In article ,
johannes writes:
|
| Not my cuppa either. But peas and mint are so far apart in taste that
| mint completely spoils the sweet taste of peas.

That is not everybody's opinion. There is a very good Levantine dip
made of peas, strongly flavoured with mint.

| or an uncooked rasher of Dutch bacon butty?
|
| Another shocking experience is that the British can't seem to keep the
| two D-nationalities apart i their head. Peter Schmiechel was once referred
| to as "The Flying Dutchman" by a cheeky referee in a BBC TV dancing
| competition. I have informed someone that I am Danish, after a while that
| very same person will refer to me as Dutch, not only as a guessing presumption,
| but as a 100% fact! Good grief. The two countries are so far apart.

Really? Compared with Guyana and Georgia? :-)

When looked at globally, Denmark and Holland are two of the most
similar countries. Yes, I agree that there is no excuse for the
Little Englanders - but that is a generic statement.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
johannes writes:
|
| Not my cuppa either. But peas and mint are so far apart in taste that
| mint completely spoils the sweet taste of peas.

That is not everybody's opinion. There is a very good Levantine dip
made of peas, strongly flavoured with mint.

| or an uncooked rasher of Dutch bacon butty?
|
| Another shocking experience is that the British can't seem to keep the
| two D-nationalities apart i their head. Peter Schmiechel was once referred
| to as "The Flying Dutchman" by a cheeky referee in a BBC TV dancing
| competition. I have informed someone that I am Danish, after a while that
| very same person will refer to me as Dutch, not only as a guessing presumption,
| but as a 100% fact! Good grief. The two countries are so far apart.

Really? Compared with Guyana and Georgia? :-)

When looked at globally, Denmark and Holland are two of the most
similar countries.

Oh noooo thye are not! For a start, they speak different languages which
are mutually incomprehensible from one another. The only thing in common
is that their nationalities start with a "D". Well, they both produce
tons of cheese.

Yes, I agree that there is no excuse for the Little Englanders - but that
is a generic statement.

But why doesn't it work the other way around? I mean, why aren't the Dutch
assumed to be Danish by default?

In article ,
johannes writes:
|
| When looked at globally, Denmark and Holland are two of the most
| similar countries.
|
| Oh noooo thye are not! For a start, they speak different languages which
| are mutually incomprehensible from one another. The only thing in common
| is that their nationalities start with a "D". Well, they both produce
| tons of cheese.

Er, their languages are really rather similar from a global perspective,
you know. They are also small, flat, located in north-west Europe, with
strong maritime traditions and good seaports, have a high proportion of
cyclists and so on and so forth.

Think about my comparison with Guyana and Georgia!

| Yes, I agree that there is no excuse for the Little Englanders - but that
| is a generic statement.
|
| But why doesn't it work the other way around? I mean, why aren't the Dutch
| assumed to be Danish by default?

God alone knows. There's no making sense of what passes for Little
Englanders' logic. They can't spell Maclaren correctly, either, even
with hundreds of correct spellings to choose from, and Scotland isn't
even as far away as Denmark (though it is as far as Holland from the
home counties, which is the only place that seems to count).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Martin wrote:

On Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:34:26 +0000, johannes
wrote:



Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
johannes writes:
|
| Not my cuppa either. But peas and mint are so far apart in taste that
| mint completely spoils the sweet taste of peas.

That is not everybody's opinion. There is a very good Levantine dip
made of peas, strongly flavoured with mint.

| or an uncooked rasher of Dutch bacon butty?
|
| Another shocking experience is that the British can't seem to keep the
| two D-nationalities apart i their head. Peter Schmiechel was once referred
| to as "The Flying Dutchman" by a cheeky referee in a BBC TV dancing
| competition. I have informed someone that I am Danish, after a while that
| very same person will refer to me as Dutch, not only as a guessing presumption,
| but as a 100% fact! Good grief. The two countries are so far apart.

Really? Compared with Guyana and Georgia? :-)

When looked at globally, Denmark and Holland are two of the most
similar countries.

Oh noooo thye are not! For a start, they speak different languages which
are mutually incomprehensible from one another.

Yeah right.

The only thing in common
is that their nationalities start with a "D". Well, they both produce
tons of cheese.

and bacon.

The Danes that I have worked with in Holland could guess Dutch to a certain
extent and learnt it quickly.

