magnum wrote:New Zealand ???
English scumbags were sent there right???
No, that was Australia. But the've paid us back since.
Anyway, New Zealand, Van Diemen's Land, obviously the Dutch got there first. Well done, Holland, and thanks a lot.
For giving the English an opportunity to bring their scumbags to Australia?
dutch mennonites in russia
the mennonites originated in the netherlands. they were severely persecuted (to the point of death) by both the catholics and protestants. they fled to germany. it was while they were in germany that many germans joined with the mennonite faith. the dutch decided at a conference to adopt the german language. they thus no longer spoke dutch. when persecuted there the german mennonites fled to america and the dutch fled to prussia. while in prussia catherine the great invited them to russia to farm useless swamp land. they lived there until persecution took place and most fled to canada ( and some to south america).
while the dutch mennonites were in germany they adopted the german language. this is why they spoke german in russia and were therefore thought to be german. the german mennonites never went to russia - they were swiss mennonites (amish). they went to america and some to canada. the majority of mennonites in russia (ukraine) were of dutch origin although they spoke high german and low german (a mix of dutch and german). how do i know this? i am a mennonite of dutch origin - my oma and opa came to canada from russia.
Welcome to A2K, indigosnail!
It's a nice story, your grandpa and grandma told you. However, that's different from what historic sources say, and even the Mennonites themselves divide their history into three periods: "before Menno, under Menno, and after Menno". :wink:
And linguist have another view of the languages as well - e.g. Low German is an own language, and not to be confused with Dutch: the names 'high German,' 'middle German,' and 'low German,' take their names from the geographical altitude of the areas where they are spoken. Dutch is a West Germanic language. It derives from Low Franconian - the speech of the Western Franks, which was restructured through contact with speakers of North Sea Germanic along the coast (Flanders, Holland) in the period around AD 700. :wink:
That's really interesting indigosnail, do you, or better, your family, still have some sort of bond with Dutch traditions or has that all faded away after centuries of Russia (and nowadays Canada)?
Re: Translation of High Dutch into English
That's something I'd be very interested in taking on. Do contact if you still need someone.
