I believe we drop the ‘u’ (on a lot of words) because of Noah Webster.

I think I remember reading somewhere that when he compiled his dictionary, he wanted American English to be distinct from British English. So through the favour of his labour, and to the horrour of some, he declared himself the govenour of American English.

I think he’s responsible for other changes too, though I can’t remember any off hand. Jail comes to mind, but I don’t know it’s original word.

Dutch, the language spoken in The Netherlands (or Holland as so many, too many for my liking, keep calling our small country, but that’s also down to historical ‘marketing’) originates from ‘Diets’ spoken in Western Europe (Germany among other countries) around the Middle ages. German Diets evolved into German (or Duits as we and they say) and The Netherlands’ ‘Diets’ evolved into Dutch (or as we say: Nederlands).

We were invaded by Spain, France etc which ‘left’ their own borrowed words.
So yes, definitely older than American-English (BTW, why do you drop the u out of everything: coloUr, neighboUr )

Historical the Dutch (from The Netherlands) were sailors, explorers, conquerors of many colonies (Far-East, Caribbean and South-Africa). Always after the Portuguese and before the English Empire. ‘We’ were known around the world so to say.

Side-note: the ‘Dutchies’ in the USA are original German people who called themselves in their own language Duitsers, which does sound like the more known (due to history) Dutch = The Netherlands.

End of lesson 1 (Yes, history is a great hobby of mine, makes you understand the modern world a bit better)

No, I didn’t know that. I thought we Americans were the only one with a ‘mut’ language. Is Dutch older than American English?

Adam,

I wonder about that too. I probably have a few different voices, in all honesty. I’m a little different in person than on the phone. And I tend to be even a bit different from those in how I write. Perhaps it’s me. Perhaps it’s the medium. Not sure.

Thanks for the resources. I’ll check them out.

I say that because it’s a different context than I’ve been writing in for a long time. I think (although maybe my readers don’t) that my ‘voice’ comes across differently in articles vs. books vs. email, and now, vs. blogs. It’s a different context, and the process of moving our thoughts through our words is shaped, even if very slightly, by that context.

Two great resources I’ll recommend:
Publication coach.com, the site of Daphne Gray-Grant… her ezine is amazing, and incredible powerful (even though it’s super short). Her work has impacted my writing in a huge way.

Spunk and Bite.com, the website of the book of the same name. AMAZING read, very enlightening.

Okay, so now you know my secrets…

Can’t explain it really, Dutch feels much more ‘restricted’ and (I’ve been told many times over) a very difficult language to learn as a foreigner. Could be its ‘simplicity’? Without losing its richness of course

You’re welcome. Interesting about writing in English. I often wonder if perhaps English might be a bit ‘freer’ of a language because of its origin. English is a mut. Much of what we can claim of our own is slang. The rest, we’ve borrowed from the other great languages of the world. So perhaps there’s a reason in there?

Thank you! Must honestly say that it is kind of a family trait (3 uncles who are/were journalists, lots of cousins into AmDram etc) but glad to ‘hear’ you enjoy my ‘voice’

Funny thing though, lately I discovered that writing in English seems to ‘suit’ me much better than my native language. Although a very rich language on its own, I think English is much more subtle and allows me (I think) to ‘fine-tune’ my thoughts better.

(Oops, forgot to fill in the maths, comment gone – but thankfully cocomment came to the rescue – again)