The only reason for this is that the Danes learn foreign languages in school
by necessity of being a small country; English, German, French at least.
Dutch is as far away from Danish as German. The Danish language belongs to
the Scandinavian family of languages.

"johannes" wrote
The Danes that I have worked with in Holland could guess Dutch to a
certain
extent and learnt it quickly.

The only reason for this is that the Danes learn foreign languages in
school
by necessity of being a small country; English, German, French at least.
Dutch is as far away from Danish as German. The Danish language belongs to
the Scandinavian family of languages.

The Dutch learn English, French and German at school too and are also pretty
quick at picking up other languages.....

Dutch and German are indeed similar and Danish has a completely different
ring to it :!)
Jenny

In article ,
Martin writes:
| On Tue, 5 Feb 2008 09:21:22 +0100, "JennyC" wrote:
| "johannes" wrote
| The Danes that I have worked with in Holland could guess Dutch to a
| certain
| extent and learnt it quickly.
|
| The only reason for this is that the Danes learn foreign languages in
| school
| by necessity of being a small country; English, German, French at least.
| Dutch is as far away from Danish as German. The Danish language belongs to
| the Scandinavian family of languages.
|
| The Dutch learn English, French and German at school too and are also pretty
| quick at picking up other languages.....
|
| Dutch and German are indeed similar and Danish has a completely different
| ring to it :!)
|
| It sounds different, but has similar roots.

To use a gardening analogy, if we consider languages as angiosperms,
Dutch and Danish might be Pyrus communis and Chaenomeles japonica.
One's a tree and the other a shrub, but they are closely related.

English, of course, is an inter-generic hybrid :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Martin wrote:

On Tue, 5 Feb 2008 09:21:22 +0100, "JennyC" wrote:


"johannes" wrote
The Danes that I have worked with in Holland could guess Dutch to a
certain
extent and learnt it quickly.

The only reason for this is that the Danes learn foreign languages in
school
by necessity of being a small country; English, German, French at least.
Dutch is as far away from Danish as German. The Danish language belongs to
the Scandinavian family of languages.

The Dutch learn English, French and German at school too and are also pretty
quick at picking up other languages.....

Dutch and German are indeed similar and Danish has a completely different
ring to it :!)

It sounds different, but has similar roots.

Similar in a sense that English and Spanish have similar roots.

In article ,
says...


Martin wrote:

On Tue, 5 Feb 2008 09:21:22 +0100, "JennyC" wrote:


"johannes" wrote
The Danes that I have worked with in Holland could guess Dutch to a
certain
extent and learnt it quickly.

The only reason for this is that the Danes learn foreign languages in
school
by necessity of being a small country; English, German, French at least.
Dutch is as far away from Danish as German. The Danish language belongs to
the Scandinavian family of languages.

The Dutch learn English, French and German at school too and are also pretty
quick at picking up other languages.....

Dutch and German are indeed similar and Danish has a completely different
ring to it :!)

It sounds different, but has similar roots.

Similar in a sense that English and Spanish have similar roots.

Not as similar as the roots of English, Dutch, Danish, German and
Swedish. How much language history or linguistics do you know?
--
Linz
Wet Yorks

Martin wrote:

On Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:40:46 +0000, johannes
wrote:



Martin wrote:

On Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:34:26 +0000, johannes
wrote:



Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
johannes writes:
|
| Not my cuppa either. But peas and mint are so far apart in taste that
| mint completely spoils the sweet taste of peas.

That is not everybody's opinion. There is a very good Levantine dip
made of peas, strongly flavoured with mint.

| or an uncooked rasher of Dutch bacon butty?
|
| Another shocking experience is that the British can't seem to keep the
| two D-nationalities apart i their head. Peter Schmiechel was once referred
| to as "The Flying Dutchman" by a cheeky referee in a BBC TV dancing
| competition. I have informed someone that I am Danish, after a while that
| very same person will refer to me as Dutch, not only as a guessing presumption,
| but as a 100% fact! Good grief. The two countries are so far apart.

Really? Compared with Guyana and Georgia? :-)

When looked at globally, Denmark and Holland are two of the most
similar countries.

Oh noooo thye are not! For a start, they speak different languages which
are mutually incomprehensible from one another.

Yeah right.

The only thing in common
is that their nationalities start with a "D". Well, they both produce
tons of cheese.

and bacon.

The Danes that I have worked with in Holland could guess Dutch to a certain
extent and learnt it quickly.

