Dutch/Lesson 15

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Les 15 ~ Lesson 15

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| ^ Contents ^ | << Les 14 | Les 15 | Les 16 >>

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Contents 1 Gesprek 15 2 Grammatica 15 Modal particles 3 Grammatica 15-2 The old cases 3.1 Genitives 3.2 Datives

[edit] Gesprek 15

Marjan en Jessica zijn gezellig aan het winkelen maar Jessica merkt tot haar grote schrik dat ze haar portemonee verloren heeft. Er zit weinig anders op dan om het winkelen voorlopig maar te vergeten en op zoek te gaan naar Jessicas geld en haar pinpas. Ze hadden zojuist een broodje gegeten in een restaurantje. Het ligt dus voor de hand dat ze het daar heeft laten liggen. Zij haasten zich terug naar de mogelijke plek des onheils.

Marjan: Ober, wij hebben hier zojuist wat gegeten en mijn vriendin hier is haar portemonnee kwijt. Heeft u die hier soms gevonden?

Ober: Het spijt me dames, maar ik ben nog maar net begonnen met mijn werk. Weet u nog wie u bediend heeft?

Jessica: Ik weet de naam niet, maar ik weet wel dat het een jongeman was met hoogblond kort haar.

Ober: Dan weet ik wel wie u bedoelt. Dat is Pim, maar die is net vertrokken, vrees ik. Ik heb hem namelijk afgelost. Ik zal wel even vragen of hij iets afgegeven heeft. Een ogenblik alstublieft.

De ober verdwijnt naar achteren, de vriendinnen nerveus achterlatend.

Jessica: Ik hoop nu maar dat het gevonden is. Wat moet ik anders, Marjan?

Marjan: Nou. maak je nu maar geen zorgen. Het komt allemaal best wel goed.

De ober keert terug met een grijns op zijn gezicht.

Ober: Wat is uw naam precies, mevrouwtje?

Jessica: Hoezo, heeft u het gevonden?

Ober: Ja we hebben wat gevonden, maar ik weet natuurlijk niet of dat wel van u is, he? Dus hoe heet u?

Jessica: O ja natuurlijk, daar heeft u wel gelijk in. Ik heet Jessica van den Heuvel.

Ober: Mooi zo, nou, dan heeft u geluk gehad. Dan heb ik hier inderdaad uw portemonnee.

[edit] Grammatica 15 Modal particles

Recall:

.. Er zit weinig anders op om het winkelen voorlopig maar te vergeten ..

.. maar ik ben nog maar net begonnen met mijn werk ..

..Ik weet de naam niet, maar ik weet wel ..

.. Dan weet ik wel wie u bedoelt ..

.. Ik zal wel even vragen of ..

..Dus, zegt u mij uw naam eens?..

Dutch has a variety of adverbs that function as modal particles. They are often hard to translate exactly. They do not have so much a clear 'meaning', but add a certain flavor to the phrase they are in.

wel

The adverb wel is strictly speaking the adverbial form of the adjective goed, just as English well and good. Nevertheless it is used rather differently in Dutch. One meaning it has is to negate the words niet (not) and geen (not a, no):

dit is niet uw portemonnee

this is not your wallet

Wel! Dit is wel mijn portemonnee

yes, it is!

..Ik weet de naam niet, maar ik weet wel ..

I do not know the name, but I do know...

It is often used to introduce but:

ik heb wel gezegd dat ... maar...

I did say that ... but...

It is often added to a sentence to indicate that he speaker is making an admission or is volunteering something:

Ik zal wel vragen..

let me go ask.. (I volunteer)

Another use is to indicate that something is exceptional:

er waren wel dertig tornado's!

there were thirty tornadoes (no less!)

even

even indicates that the action will not cost much time or effort. Adding it to a sentence adds an implicit no problem to the utterance:

.. Ik zal wel even vragen of ..

Let me go ask, no problem, will take just a moment

eens

literally eens means once, but it is often added to add a flavor of an exceptional occasion.

heb je wel eens..? - did you ever.. ?

zal ik eens koffie zetten? - (for a change) would you like me to make coffee?

maar

The word maar can be used as a (nevenschikkend) conjunction and is usually translated by but. It is also an abverb with the meaning of only, just:

ik heb maar zeven euro op zak

I only have seven euro on me

Geeft u mij maar een biertje

Just give me a beer

However it can also be a modal adverb that indicates a certain measure of resignation or lack of choice of the speaker:

ik heb maar gezegd dat ...

I said that ..., because I did not know what else to say

.. Er zit weinig anders op dan om het winkelen voorlopig maar te vergeten ..

lit : there is little else on (the list of options) than to forget (sigh..) the shopping spree temporarily

Adding maar can also 'soften' the sentence and indicate that the speaker is trying to be polite or friendly.

geef hier! - give it (..or else!)

geef maar hier! - why don't you give it to me (Don't worry: I'll take care of it)

With a more ironic intonation it could also mean:

just give it up - (you're busted)

combinations

In Dutch modal particle can be heaped up into interesting combinations of flavors, e.g.:

hij zou wel eens even laten zien hoe sterk hij was - he was going to show off how strong he was (but ..)

