes.
Even their enemies were influenced by the Dutch. The English adopted coleslaw (koolsla, or cabbage salad), yacht (jacht, chase or hunt), and skipper (schipper, or ship man), among many, many others.
So, while I’ll definitely be cheering for the Dutch (and Australia) at the World Cup, I also have a soft spot for Curaçao, the smallest country ever to qualify, populated by just 150,000 people, and Dutch-speaking.
And who do I think will win? It’s hard to go past the big four of Argentina, Spain, France, and Brazil but I think England, Portugal, Germany, and – yes – the Netherlands are all realistic contenders. My outsiders would be Belgium and Croatia (never discount Luka Modric).
Biggest shock: Italy, ranked 9th in the world, couldn’t make the expanded group round of 48.
Nicest surprise: Australia to beat USA.