Re: Word usage in group versus out of group.

At 09:09 PM 5/22/99 -0400, Steg Belsky wrote:
>On Thu, 20 May 1999 21:18:39 -0500 Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
>writes:
>>John Cowan wrote:
>>> "Yankee" probably belongs to this category (Dutch "Jan Kees", John
>>> Cheese).
>
>>Just curious:  are there any remnants of "Dutchness" in New York City
>>at all?  I read that even in the early 1800s there were enough people
>>speaking
>>it that the city records were still kept in both English and Dutch.
>>And,
>>I think President Martin Van Buren's native language was (New Yorker)
>>Dutch.  Anything left of that?
>>
>>===========================================
>>Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
>
>Well, the flag of New York City has a very "Dutch" look to it.
>And a lot of place names are Dutch, such as Brooklyn, Spuyten Duyvil,
>Bushwick, Midwood (< Mitwout), Kill Van Kull, the Bronx, Harlem...
>
Albany, New York (where I live) and the surrounding area have a Dutch
heritage that's at least as visible as that of New York City.  Many of the
old, rich families of the area have Dutch names (Van Rensselaer, Schuyler,
Cortlandt).  Across the Hudson River from Albany is Rensselaer County, which
is basically what used to be the Van Rensselaer patroonship.  The Albany
city flag looks sort of reminiscent of the Dutch flag: it has three
horizontal stripes, orange, white and blue (from top to bottom), with some
kind seal or logo that I've never gotten a good look at in the middle of the
white stripe.  There's a church in downtown Albany that I think claims to be
the oldest Dutch Reformed church in North America.  And every spring we have
a Tulip Festival.  But I have no idea how long it's been since there was a
statistically significant Dutch-speaking population here.

- Tim

-------------------------------------------------
Tim Smith
timsmith@global2000.net

Get your facts first and then you can distort them as you please.
- Mark Twain