[edit] Grammatica 15-2 The old cases

Recall : de plek des onheils – an old genitive.

Indo-European languages, to which both English and Dutch belong were originally highly inflectional with eight cases, three genders and usually four or five declensions. Both languages have lost this system, Dutch however a bit later than English. In fact in the written standard language Dutch retained four cases and three genders up to the spelling reform of 1947. In the spoken language the case endings and the masculine-feminine distinction had been gone for much longer, but prior to the second world war the educational and political establishment tenaciously tried to preserve the case system, even tried to introduce forms that never existed in the language artificially.

The discrepancy between written standard and spoken language led to serious educational problems with equally serious social consequences. After the destruction by the second world war spelling modernization was imperative and a lot of old baggage was thrown overboard. Since then case endings are a bit of an unpopular subject. They are often seen as oldfashioned, even harmful to 'progress'. Nevertheless, there is a fair bit of remnants left in the modern language even though case endings have definitely ceased to be part of a system. To understand the remnants it is useful to have a peek at the definite article as it was before 1947:

case	masculine	feminine	neuter	plural
nominative	de	de	het	de
genitive	des	der	des	der
dative	de(n)	de(r)	den	den
accusative	den	de	het	de

The above implies that prior to 1947 one had to write:

ik zien den man

ik zie de vrouw

Worse than that, it was:

ik vereer de deugd (f)

ik haat den leugen (m)

Most people above the Rhine had to use a dictionary to do the latter right, because the m-f contrast was no longer alive in their spoken mother tongue and neither were the -n and -r endings.

In 1947 a small (but sweeping) change was allowed in the spelling: the n in the masculine accusative was made optional. With a sigh of relief everybody promptly stopped using the infamous buigings-n and it has has not been used since... This change obliterated both the accusative-nominative distinction and the masculine-feminine one.

The dative only occurred when indirect objects were used without a preposition. All prepositions had come to use the accusative which was now identical to the nominative for anything but personal pronouns. The genitive was still a bit more common although it was always possible to use a construction with van to avoid it:

de vloek der mensheid –> de vloek van de mensheid

Thus the change of 1947 basically put an end to the case endings as a system.

Still, there are numerous relics that are difficult to understand, let alone use properly, without some knowledge of the old system.

[edit] Genitives

As in English, genitives are regularly used to indicate possession with proper names:

Jans auto

John's car

There is a growing tendency to extend this usage to female proper names (in defiance of the old case endings) in stead of a construction using the clitic form of the possessive pronoun.

Annies auto - Annie d'r auto

For inanimate nouns the genitive is clearly on its way out, although the plural can occasionally still be seen:

het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden

de prins der dieven

het periodiek systeem der elementen – the periodic system of the elements

Occasionally people deliberately opt to use the odd archaic expression like plek des onheils as a stylistic gadget.

The adjective still has a productive partitive genitive in -s that occurs after words like wat, iets, veel etc.:

iets lekkers – something yummy

The genitive occurs in various fossilized forms -usually functioning as adverbs- like:

's ochtends – in the morning, at day break

's morgens - in de morning

's middags – in the afternoon

's avonds – in the evening

's nachts – in the night

's winters – during the winter

tweemaal daags - twice a day

barrevoets - barefoot

blootshoofds – with bare head

grotendeels – for the most part

een ieder ging zijns weegs - each went in his own direction

Notice the vowel change in dag – daags and weg - weegs

The form 's is a clitic form of des, the masc/neuter genitive article. Notice the -n of grotendeels. The adjective had had both strong and weak endings (as it still does in German) and the -n is weak ending.

[edit] Datives

One preposition had stubbornly retained the dative and it still occurs mostly in petrified dative forms. It is the word te – at, to. The noun originally received an -e in this case. The proposition often occurs fused with the old dative articles:

te + den -> ten (masc and neut. sg.)

te + der -> ter (fem sg. and plural)

ten tijde van - in the days of..

ten hoogste - at the most

ten dele – partly

ten eerste - firstly

terdege - thoroughly

ter gelegenheid – on the occasion of

ter aarde bestellen – commit to earth, bury

te also occurs without articles:

te allen tijde – at all times

te zijner tijd – in due course

te gelegener tijd – at a convenient moment

Notice that tijd is feminine in the latter two, masculine in the other, a good example of how corrupt the case/gender had become in the end. The feminine is probably a German influence (die Zeit is feminine). There are more oddities:

het hart – ter harte (neuter -feminine)

Te also has a few non-archaic usages. It is used in combination with infinitives as to does in English:

Dat is goed om te weten – that is good to know

Hij begon af te vallen – he began to lose weight

It is also used to indicate excess, as English too:

Dit is te veel – This is too much.

Or with locations, as English at or in :

te A'dam – in Amsterdam

A few other prepositions had taken the dative in a previous phase of the language and some forms remain:

van den bloede - of (royal) blood

van harte! - from all my heart

met verve – with passion

in den beginne – in the beginning (Genesis)

in koelen bloede

Accusative relics are rare because the case resembled the nominative, but a greeting like:

goedenavond

has an extra -n- because it was an accusative ending of the adjective goed.