Dutch boy and "somebody wants to see you"

Dutch postcard "somebody wants to see you"

This postcard gives other great examples of how the English language was changed to create the humorous ‘Dutch’ accent. One way was to borrow and intersperse easy, common German words like “und”, which means “and” in English. Since these two words have a close resemblance and the German version is widely known, it was frequently used as a substitute. To make the word even more artificially German, the author attached a “t” which constitutes “undt”. The “dt” combination is a peculiarity of the German language. [1] A different trick of Adams is to render the /th/ sound to a simple /t/ or /d/ which we find in “Dere” for “There” on the postcard.[2]

[1] Mehring, Frank. "Deutsch, Dutch, Double Dutch: Authentic and Artificial German-American Dialects." Amerikastudien / American Studies 51, no. 1 (2006): 99.

[2] Kersten, Holger. "Using the Immigrant's Voice: Humor and Pathos in Nineteenth Century "Dutch" Dialect Texts." MELUS 21, no. 4 (1996): 5. doi:10.2307/467639.

Dutch boy and "somebody wants to see you"