LL-L "Language survival" 2002.10.28 (03) [D/E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 28.OCT.2002 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
 L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic
               V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Marco Evenhuis <evenhuis at zeelandnet.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2002.10.19 (02) [E]

Thomas Byro wrote:

> I would like to add that in the lowland areas, Dutch names are extremely
> frequent.  I went to High School with many.  No one though assumes though
> that someone is a Jackson White merely because their name is Vreeland.
That
> distinction is reserved to the people who live in the mountains or who
moved
> from there.Making joking comments about the Jackson Whites was commonplace
> in the area but I don't recall anyone with a Dutch surname doing so.  I
> wonder if the name and concept of Jackson Whites is not imposed by the
> outsiders who have moved into the area who were not pleased with the
obvious
> mixed race status of the mountain people?  In other words, that the
Jackson
> Whites were not a separate people but were part of the continuum of Dutch
> decended people?

I recently correpsonded with Dr. David Cohen,
Senior Research Associate with the New Jersey
Historical Commission and author of the book
"The Ramapo Mountain People". He says that the
Jersey Dutch dialect died out among the Jackson
Whites somewhere in the 20th century (probably
around 1950). Nevertheless, there are people who
claim that in their homes, the older Jackson Whites
still talk gibberish every few sentences. I assume
that by gibberish they mean that some Jersey Dutch
expressions and words are still in use.

Even without asking him, mr. Cohen already sort of
affirmed your assumption that the Jackson Whites
were part of a continuum of Dutch decended people.
He wrote to me: "I also have some additional thoughts
on what I term the Afro-Dutch regional subculture of
New York and New Jersey in a chapter titled "Afro-
Dutch Folklore and Folklife," pp. 31-46 in a book of my
essays titled Folk Legacies Revisited, published by Rutgers
University Press in 1995".

The term Afro-Dutch comes to mind again if one realizes
that one of the varieties of Dutch spoken in NJ and NY
was actually called Neger Duits (Negroe Dutch). It was a
more or less creolized version of the geographically varying
Dutch varieties in NJ and NY, namely Jersey Dutch, Mo-
hawk Dutch, Albany Dutch and Schoharie Dutch. Jersey
Dutch is the most wellknown of these varieties and there-
fore the five varieties are often lumped together under that
name.
Dr. Cohen wrote me that this 'Neger Duits' was actually the
variety spoken by the Jackson Whites: "I have material on the
variant of Jersey Dutch spoken by the ancestors of the Rama-
po Mountain People.  It is based on an article written by a
Columbia University linguist named John Dyneley Prince
titled "The Jersey Dutch Dialect," which appeared in Dialect
Notes 3 (1910): pp. 459-84.  Prince's chief informant on
"Neger Duits" was William De Freece of Ringwood, who was
one of the Ramapo Mountain People".

Given the fact that the Jackson Whites spoke the variety of
Jersey Dutch that was spoken by black slaves, the obvious
conclusion is that the Jackson Whites are primarily decen-
dants of freed or escaped slaves, mixed with white outcasts,
indians and perhaps a few more groups.
In that way, they are indeed part of the "Dutch" culture,
that they share with the Dutch decended valley-people. Even-
though they live on the edge of that culture in every way.
The theory or story that the Jackson Whites primarily derive
from 200 prostitutes who only arrived in NY just before they
moved into the mountains, doesn't really make sense anymore.
Where would they have learned Neger Duits and why would
these English and African prostitutes speak that language
amongst themselves?

It would be interesting to see what the gibberish that I
mentioned above, actually consists of today. David Cohen said
that the Jackson Whites at least still know a Dutch nursery
rhyme, called "Trippe Trappe Troontjes". That rhyme is
also still known among white Dutch decendants in NY and
NJ and versions of it are known in the Netherlands as well
as in South Africa. Here is one version:

Trippe Trappe Troontjes
De varkens in de boontjes
De koetjes in de klaver
De paarden in de haver
De eendjes in de waterplas
Zo groot mij kleine Joris

Regards,

Marco

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