The only reason for this is that the Danes learn foreign languages in school
by necessity of being a small country; English, German, French at least.
Dutch is as far away from Danish as German. The Danish language belongs to
the Scandinavian family of languages.

Friesland was part of Denmark at one time.

Not to my knowledge. When was that may I ask?

Martin wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:05:05 +0000, Johannes Andersen
wrote:

Friesland was part of Denmark at one time.

Not to my knowledge. When was that may I ask?

The 9th Century.

There was a map on a wall in Kronborg Castle, when I visited it in the 1970s
showing Friesland, as part of Denmark.

http://www.boudicca.de/frisian2.htm

"Viking raids and Danish rule (800 - 1014 A.D.)

In 807 A.D. a war starts between Charlemagne and the Danish king Godfried.
Godfried raids Friesland with a fleet of 200 ships, mocking the Frankish
defenses. Shortly after Godfried dies (810 A.D.). After Godfrieds death, the
Danish raids concentrate mostly on the British Isles and less upon Friesland.

After the death of the Frankish emperor Lewis the Pious in 840 A.D., the
Carolinian defense of Friesland had collapsed. Since there was no Frisian King
to organize a defensive force, the Danish raids on this Carolinian outpost
intensified. And in the rest of the 9th century the Frisians frequently lived
under Danish rule and had to pay taxes to the Danish feudal-tenants.
The Danes forced the weakened Carolinian Kings to give them Friesland as a
feudal estate.
Feudal tenants in Friesland we

* Harald (840 - 844 A.D.)
* Rorik and Godfried (844 - 857 A.D.)
* Rorik (a Christian) (862 -872 A.D.)
* Godfried (881 - 885 A.D.)

In 885 the last Scandinavian ruler of Friesland, Godfried the Norwegian, is
murdered and the ruling Danes are evicted from Friesland by the Frisians. The
great tidal waves of Heathenistic Viking raids (sometimes accompanied with
occupation) in Friesland, had come to an end. Smaller raids still took place
until 1014 A.D. when the Christian Knut the Great became king of Denmark, Norway
and England."


--

Martin

Well, it was a very short period then, when the Vikings roamed and terrorised
many countries. Perhaps we should claim that England is 'really' Danish...

Martin wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:35:47 +0000, johannes
wrote:



Martin wrote:

On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:05:05 +0000, Johannes Andersen
wrote:

Friesland was part of Denmark at one time.

Not to my knowledge. When was that may I ask?

The 9th Century.

There was a map on a wall in Kronborg Castle, when I visited it in the 1970s
showing Friesland, as part of Denmark.

http://www.boudicca.de/frisian2.htm

"Viking raids and Danish rule (800 - 1014 A.D.)

In 807 A.D. a war starts between Charlemagne and the Danish king Godfried.
Godfried raids Friesland with a fleet of 200 ships, mocking the Frankish
defenses. Shortly after Godfried dies (810 A.D.). After Godfrieds death, the
Danish raids concentrate mostly on the British Isles and less upon Friesland.

After the death of the Frankish emperor Lewis the Pious in 840 A.D., the
Carolinian defense of Friesland had collapsed. Since there was no Frisian King
to organize a defensive force, the Danish raids on this Carolinian outpost
intensified. And in the rest of the 9th century the Frisians frequently lived
under Danish rule and had to pay taxes to the Danish feudal-tenants.
The Danes forced the weakened Carolinian Kings to give them Friesland as a
feudal estate.
Feudal tenants in Friesland we

* Harald (840 - 844 A.D.)
* Rorik and Godfried (844 - 857 A.D.)
* Rorik (a Christian) (862 -872 A.D.)
* Godfried (881 - 885 A.D.)

In 885 the last Scandinavian ruler of Friesland, Godfried the Norwegian, is
murdered and the ruling Danes are evicted from Friesland by the Frisians. The
great tidal waves of Heathenistic Viking raids (sometimes accompanied with
occupation) in Friesland, had come to an end. Smaller raids still took place
until 1014 A.D. when the Christian Knut the Great became king of Denmark, Norway
and England."


--

Martin

Well, it was a very short period then, when the Vikings roamed and terrorised
many countries. Perhaps we should claim that England is 'really' Danish...

Nobody said that Friesland *is* Danish.

Odd that I know more about Danish history than you.

That was before my time. History was never a great subject for me.
All that tribal nonsense, see where it gets you. I'm citizen of the
planet. Next time I will just look it wikipedia.

