There crows no rooster to π It's a bird edition! π¦
Welcome to the latest instalment of English and the Dutch, the newsletter with tips and tricks, fun facts, interesting translations and other good stuff about how Dutch speakers speak English. In your inbox every third Wednesday of the month.
The newsletter is written by me, Heddwen Newton. Iβm half Dutch, half British, and I work as a translator, teacher, and linguist. I am the owner of the website www.hoezegjeinhetEngels.nl, and I also write the newsletter English in Progress.
From now on, every newsletter will have a theme. The first theme: birds!
Quiz
False friends
This Dutch speaker isnβt saying what they want to say with these sentences. What are they trying to say? What does the English speaker understand? How should they have worded it?
I spotted a mew, and we are not even near the sea!
In five minutes we have to be back at the touringcar to continue our birdwatching adventure.
It was nice to sit in the shadow all morning and peer out into the fields with my binoculars.
Idiom
The idiom depicted below is the same in English and in Dutch. What is the idiom in English? What is it in Dutch?
Family ties
Dutch and English are cousins, perhaps even sisters, depending on how you like your familial metaphors. In this section, I highlight some surprising ways in which they are related.
hebban olla vogala
If you went to school in the Netherlands or Flanders, you will probably know about the very first literary Dutch: written by a Flemish scribe in England to try out a new quill some time in the late 11th century (we think). The scribe in question tested their pen with a bit of poetry, and had no clue about the joys and anguish their short lines would have on historians centuries later. The text is faded and difficult to make out, and there are some discussions about single letters, but it pretty much reads:
Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan hinase hic anda thu wat unbidan we nu
All birds have begun nests, except for me and you; what are we waiting for now?
A decade or two ago, academics started arguing that the lines are not pure Dutch; they saw influence from old English in there, too. For example, though the plural ending in -an of the verb hebban and the forms olla and vogala are clearly indicative of coastal Dutch, the prefix a- in (h)agunnan, as opposed to bigunnan, is a distinctive marker of old English. The subjunctive ending in -e of hinase also suggests English rather than Dutch, in which the expected ending would be -i. (Source)
Now a new, and surprisingly accessibly written, academic paper has come out arguing that the scribe in question was doing this on purpose. The author posits that the scribe chose to write a short poem that was tweaked in such a way that it could be understood by both Dutch and English speakers; a multilingual and translingual poem. Isnβt that a lovely idea?
(If you are interested, then do take a look at the paper. It is open access, which means it is not behind a paywall, and it includes images of the actual text.)
Untranslatable Dutch
Nothing is truly untranslatable; if there were such a thing, then any work of literature containing such a word would have to remain untranslated. Translators always find a way ;-) However, there are some Dutch words and expressions that give translators a headache, because English just doesnβt have the same concept.
haantje de voorste
A haantje de voorste is a person who always wants to be first. It depends on the context, however, how that behaviour manifests, and how annoying or arrogant the behaviour is for other people.
My neighbour who is always haantje de voorste when it comes to technology is not annoying at all. They just like shiny new things. They are quick to embrace new technology, at the forefront, ahead of the curve, first in line.
A child who is haantje de voorste in class is the one who always raises her hand (and not her finger! We donβt do that in English-speaking countries!) to answer a question, always wants to win when playing boardgames with other children. This is probably mildly annoying for the other people involved, but it is not all negative, and might even be seen as a positive trait for the childβs future. This is the one I really canβt think of a good translation for. Is the child a high-achiever, a front-runner, ahead of the game? Those translations seem too positive. Is the child insisting on being the star of the show, the centre of attention, the first in line? Those feel too negative.
some family ties for haantje de voorste
If you thought of the translation cock of the walk, you wouldnβt be wrong, but youβd be some 100 years out of step. Haantje de voorste used to refer to the leader of a gang, the head ruffian on the block. (Source.) In a Dutch dictionary from 1923, cock of the walk is given as a possible translation, but this no longer holds true. Haantje de voorste has changed its meaning to the above meaning of someone who likes being first. Cock of the walk has also changed its meaning; no longer a ruffian, but someone who is conceited and pompous, though still often the leader of the pack. (Source1, source2). It is language change in action, and in this case, these two similar expressions have moved apart in meaning.
Cock of the walk is so called, by the way, because walk is an old word for a chicken-run, and there is usually only one rooster, i.e. cock, in the walk. (Source). This makes him automatically the boss of all the hens, chicken-society being decidedly un-feminist in this regard.
In Dutch, we can also call a kippenren a loop. Apparently in both languages we like telling our chickens they should either run or walk, but not both.
Article on my website here. Another article on why I advise people to translate haan with rooster rather than cock, here.
op hoge poten
I donβt actually know where op hoge poten comes from, and I have not been able to find out. For the purposes of this bird-themed newsletter, lets assume the poten are those of a long-legged bird.
In any case, the best translation for doing something op hoge poten is doing it in a huff, which I think you will agree doesnβt do the physique of the high-legged complaining any justice. My mental picture of a person making themselves tall and angry does not match the blowing-angrily-from-the-mouth-ness that in a huff conveys to me. Perhaps to stride into somewhere and complain does it more justice.
