Dutch [rather OT]

[H.W.Fluks@kpn.com]

Robert Gibson:

> 1. So why are people called  "Dutch" who are from "Holland" / 
> "The Netherlands"? Why are they
> not called "Hollanders" or "Netherlanders"

Blame the English for that. We call ourselves Hollanders or Nederlanders.
The English decided to call us Dutch, which (like "Deutsch") actually just
means "people". Very confusing (see terms like "The Lost Dutchman's Mine"
and "Pennsylvania Dutch", both referring to *Germans*, not Dutch).

Apparently, peoples call other peoples by a name they like. The Germans, who
call themselves Deutsch, are called Allemand by the French. And the Italians
call them Tedeschi (as I experienced this week, when someone in Rome thought
I was a German).

To go even more off-topic: the European Union has a law (or recommendation)
that all countries should refer to cities in other countries in a way that
the country itself does. For instance on road signs: 10 kilometers from
Amsterdam, you find a sign telling the distance to "London" and "Paris" (not
"Londen"/"Parijs" as we call these cities in Holland). And another sign
shows "København" and "Berlin".
If everyone would follow that rule, there would be much less confusion...
(When we flew from Amsterdam to Rome this week, the Italian hostess
announced that we flew over Monaco. It took me some time before I realised
that Monaco is the Italian name for München [Munich]. I wonder how the
Italians call the country Monaco, on the south border of France?)

Back to the mice and ducks...

--Harry.
(Try finding out the real names of: Aix-la-Chapelle, Rijssel, Mailand,
Flushing, Pressburg, Genf, Apenrade, Trèves, Rzým, Lüttich, etc. etc...)