As the English language has been spread all over the world, it is only natural that dialects and variants of the language have emerged. The dialects and variants are a result of grammar and pronunciation mistakes because of the differences in languages. Dunglish is good example of this as it has been formed by a collision of Dutch and English.
Dunglish first occurred as “Coal English” early in the 20th century as the Dutch port workers had to communicate with the crew on English coal ships that came with supplies to The Netherlands. “Coal English” is today known as the poorest variant of English. The Dutch have a tendency to translate words and sentences directly from Dutch to English, without taking order and meaning of words in consideration. This can cause misunderstandings like the former Dutch ambassador and prime minister Dries van Agt made, he supposedly once said: “I can stand my little man”, when he actually meant to say “I can stand up for myself.” The reason for this error was that Dries van Agt directly translated the Dutch proverb “Ik kan mijn mannetje staan”, a Dutch idiom meaning roughly “I can stand up for myself”.
One of the main reasons why the Dutch speak English badly is because the languages don’t follow the same word order. The English language has a SVO sentence order, while Dutch has a V2 sentence order. This makes many Dutch speakers use incorrectly syntax in English, which can create errors like “What you mean?” instead of “What do you mean?”
The Dutch are also known for having a bad pronunciation as they struggle with distinguishing between sounds in the English language. In Dutch they don’t distinguish between [æ] and [e], making it hard for Dutch speakers to pronounce words like bad. Luckily the Dutch have improved their language skills as a result of globalization.
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When introducing the task; Give examples of other varieties of English than those that are used in the Anglo-American core area, and reflect on their distinctive character, I never thought anyone would write about Dunglish! I have never heard about the term. But I'm assuming it is used and it was certainly interesting to read about. Some new facts I was not aware of. But I agree they have improved their language skills, I know many from the Netherlands who speak perfect English!
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