# The Dutch Netherlands

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dutch-netherlands/92451>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 9, 2001, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dutch-netherlands/92451 "2001-11-09T16:04:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Vincent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Vincent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vincent)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dutch-netherlands/92451/1 "2001-11-09T16:04:44Z")

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Does anyone happen to know why it is that in English the adjective of ‘The Netherlands’ as well as the noun denoting the people from that country and the language they speak is ‘Dutch’ while it would seem to make much more sense to reserve that word for referring to Germany, which in German is of course _Deutschland_.

The Dutch words for Dutch don’t seem remotely similar to the word Dutch; a Dutchman is ‘_een Nederlander_’; the Dutch language is ‘_het Nederlands_’ and the adjective is also _Nederlands_. This only makes sense since the Dutch refer to their country as ‘_Nederland_’

Why is this?

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dutch-netherlands/92451/2 "2001-11-09T16:17:43Z")

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Hi and welcome to the SDMB.

I did a search for you and found the following threads which might be helpful in answering some of your questions:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=80115](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=80115)  
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=58279](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=58279)

Hope this helps.

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**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-dutch-netherlands/92451/3 "2001-11-09T16:24:08Z")

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Just to add to all that, I was reading a sort of almanac of the netherlands from 1615 or so this week, and they refer to their language therein as "duytsch’.