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In:Dutch and Contact Linguistics: The Dutch language outside the Low Countries
Edited by Christopher Joby and Nicoline van der Sijs
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 55] 2025
► pp. 12–45

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Chapter 1
The role of Dutch in the circulation of loanwords

ORCiD logo with link | Institute for the Dutch Language, Leiden
Published online: 4 July 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.55.01sij
Abstract
The speakers of Dutch have always been in contact with speakers of other languages. In olden times, immigrants moved to the Low Countries for their freedom, wealth and employment, and Dutch speakers maintained trade contacts with European countries and, after 1600, with countries in other continents. Some Dutch speakers settled abroad for some time. As a result, Dutch absorbed loanwords from many languages, ​​and Dutch words were exported to other languages. It is self-evident that Dutch, being present on most continents, served as an intermediary language for loanwords: Dutch brought, for instance, Asian words to Europe, and Dutch spread French, Latin, English and German loanwords to other European languages, such as Russian, and to languages spoken on other continents. However, until now it has been unclear exactly what role Dutch played in the circulation of loanwords. In this chapter I shall address this question, based on some recently-compiled large databases.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language contacts between Dutch and other languages
    • 2.1Dutch language contacts in Europe
    • 2.2Dutch language contacts outside Europe
  • 3.Loanwords in Dutch
    • 3.1The databases
    • 3.2The data from the database
  • 4.Dutch export words
    • 4.1The database
    • 4.2The data from the database
  • 5.Dutch loanwords and Dutch export words compared
  • 6.The circulation of loanwords
    • 6.1Dutch as starting point in a circulation chain
    • 6.2Dutch as an intermediary language
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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