{"id":4416,"date":"2016-07-19T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T08:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=4416"},"modified":"2016-07-15T19:31:56","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T19:31:56","slug":"the-brexit-the-nexit-the-netherlands-and-globalisering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/the-brexit-the-nexit-the-netherlands-and-globalisering\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU, de Globalisering<\/i>, and the Dutch Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

The summer is off to a shaky start for\u00a0the European project.<\/em>\u00a0For the 27 remaining member states, it’s not only politics and public life that stands to change, but also language, languages, and the balance between them. In the midst of it all, the Netherlands and the Dutch language have front row seats, right in the eye of the Euro-storm.<\/p>\n

This post will use Dutch vocabulary related to globalization and international trade that may not be familiar to all readers. Most words are used in context, and there’s a handy woordenlijst<\/i> at the end.<\/small><\/p>\n

During the Dutch\u00a0voorzitterschap\u00a0<\/em>of the EU<\/a>, one of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s primary goals was assuring that\u00a0the Netherlands’ strongest ally in Brussels, the UK, was there to stay.<\/p>\n

But that didn’t work out so well, to the not-so-subtle satisfaction of some segments of the Dutch media and\u00a0samenleving<\/em>.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j1OiBsBtuTk<\/p>\n

Since the shocking and disappointing outcome of the referendum across the Channel, Rutte\u00a0has pointed out in multiple interviews<\/a> that the Brexit was also an “exit Nederlandse invloed in de EU<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

The reason is\u00a0more than strictly political\u2014the Brits, and their language, have been an important Dutch ally, in Brussels as well as\u00a0over much of the several\u00a0centuries\u00a0that led\u00a0up to the European Union and its embrace of globalization.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons for this is that\u00a0compact\u00a0countries like the Netherlands\u2014with their tiny language and obscure culture and giant multinational corporations\u2014stand a lot to lose in a globalizing world. When money matters are decided in Frankfurt and political ones in Brussels, countries like the Netherlands stand the best chance when they can work with multiple poles of power that\u00a0keep each other in check and save the little guys from getting trampled.<\/p>\n

We already know that, as of now at least, a ‘Nexit’ isn’t likely<\/a> to have the Dutch following\u00a0the Brits out the door. So what\u00a0does\u00a0<\/em>await the Dutch language then? For that, a look to the history of\u00a0de globalisering, de Nederlanden, en de Nederlandse taal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"England

The Low Countries have always been a linguistic and cultural transition zone between English, French, and German. In the 21st century, the characters and plot are mostly the same, but the details get a modern twist. Image by Christiaan Sgroten<\/a> via Wikimedia Commons under public domain.<\/small><\/p><\/div>\n

The linguistic conundrum of globalization and the Dutch language stands bold in the headline of the\u00a02014 article “De globalisering is verkeerd beheerd<\/em><\/a>”\u00a0in\u00a0the Belgian online magazine\u00a0Mondiaal Nieuws.<\/em><\/p>\n

This\u00a0essay on the ‘mismanagement’ of globalization begins\u00a0with\u00a0de eerste globalisering\u2014<\/em>the age of imperialism and colonialism from the 16th to the 18th century\u2014and proceeds through the\u00a0tweede globalisering\u00a0<\/em>of the 19th century Industrial Revolution to put the current age of globalization in context. De derde globalisering<\/em>, or Third Wave Globalization, describes the familiar modern era of free trade, multinational corporations, and internal single markets and currency unions like those of the EU.<\/p>\n

During\u00a0de eerste globalisering<\/em>, Dutch companies and colonizers\u00a0scattered their language across the seas to reach as far as Indonesia, South Africa, and the Caribbean.\u00a0At the peak of the industrial\u00a0tweede globalisering<\/em>, Dutch speakers scattered for a different reason, this time primarily as refugees fleeing the violence of Europe or economic opportunists seeking the then greener pastures of North America. From the 1940s to the 1980s, Dutch-speaking communities took root\u00a0in places\u00a0like Canada and New Zealand, as well as across an increasingly interconnected Western Europe.<\/p>\n

\"nederlandse

Het Nederlandse Koloniale Rijk<\/i> during the first wave of globalization. Many of the shaded areas still speak Dutch or Dutch-influenced languages.<\/p>\n

Image by Rex Germanus<\/a> via Wikimedia Commons under CC0 (Public Domain).<\/small><\/p><\/div>\n

It’s also during Second Wave Globalization that the Dutch language began to adopt a more international vocabulary for talking\u00a0about the internationalism sweeping through all parts of twentieth century life.<\/p>\n

The word\u00a0globalisering\u00a0<\/em>is itself an Anglicism, borrowed from across the Atlantic and put into a popular use that endlessly irked mid-century Dutch linguists. That’s because, if\u00a0we really want to mierenneuken<\/em>, the Dutch word\u00a0globaal\u00a0<\/em>(the root of the verb\u00a0globaliseren<\/em>) means “op een op het geheel betrekking hebbende verzamelstaat<\/em>“, or “allesomvattend<\/em>“; it’s something closer to the meaning of the English word ‘universal’ or ‘general’.<\/p>\n

The Dutcher Dutch word for\u00a0de globalisering\u00a0<\/em>has mostly disappeared from popular use, but today you can still\u00a0find it hidden in\u00a0the more conservative\u00a0schrijftaal<\/em>\u00a0of Flemish Belgium. In fact, we see it in the name of the magazine I\u00a0cited at the beginning of this post,\u00a0Mondiaal Nieuws<\/em>.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0Van Dale<\/em>,\u00a0‘mondiaal’<\/em> means ‘over de hele wereld genomen<\/em>‘, but the form\u00a0mondialisering\u00a0<\/em>is missing from at least the free online version of the Netherlands’ definitive dictionary. Thankfully, however, this linguistic fossil lives on in not only Wikipedia<\/a>, but also the publications and style books of several prominent\u00a0nederlandstalige\u00a0<\/em>publications.<\/p>\n

