Netherdutch

English

Alternative forms

• Nether-Dutch, Nether Dutch

Etymology

From nether- +‎ Dutch, probably a calque of Dutch Nederduitsch (modern: Nederduits) or a calque of German Niederdeutsch.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈnɛðədʌt͡ʃ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈnɛðɚdʌt͡ʃ/

Adjective

Netherdutch (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Dutch, pertaining to the Dutch language [17th–19th c.]
2. (obsolete, uncommon) Dutch, pertaining to the Netherlands or to Dutch people [17th–19th c.]

Proper noun

Netherdutch

1. (obsolete, uncommon) Low German [17th–19th c.]
   • letter by Strangford, in: Ten Letters to E. A. Freeman, Esq., in: 1878, Original Letters and Papers of the Late Viscount Strangford upon Philological and Kindred Subjects. Edited by Viscountess Strangford, p. 32:

     But I have a deadly hatred of sch generally for a clumsy and newfangled corruption—it is either the older sc-, or it is the High Dutch way of pronouncing s followed by a consonant, [...] The Nether Dutch of Germany hasn't got it at all except as the representative of sc-, and that of Holland has kept the old pronunciation of sk, even though written sch, except as a termination, when I believe it is pronounced s. [...] and if the Germans, or rather Nether Dutchmen, of Sleswick have to become Danes in the long run, and to learn Danish at school, [...]

   • 1882, Edward A. Freeman, Lectures to American Audiences. I. The English People in its three Homes. II. The practical Bearings of general European History., Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, page 75:

     The truth is that the Nether-Dutch of the European mainland and the Nether-Dutch—that is, the English—of Britain and America have long ceased to be mutually intelligible, but that they can again become mutually intelligible under certain circumstances. [...]. I know by experience that, in the city of Hamburg, where though the polite and literary speech is High-Dutch, the natural speech of the people is Nether-Dutch, if you speak English slowly and carefully, choosing your words well and uttering them distinctly, you will be understood by a common man in the streets of the Hanseatic city.

   • 1917, The Dutch Language, in: De nieuwe gids vol. 32.1, p. 982ff., here p. 984 :

     But round about these, in a broken curve are found the represenatives of the Low-German (Nieder-Deutsch, Netherdutch or Netherlandish) family. Along the shores of the Baltic and far inland, where German [= (Standard) High German] is established in the educated ranks, the mass of the population speak Platt-deutsch, which is nothing but a form of Dutch, not German or Hoch-deutsch.

Antonyms

• High-Dutch/High Dutch

Further reading

• 1841, James Cowles Prichard, Researches into the physical history of mankind. Vol. III.—Part I. Containing researches into the ethnography of Europe, London, page 345:

  The Low-German or Nether-Dutch language and its dialects belonged, according to Adelung and others, to the Saxons, Frisians, and other nations of Western Germany. [...] The Lower German language must not be confounded with the Platt-deutsch, which is only one of its varieties.