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From: "Lin Van Buren" <>
Subject: [NYALBANY] how do I pronounce these names?
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 21:29:11 -0000
References: <001d01c3d3e1$beadcf30$3e29c318@hewlett5k1589j> <opr1btuxx6aoxl8u@smtp.east.cox.net> <3FFA66F5.AC6749D7@nycap.rr.com>


Dutch is a living language and, as such, has evolved over the centuries. The
vowel sound that seems to have been written as a y in the Hudson Valley of
New York a few centuries ago has a modern equivalent in the Netherlands of
ij, as in IJsselmeer or Nijmegen. The pronunciation of this sound is about
midway between the long a in slate and the long i in site. Examples can be
found in many modern Dutch words, such as ijs (which means ice), mijter (a
bishop's mitre), tijger (tiger), vrijdag (Friday) and lijn (line).

In Dutch, a g is pronounced gutturally, a bit like the ch in the Scottish
word "loch" but with more air. This explains, for example, how the Dutch
surname Goes evolved in the Hudson Valley into Hoes. But I cannot tell you
how Van Guyseling would be pronounced today in the Hudson Valley! These
things evolved independently after 1664, and I can recall standing in the
library in Poughkeepsie one time giving my best French pronunciation of my
Du Bois ancestors, only to be told that in the Hudson Valley, they say "De
Boyce"! So, Debby, you are wise to ask this question.

Debby, my advice would be to ring one of the libraries in the area, so that
you can actually HEAR how they pronounce the names - the Troy Public Library
or the Adriance Library in Poughkeepsie or the Kinderhook Public Library in
Kinderhook would be starting points.

I know it may not seem so when you are struggling to decipher the writing in
those old Dutch manuscripts of Hudson Valley churches, but Dutch is a closer
relative of the English language than you might think - and the Frisian
language, still spoken by about 500,000 people in the northern part of the
Netherlands, is THE closest living language of ALL to English.

Lin Van Buren





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