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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. 537–558

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Chapter 17
“O this is Eden!”

Dutch overseas animal names

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.55.17van
Abstract
When the Dutch migrated to continents outside of Europe in the 17th century, they encountered entirely new habitats. Confronted with the new flora and fauna, they faced the task of assigning names. They had three options: adopt the native name, coin a new Dutch name, or transfer an existing Dutch name of a similar animal or plant to the native species. This chapter aims to describe the Dutch names given to native animal species on overseas continents. The focus is on how the Dutch language was adapted and utilized in these new environments; therefore names borrowed from native languages are excluded. The objective of this chapter is to identify differences in naming practices and in the quantity of newly-coined Dutch names across continents, and to provide explanations for these variations. Despite differences between the continents, it turns out that in the past there existed a special variety of ‘overseas Dutch’.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The language data
    • 2.1The Dutch language on overseas continents
    • 2.2Methodology of data collection
  • 3.Dutch animal names used across continents
    • 3.1Categorization of the overseas Dutch animal names
    • 3.2Dutch animal names found in more than one overseas language
    • 3.3.Analysis of the data
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (31)
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