In article ,
johannes writes:
| Martin wrote:
|
| The Danes that I have worked with in Holland could guess Dutch to a certain
| extent and learnt it quickly.
|
| The only reason for this is that the Danes learn foreign languages in school
| by necessity of being a small country; English, German, French at least.
| Dutch is as far away from Danish as German. The Danish language belongs to
| the Scandinavian family of languages.

Oh, really! Please do be a little less parochial.

I can make a fair amount of sense of Dutch and some of Danish, despite
never having learnt either language, because of the similarities in
the Germanic languages (including the Scandinavian ones). That is
little help with (say) Polish, none at all with Turkish - and, as for
African, American, Far-Eastern and Australian languages, please get real.

The whole of the Germanic family is very similar, and the separations
were less than two thousand years ago.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
johannes writes:
| Martin wrote:
|
| The Danes that I have worked with in Holland could guess Dutch to a certain
| extent and learnt it quickly.
|
| The only reason for this is that the Danes learn foreign languages in school
| by necessity of being a small country; English, German, French at least.
| Dutch is as far away from Danish as German. The Danish language belongs to
| the Scandinavian family of languages.

Oh, really! Please do be a little less parochial.

I can make a fair amount of sense of Dutch and some of Danish, despite
never having learnt either language, because of the similarities in
the Germanic languages (including the Scandinavian ones). That is
little help with (say) Polish, none at all with Turkish - and, as for
African, American, Far-Eastern and Australian languages, please get real.

Then you must be a clever dick, of course you are... I have worked with
plenty of nationalities and found the Dutch incomprehensible. Apart from
the odd word which pop up, just like many words becomes americanised. But
the structure of the languages are completely different. Like the Danes,
the Dutch are good foreign language speakers, so you tend to fall into
English when speaking with them.

The whole of the Germanic family is very similar, and the separations
were less than two thousand years ago.

Depends what you mean by similar.

In article ,
says...


Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
johannes writes:
| Martin wrote:
|
| The Danes that I have worked with in Holland could guess Dutch to a certain
| extent and learnt it quickly.
|
| The only reason for this is that the Danes learn foreign languages in school
| by necessity of being a small country; English, German, French at least.
| Dutch is as far away from Danish as German. The Danish language belongs to
| the Scandinavian family of languages.

Oh, really! Please do be a little less parochial.

I can make a fair amount of sense of Dutch and some of Danish, despite
never having learnt either language, because of the similarities in
the Germanic languages (including the Scandinavian ones). That is
little help with (say) Polish, none at all with Turkish - and, as for
African, American, Far-Eastern and Australian languages, please get real.

Then you must be a clever dick, of course you are... I have worked with
plenty of nationalities and found the Dutch incomprehensible. Apart from
the odd word which pop up, just like many words becomes americanised. But
the structure of the languages are completely different. Like the Danes,
the Dutch are good foreign language speakers, so you tend to fall into
English when speaking with them.

Nick might be a clever dick, but then again, you may not have much
aptitude for language.

The whole of the Germanic family is very similar, and the separations
were less than two thousand years ago.

Depends what you mean by similar.

Linguistically they're very similar.

Amethyst Deceiver wrote:

In article ,
says...


Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
johannes writes:
| Martin wrote:
|
| The Danes that I have worked with in Holland could guess Dutch to a certain
| extent and learnt it quickly.
|
| The only reason for this is that the Danes learn foreign languages in school
| by necessity of being a small country; English, German, French at least.
| Dutch is as far away from Danish as German. The Danish language belongs to
| the Scandinavian family of languages.

Oh, really! Please do be a little less parochial.

I can make a fair amount of sense of Dutch and some of Danish, despite
never having learnt either language, because of the similarities in
the Germanic languages (including the Scandinavian ones). That is
little help with (say) Polish, none at all with Turkish - and, as for
African, American, Far-Eastern and Australian languages, please get real.

Then you must be a clever dick, of course you are... I have worked with
plenty of nationalities and found the Dutch incomprehensible. Apart from
the odd word which pop up, just like many words becomes americanised. But
the structure of the languages are completely different. Like the Danes,
the Dutch are good foreign language speakers, so you tend to fall into
English when speaking with them.

Nick might be a clever dick, but then again, you may not have much
aptitude for language.

The whole of the Germanic family is very similar, and the separations
were less than two thousand years ago.

Depends what you mean by similar.

Linguistically they're very similar.

Depends what you mean by similar.