In their house style book<\/a>, the NRC Handelsblad points out that while\u00a0globaal\u00a0<\/em>shouldn’t be mistakenly understood as a synonym for the English ‘global’, it is acceptable to use\u00a0globalisering\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0mondialisering\u00a0<\/em>interchangeably to mean “het wereldwijd worden of maken<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

The conclusion drawn by the\u00a0NRC Handelsblad, language reference site\u00a0Taaladvies<\/em><\/a>, and most of the Dutch and Flemish media seems to be\u00a0the same:\u00a0de globalisering\u00a0<\/em>is a welcome immigrant to the Dutch language, and there’s no particular reason aside from linguistic pedantry for treating it as a second-class citizen alongside the autochtonous Dutch mondialisering<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But at the same time as it embraces the linguistic gifts of globalization, the\u00a0NRC Handelsblad\u00a0<\/em>has called it to task for stifling language’s creative capacity. Several weeks before the Brits voted to Brexit the EU, the\u00a0Handelsblad\u00a0<\/em>published an article titled\u00a0Neoliberalisme bedreigt veelvormigheid van de taal<\/em><\/a>, lamenting the streamlined and lifeless language that’s emerged in the world of international commerce and the constant pressure to sell.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned above, neoliberalism\u2014the\u00a0economic approach that says multinational corporations and international trade should face as little regulation as possible\u2014is the centerpiece of today’s Third Wave of globalization. It’s also an ideology that, within the European Union, is by far strongest in the United Kingdom, and is espoused in a somewhat more moderate form\u00a0by the ruling VVD party in the Netherlands. The\u00a0Handelsblad<\/em> poses this critique of unrestrained capitalism on the language:<\/p>\n

Het neoliberalisme\u00a0[…]\u00a0tast het vermogen tot verbeelden aan. In samenhang hiermee is de taal homogener geworden. Zakelijker. De wereld wordt beschreven in stereotypen. Zinnen zijn korter […]\u00a0Er is duidelijk een hang naar formele terminologie en naar een benadering die beschrijft in plaats van bezingt.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The writer of this NRC article will likely see the Brexit as a chance for Dutch and other Europeans to breathe a fresh sigh of relief, but\u00a0a Neoliberalexit is even less likely than a Nexit. The Netherlands won’t stop trying to buy and sell and trade with the rest of the world, and editors and media producers won’t suddenly be freed from\u00a0the linguistic constraints of their bottom lines.<\/p>\n

Even het<\/em>\u00a0neoliberalisme\u00a0<\/em>that the NRC criticizes for its assault\u00a0on language is itself a Latin American linguistic invasion, brought to you by globalization.<\/p>\n

Under the 1980s military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Spanish-speaking scholars in Latin America popularized “el<\/em>\u00a0neoliberalismo”<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>to describe the oppressive market fundamentalism applied by that regime and imbued the term with the generally negative connotation it carries today. As the economic debate between the North and South raged on,\u00a0neoliberalismo\u00a0<\/em>quickly found its way into the pens and mouths of North American critics\u00a0as ‘neoliberalism’, and the Dutch neoliberalisme\u00a0<\/em>is just one of the\u00a0many other languages to take up the term across global society.<\/p>\n

So in a world where the Dutch’s best\u00a0bondgenoot\u00a0<\/em>has pulled out of the Cool Kids Club and taken its money with it, leaving a thin strip of\u00a0het Nederlands taalgebied\u00a0<\/em>squished between Brussels and a geographic wall of French speakers\u00a0on one side and the German-speaking financial and industrial heart of Europe on the other\u2014what’s a language to do?<\/p>\n

Neoliberalism and globalization\u00a0won’t go away with the UK: there’s still money to be put in Dutch pockets. The question is, where will it be coming from, and more importantly, what language will it speak? English, French, German… Dutch?<\/p>\n

Although satirical newssite Nieuwspaal asserts that Dutch is clearly a good choice<\/a> for the new voertaal<\/em> of the EU, that’s not likely to happen. The French, with eyes full of nostalgie<\/em>, are set\u00a0on reclaiming their lost linguistic might<\/a>, and in the opposite direction, the German language and the jobs produced by it suddenly look a lot richer as the second-richest kid on the Euro block packs up and prepares to move out.<\/p>\n

What else will happen to the Dutch language without its protective older cousin English peering over the canal to keep French and German at bay? How will the arrivals of thousands of Arab-speaking refugees reshape the urban languages of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and other multicultural cities?<\/p>\n

\"globalisering

One of Leiden’s many muurgedichten<\/i><\/a>, this one in Arabic on the side of a caf\u00e9.<\/small><\/p><\/div>\n

The same old\u00a0mierenneukers\u00a0<\/em>who lost sleep over\u00a0de globalisering\u00a0<\/em>surely aren’t fond of\u00a0de neoliberalisme\u00a0<\/em>either, but I think the word, if not what it represents, is a welcome gift from the greater globe.<\/p>\n

I think if we can heed\u00a0the\u00a0NRC Handelsblad<\/em>‘s warning, if we can keep neoliberal\u00a0hebzucht\u00a0<\/em>from damaging the creativity and agility that’s allowed\u00a0globalisering\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0neoliberalisme\u00a0<\/em>into the language, then the future of Dutch looks bright.<\/p>\n

De toekomst is helder, en het is zeker globaal, mondiaal, internationaal, en Europees.<\/em><\/p>\n

Woordenlijst<\/u>:<\/p>\n