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So, what's with this the Netherlands, Holland and Dutch? I admit it's confusing, but it's also a thing with the English language.
First of all, Holland is a more commonly accepted name than the Netherlands, but the Netherlands is the official name. It's like with England and the UK (or Great Britain), or America and the US: people confuse one for the other.
Holland is officially only a part of the Netherlands; the western part to be exact. The Netherlands consists of 12 provinces, two of which make up Holland: South-Holland and North-Holland. People from other parts of the country do not appreciate being "confused" with coming from Holland.
Although the Netherlands is a small country, it's very diverse. I would almost be inclined to say: if you cram the US with all its diversity into the tiny space of the Netherlands, you will find as much diversity there as here.
Our language is Dutch, but we say Netherlands. It's a thing with the English language, which somehow has us confused with the Germans I think, as with Pennsylvania Dutch, which in fact is German. The Germans speak "Deutsch".
For the record: German and Dutch are not the same language, although they may sound the same. They are as different as Spanish and Italian.
The Dutch alphabet is not different from the English, except for the letter Y. In Dutch we use the letter ÿ in words like ÿs (ice or ice cream), although we also acknowledge the y, which we call a Greek Y. With the rise of the personal computer the ÿ disappeared from the keyboard and a simple solution was found: ij. So, one letter became two and people got used to it to the extent that most don't even notice the difference anymore.
For the untrained eye - unaware of the history behind it - it looks like there are two letters there, which can pose some difficulty with pronunciations. For instance: dijk (Dutch for dike), looks like di-j-k (diejzk).
In dictionaries this can sometimes cause problems with alphabetizing words. Some dictionaries treat ij as one, being the 25th letter in the alphabet. Others treat it as i-j, which puts it right behind the letter h.
Another thing Dutch is famous for is the G-sound: pronounced sharply like hocking a loogie. I know this sounds gross, but it's true. This is a sound found almost nowhere in Europe, not even in our neighboring countries like Germany or Belgium. There the G is pronounced softer, almost like an H.
Some words of Dutch origin: yacht (comes from jacht), coleslaw (comes from kool which is cabbage and sla which means salad or lettuce), mannequin comes from manneken (little man or puppet).
As you may know, New York was originally named New Amsterdam. Some reminders of its Dutch roots can still be found: Brooklyn was named after a small town called Breukelen.
Another thing the Dutch apparently are famous for is their tightness with money, as demonstrated in sayings in the English language. These sayings usually have a negative connotation, like "going Dutch", which means each member pays its own part of the bill. I don't really have much choice in the matter: I ALWAYS go Dutch...
In fact, the Scottish are more famous for their tightness with money. Somebody once said the difference between the Dutch and Scots is, that the Dutch are mean while they have money, the Scots are mean while they have no money...
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