Dutch Studies

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Dutch Studies (also Dutch Studies ) is the scientific research and study subject that deals with Dutch and Flemish linguistics , literature, regional studies, society and culture.

Education

Dutch Studies can be taken as a major or minor subject at more than 20 universities in German-speaking countries ( Münster , Germersheim , Aachen , Cologne , Kiel , Hildesheim , Berlin , Oldenburg , Vienna , Zurich , etc.). In addition, language courses in Dutch can be taken into account when studying German . The Dutch language is also established in the English-speaking area ( Great Britain and USA) and has become increasingly important in the Slavic-speaking area, especially since the EU expansion .

Undergraduate studies

At the beginning of the course there is usually learning the Dutch language. However, some students have already had Dutch as a school subject, as is particularly offered in the border regions of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony.

Main course

In the main course , more specific topics such as B. Literary history , linguistics , translation , cultural studies , social studies taught and researched.

Job profiles

The job profiles of the graduates are the teaching profession in secondary schools, work as a lecturer in publishing houses, cultural work (e.g. exhibitions , art history ) and the profession as a translator or journalist. Furthermore, in double qualification in social, economic and jurisprudential range of interesting career opportunities in the free economy or possible in the public sector. In the linguistic border areas there is usually a regional or cross-border cooperation between authorities and the private sector.

History of Dutch Studies

Initial disdain for the Middle Ages

At the beginning of the 16th century, under the influence of humanism , the Middle Ages (which had only just come to an end) were rated rather negatively, namely as the dark and uneducated time between antiquity and our own time. Accordingly, it was often not considered necessary to keep the Central Dutch manuscripts . Often old manuscripts were recycled: used as book covers or filler material or boiled over to glue.

New interest in Middle Dutch

At the beginning of the 19th century, under the influence of the German poet and Germanist August Hoffmann von Fallersleben, there was renewed interest in the Central Dutch language and literature. Regional differences emerged here in the new interest in the history of language.

Belgium

In the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium , Flanders , philologists were particularly interested in the glorious past of Dutch in the Middle Ages (see Duchy of Brabant and County of Flanders ). In the inner-Belgian language conflict , they wanted to show that Dutch was a glorious cultural language in what is now Belgium as early as the Middle Ages. Well-known representatives of this orientation were Jan Frans Willems , Snellaert, Serrure and Blommaert .

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, on the other hand, the Middle Ages were less important for their own history and identity. The Dutch Golden Age was the 17th century, not the Middle Ages. Accordingly, the Dutch philologists treated the Central Dutch language and literature more objectively than their colleagues in Flanders. These philologists are also summarized as the Leiden school of Matthias de Vries . These included (besides de Vries) WJA Jonckbloet , Eelco Verwijs, Jacob Verdam , LA te Winkel, WL van Helten, HE Moltzer, G. Kalff, FA Stoett, JW Muller and partly also J. Franck.

During this time, Verwijs and Verdam started the Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek , the "Middle Dutch Dictionary". It established the field of Older Dutch Studies .

20th century

Dutch studies made progress in the 20th century, but there was also a growing awareness of the following major knowledge gaps and uncertainties:

  • Official Middle Dutch was not sufficiently studied, so the non-literary texts, e.g. B. the many certificates and notices. Official texts have the great advantage that they show when and where they were written. Literary texts, on the other hand, can be copies of copies, and everyone who has copied this text can have left their linguistic traces in it.
  • The Artes literature (that is, the textbooks of medieval science) had not been sufficiently studied.
  • There were too few editions of the text , and the few editions that did exist were too unreliable.
  • Too often it was initially assumed that Middle Dutch was essentially a standard language, with no significant differences between centuries and regions.

In order to be able to fill these gaps, Maurits Gysseling began with a very extensive edition of all Dutch texts up to 1300, the Corpus van Middelnederlandse teksten (tot en met het jaar 1300) , also called Corpus Gysseling . This text edition is intended to accurately and carefully reproduce the early Dutch texts, both official and literary. This text output should make it possible to examine the temporal and spatial distribution of sounds, inflection forms and sentence structures.

Publications

  • Learn Dutch: Why and How ?; Reiner Arntz and Jos Wilmots, University of Hildesheim and University of Hasselt , 2005 (24 pages)
  • Jos Wilmots & Jos de Rooij: Voor wie Nederland en Vlaanderen wil leren know, Diepenbeek, Belgium, 1978
  • ders .: Voor wie al wat Nederlands kent, Diepenbeek Belgium, 1980,
  • PC Paardekooper: Buttoned abraakkunst, Antwerp Amsterdam

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Dutch studies  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Trade journals

  • Forum of letters
  • De Gids
  • Levende valley
  • Literature
  • Neighboring language Dutch
  • Nederlandse letterkunde
  • Nederlandse taalkunde
  • Neerlandia
  • Neerlandica extra muros
  • De Nieuwe Taalgids
  • Onze Taal
  • Spectator
  • Taal en tongval
  • Tijdschrift voor literatuurwetenschap
  • Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde

Direct access to electronic journals is provided by the specialist access Dutch, Afrikaans and Frisian from the Electronic Journals Library (EZB ). This subject access is part of the EZB subject view of the Virtual Subject Library (ViFa) Benelux.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Herman Vekeman and Andreas Ecke, "History of the Dutch Language", Bern 1992, ISBN 3-906750-37-X