Funny Dutch
Literally translating Dutch expressions into English is a pastime that many people enjoy. But how do you translate the Dutch expressions into English properly? Thatβs where I come in!
the strange duck in the bite
The person who is different in some way from the other people in the room is called the odd one out in English. Or perhaps the person who doesnβt quite fit in, or who stands out as different.
Donβt choose the translation βan odd duckβ (or βoddballβ in American English). This means the person in question is eccentric, which is not the same thing.
De vreemde eend in de bijt, by the way, refers to an opening in the ice (a bijt) where ducks gather in winter, because it is the only place left for them to swim and find food underwater. One tufted duck in a group of mallards really stands out.
to choose eggs for your money
The translation of the classic Dutch saying βeieren voor je geld kiezenβ depends on what you mean when you are saying it. Perhaps you are going to throw in the towel, cut your losses, walk away and say adios to your problems. Or perhaps you are going to settle for less than you originally wanted.
Whichever you choose, there is no English translation that has anything to do with eggs or money. More here.
there crows no rooster to
The best translation for βdaar kraait geen haan naarβ is, in my opinion, the prosaic nobody cares. Also possible are nobody will notice, or nobody will say a word. Many more translation options here.
what an owlβs chick!
The idea that a young owl looks a bit stupid is one that has occured to Dutch speakers and also, interestingly, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu speakers. UlΕ« kΔ paαΉhΔ means βowlβs youngsterβ in Hindi and is really quite an offensive way of calling someone stupid, apparently.
Anyway, in English we donβt have a term that compares anybody to a young owl, though we do have bird-brained to mean stupid, so birds being stupid is still a thing.
There is no lack of other terms to choose from, though. If you want something which has the same old-fashioned ring to it that uilskuiken does, you could choose the American dingleberry or the British nincompoop. Or thereβs simpleton, moron, fool, dunce, jughead, pea brain, knucklehead, and many more. Plenty to choose from!
Quiz answers
I spotted a mew, and we are not even near the sea!
What are they trying to say? - Ik heb een meeuw gezien, en we zijn niet eens in de buurt van de zee!
What does the English speaker understand? - Ik heb een miauwtje gezien, en we zijn niet eens in de buurt van de zee!
How should they have worded it? - I spotted a seagull, and we are not even near the sea!
A mew is the sound a kitten makes, like a small miaow.
Fun fact: there is also a verb to mew which is all the rage among boys and young men right now. Named after someone called John Mew, it involves pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth, and is supposed to strengthen the jawline of young men, making them look more handsome. The young men in question sometimes use the practice as an excuse to not answer questions in class, which is understandably annoying for teachers.
(If you like this kind of thing, I have a whole newsletter dedicated to collecting new English words.)
In five minutes we have to be back at the touringcar to continue our birdwatching adventure.
What are they trying to say? - Over vijf minuten moeten we terug bij de touringcar zijn om ons vogelspotavontuur voort te zetten.
What does the English speaker understand? - Over vijf minuten moeten we terug bij de race-auto zijn om ons vogelspotavontuur voort te zetten.
How should they have worded it? - In five minutes we have to be back at the bus to continue our birdwatching adventure. (American and international English)
In five minutes we have to be back at the coach to continue our birdwatching adventure. (British English)
It was nice to sit in the shadow all morning and peer out into the fields with my binoculars.
What are they trying to say? - Het was fijn om de hele ochtend in de schaduw te zitten en met mijn verrekijker over de velden te turen.
What does the English speaker understand? - Het was fijn om de hele ochtend in de schaduw van b.v. een mens te zitten en met mijn verrekijker over de velden te turen.
How should they have worded it? - It was nice to sit in the shade all morning and peer out into the fields with my telescope.
In English, we have two words for schaduw: either 'shadow' or βshadeβ. If the shape of the shadow is important, we say shadow. (Shadow puppets, for example, have shadows.) If it is the absence of direct sunlight that is important, we call it βshadeβ. Many Dutch people say 'shadow' when they mean 'shade.' It's not a big deal, but it does sound strange.
Picture:
Rondrennen als een kip zonder kop - Running around like a headless chicken
Other bird-related idioms that are the same or very similar in both languages:
And finallyβ¦
And finally, a silly joke, funny video or interesting picture that I found on the Internet, that has something to do with Dutch and English.
I failed to find an amusing piece of content that had to do with Dutch and English and was bird-related, so the below is not about birds, but about cows, which are, you know, also animals. Little less aerodynamic, maybe.
But the clip does have to do with old English, so it ties in somewhat to the olla vogala story above.
Comedian Eddie Izzard tries to communicate with a Frisian farmer in old English and fails miserably:
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Any mistakes in this newsletter were put in by me AFTER two amazing proofreaders checked through it. Thank you, you wonderful people. (One of my proofreaders just published her first book, a bilingual collection of her blog posts. Check it out here!)
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Oh, wait, I do have some amusing content about birds
Just not connected to Dutch in any way. Oh, well.
Source: https://www.snelse.co.uk
For "op hoge poten," how about "draw oneself up"?
She drew herself up and went to complain.
If I heard someone spotted a mew, I'd have assumed they were talking about the PokΓ©mon Mew! Which would've been pretty impressive too, haha.