Q: Translate the "Yanker didel" lyrics?

[Wilson Gray]

You may have to ask someone professionally-trained in Dutch. I don't
consider myself at all knowledgeable in Dutch, but this looks, at
best, only semi-literate, Ordinarily, it would be simple enough to
translate the words using an on-line Neerlands-Engels woordenboek or
using one of the many multi-volume dictionaries available at Widener
and figuring it out from there.

The Dutch word for "milk" is spelled _melk_, that for "and" is _en_ <
_end_, not _und_, "a" is _een_, i.e. not null, and that for "tenth" is
_tiende_. I wouldn't bet money on it, but, these spellings are
probably valid for 1855, too. I won't so much as hazard a guess as to
what the preceding three lines may be in real Dutch, since they look
like mere gibberish to me. _Y_ isn't even a letter of the Dutch
alphabet. But I'm already at the outer limit of my (in)competence in
assuming that the spelling, _en_, was already used in 1855.

The Duyckincks apparently bought it as Dutch and _Duyckinck_ is as
about as Dutch a name as you could ask for. OTOH, there are at least
four towns in France named "Gray," but that doesn't mean that I'm
competent in French.

-Wilson


On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 12:47 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Q:  Translate the "Yanker didel" lyrics?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Can someone who is knowledgeable in Dutch translate the following,
> alleged to be an ancestor of "Yankee Doodle"?  (The earliest such
> allegation that I have found via Google Books is 1855, in the
> Duyckincks' _Cyclopaedia_.)  I am also interested if these lyrics or
> similar could have been used circa 1600-1650.
>
> Yanker didel, doodel down
> Didel, dudel lanter,
> Yanke viver, voover vown,
> Botermilk und Tanther.
>
> The Duyckincks say "in use among the laborers, who in the time of
> harvest migrate from Germany to the Low Countries, where they receive
> for their work as much buttermilk as they can drink and a tenth of
> the grain secured by their exertions."  They say the last line is
> "buttermilk and a tenth".
>
> And "This song our informant has heard repeated by a native of that
> country, who had often listened to it at harvest time in his
> youth."  If so, the words would at least have been understandable circa 1800.
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org