Everything about Dietsch totally explained
Dietsch (
"Diets" in modern Dutch) is a colloquial word for the
Middle Dutch language. In a linguistic context however, it specifically refers to the southern Middle Dutch dialects such as
Brabantian,
Flemish and
Limburgish.
Diets(ch) is a
cognate of "
Dutch", "
Deutsch" and "
Duits".
In 16th and 17th century "
Duits" and "
Diets" were spelling variants of the same word. A modern translation for this word however would in both cases be "
Dutch", even though "
Duits" in modern Dutch means "
German".
Origin and linguistic meaning
"
Diets" derives itself from the Middle Dutch word "
diet" meaning "
people". In a linguistic context, "
Diets" refers to the southern dialects and "
Duuts" (which differs from "
Diets" due to
Frisian influence) to the Northern ones. The word relates closely to the
Gothic word
thiuda and the
Old English Þéod, both meaning the same.
The forms "
duits" and "
diets" evolved later on. The Old Dutch, as well a the Old High German, form of "
diets" is "
diut". This evolved into "
diet" and "
duut" and their adjective forms "
diets" and "
duuts". The word "
duut" later became "
duits" because of a specifically Dutch sound shift (u → ui) which turned a vowel into a diphthong. "
Duits" soon only referred to the
German language and
people because the diphthong "
ui" now made "
duuts" sound like the German
ethnonym "
Deutsch", compare German [dɔʏ̯tʃ] (
Deutsch) with Dutch [dœyts] (
Duijtsch/Duytsch/Duits). "
Diets" was used along "
Nederlands" (both meaning "
Dutch") until the Second World War when after the German occupation it fell in disuse because the Germans and Dutch-speaking
fascists used the word extensively in their propaganda.
Disappearance from everyday speech
Until circa 1830, the Dutch and Flemish were generally considered to be one single people and are still considered as such by some. Due to historical causes, mostly rooted in the Dutch revolt, the two groups slowly started to diverge. The concept of
Diets didn't make a distinction between Dutch people, even though such a distinction began to form. Thus when Belgium (and thus Flanders) proclaimed its independence from the
United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the use of
Diets became limited and depended heavily on context.
In the 19th century, when the creation of national states took hold over Europe, the use of terms like
Nederduits waned in the Netherlands. The German unification by Prussia led to Bismarck enforcing
High German as the official language in the German-controlled regions bordering the Netherlands and Belgium. This led to suppression of the
Low Franconian and
Low German (for example Niederdeutsch, Plattdeutsch or Plattdüütsch) dialects in the western and northern part of Germany. That suppression and the growth of power of Prussia during the German unification caused a counter response to emphasise
Nederlands and
Vlaams as the name of their languages to signal its difference from
Deutsch and
Deutschland. Distance from the great German claims was considered patriotic. The term
diets gradually became used only by adherers to a great German cause.
However, the main reason why "
Diets" is no longer a part of common speech in Dutch is the adoption of it in the 20th century by fascists (
NSB,
Zwart Front,
Verdinaso and
VNV), who used it extensively in their propaganda. "
Diets" in their use referred to the shared ethnic origin of both the Dutch and Flemish and formed a part of the name of their dream of "
Dietsland", a hypothetical, conceptual country in which all Dutch people were united, but close to Germany. The German invasion in World War II discredited this movement and made "
Diets" a term for adherers to a fascist great German cause.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Dietsch'.
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