Language purification or "purism" are the terms used for the attempts to "purify" a language from all words which originally did not belong to that language. "Barbarisms" and loan words must, according to the purists, be banished from the language. [note: Dutch purists sometimes distinguish between "loan words" which are direct borrowings from other languages and are still felt to be foreign, and "bastard words" which are loan words which have since become partially adapted to Dutch morphology and inflection; English tends not to make the same distinction though a parallel might be the choice between "syllabi" and "syllabuses" as the plural form. All are referred to as "loan words" below.]
An important role in the rise of this movement in the Netherlands during the sixteenth century was played by the Reformation, as it directed itself to all classes of the population and was also partially dependent on writings in the vernacular. The rise of a national consciousness too, in this period, encouraged a greater esteem for the mother tongue. The role of the Renaissance must also not be ignored, when writers began to write in their mother tongue, and to do so as purely as possible. But because the mother language (according to some) was in a "bad state" because of "neglect", it first had to be "purified". Whilst there was a feeling that the influence of Latin on morphology and syntax raised the status of Dutch, the influence of loan words on vocabulary was not valued so highly.
One of the Netherlanders who wanted to "purify" Dutch in the sixteenth century was the rederijker ('rhetorician') Dirk V. Coornhert. He demanded that these loan words should be replaced by Dutch words - whether by old words or by new formations (neologisms).
In the field of grammar in particular there were demands to turn the specialist terms into Dutch.
For example:
enkel ghetal instead of singularis [singular] meervoud instead of pluralis [plural] letterkonst instead of grammatica [grammar] woord instead of verbum [word] naam instead of nomen [noun] onderwerp instead of subjectum [subject] ghezeg instead of praedicatum [predicate] But not all neologisms had actually found a place in the Dutch language. In 1553 Jan van der Werve published his book Het Tresoor der Duytsscher Talen. A legal dictionary in which he noted the Dutch counterparts alongside the loan words. It is noticeable that this purism was directed principally against the influence of the Romance languages, with very little attention paid to borrowings from German. Only Pontus de Heuiter objected to loans from German. In his Nederduitse Orthographie (1581) he lists a number of borrowed words with the Dutch equivalents which he felt should be given preference.
For example:
ambassadeur / gezant [ambassador] absent / ontegenwoordih [absent] justicie / reht or rehtvaerdiheit [justice] occasie / gelegentheit [opportunity] restitueren / weergeven [restore] He did not do this just for the Romance loan words, but also placed alongside German loans a Dutch version which he deemed better.
For example:
verlof / oorlof [permission] feilen / missen or gebreken [lack] vertrouwen / betrouwen [trust] At that time a rejection of German loan words was very exceptional, and Jan van Hout (1542-1609) - a zealot for language purity - even regarded borrowings from German as an enrichment for Dutch.
Only in the nineteenth century, when trade and industry became more and more concentrated on Germany - which led to an enormous stream of loan words - did the purists direct themselves vehemently against German influence. The reason for this was the close relationship of these two languages. The more any two languages are related the easier it is for a mixing to take place. Whereas French "penetrators" are still easily recognised in Dutch, German words sneak in unnoticed.
The purists did not succeed in "purifying" Dutch from German loans. Right up to the present day words are borrowed from German.
For example:
belovenis [promise] benutten [utilise] inburgeren [naturalise] nieuwbouw [(building) development] jaargang [(publication) year volume] But there is still opposition to derivations such as:
arbeidsvijandig [work-shy] handgebreid [hand-knitted] vijftiger jaren (instead of de jaren vijftig) [the fifties] (see De Vries 1993: 13)
In 1584 appeared the Twe-spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst - the first printed Dutch grammar - written by Hendrick Laurenszoon Spieghel and others. They turned against the "neglect" of the mother tongue and strove to bring the language into order using the language's own intrinsic system. They also tried to stop the use of loan words. The Twe-spraack was therefore also intended to be a plea for language purification, and as a contribution to the improvement of the language in the field of grammar.
Some neologisms from the sixteenth century in the fields of mathematics and geometry, introduced primarily by Simon Stevin, have found a permanent place in the language. Stevin pleaded in his mathematical and philosophical writings for the use of the mother tongue in scientific publications. He used existing Dutch expressions for mathematical concepts, and created some neologisms when there were no Dutch equivalents. Concepts such as driehoek, vierkant and wortel [triangle, quadrilateral, root] became part of mathematics because of him; but other words which he formed, such as naelde, seul or vergaren [pyramid, cylinder, to add] were not adopted. Simon Stevin was also the initiator of the engineering school in Leiden, and wanted the lessons there to be given in Dutch. His wishes were not granted however, since Latin acted as the international scientific language and tuition in the vernacular would certainly not have been very good for international (trade-) contacts. This undertaking fell in line with the attempt by the Chamber of Rhetoric In Liefd' Bloeyende to employ Dutch as the language of tuition at the University of Leiden. In their Ruygh-bewerp vande Redenkaveling, 1585, they make a plea for Dutch as a scientific language, but their attempts too were unsuccessful - only a few individuals, such as Stevin, gave their lessons in Dutch.
The discussion about the purification of Dutch is still continuing, and is unlikely to come to a speedy conclusion.
