“O this is Eden!”

Impact, pp. 537–558

Abstract

Abstract When the Dutch migrated to continents outside of Europe in the 17th century, they encountered entirely new habitats. Confronted with the new flora and fauna, they faced the task of assigning names. They had three options: adopt the native name, coin a new Dutch name, or transfer an existing Dutch name of a similar animal or plant to the native species. This chapter aims to describe the Dutch names given to native animal species on overseas continents. The focus is on how the Dutch language was adapted and utilized in these new environments; therefore names borrowed from native languages are excluded. The objective of this chapter is to identify differences in naming practices and in the quantity of newly-coined Dutch names across continents, and to provide explanations for these variations. Despite differences between the continents, it turns out that in the past there existed a special variety of ‘overseas Dutch’. 1

Authors 1

1. N. van der Sijs corresponding Aachen Institute for the Dutch Language (INT)

   Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for the Dutch Language, Leiden