By Irene Stoel
There are many quotes about language being alive.
Gilbert Highet, a Scottish-American classicist and academic writer, said: “Language is a living thing. We can feel it changing. Parts of it become old: they drop off and are forgotten. New pieces bud out, spread into leaves, and become big branches, proliferating.” And the following quote is by John Berger, an English art critic and writer: “A spoken language is a body, a living creature, whose physiognomy is verbal and whose visceral functions are linguistic.”
Both highlight that language is dynamic and that it has the ability to change and grow over time. New words are created, old words fall out of use and sometimes the meaning of words change.
When you are a translator, it is important to stay up to date with language in general, but more particularly with the one of the country where you do not live.
Many of us live outside of the Netherlands or Belgium, but translate out of or into Dutch. How do you keep in touch with the Dutch language and its evolution?
Below are some resources that can help you do just that.
Most Dutch newspapers have their own website. Below is a list of nationally distributed newspapers (in alphabetical order):
- Algemeen Dagblad – ad.nl
- Het Financieele Dagblad – fd.nl
- Nederlands Dagblad – nd.nl
- NRC – nrc.nl
- Reformatorisch Dagblad – rd.nl
- De Telegraaf – telegraaf.nl
- Trouw – trouw.nl
- De Volkskrant – volkskrant.nl
Some of these websites show you articles for free, while for others you need to register your email address. In most cases you need a subscription to be able to read all articles. There are also many regional or local newspapers as well as websites that include links to multiple papers.
Of course there is also a big variety of magazines.
It is possible to watch Dutch tv online: npostart.nl, nederland.tv, bvn.tv, kijk.nl. A lot of programs are available from anywhere in the world, but for others you’ll need a VPN. Access to some programs require a paid subscription. The same is the case with Dutch radio: you can listen to many different stations through multiple apps and websites.
If you want to keep up-to-date with the more theoretical side of the Dutch language, you can listen to several podcast series (listed here in random order).
- “Meneer van Dale” – “Language is so decisive for how we express ourselves, for how we think, for who we are. At Van Dale we still have questions about language. In this podcast we are looking for answers.” This podcast by Van Dale has approximately 10 episodes per year that are about 30 minutes long about a variety of topics that have to do with language.
- “Over Taal gesproken” – The Instituut voor Nederlandse Taal and the Genootschap Onze Taal are jointly responsible for this podcast. Every episode is a conversation with an expert in Dutch language. Topics include dialects, the importance of jargon and the creation of new words.
- “Waar komt pindakaas vandaan?” – This podcast is also made by the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal & the Genootschap Onze Taal. There are 3 seasons, and all episodes are about the origin of a specific word. The episodes are about 10 minutes, so they can easily be listened to when you have a short break.
- “De Taalpolitie” – This podcast series is no longer producing new episodes, but you can listen to almost 40 episodes, each about 30 minutes long, about, for example, words that are used incorrectly or bad grammar.
- “De Taalnerds” – There are only 9 episodes of this podcast, with topics varying from baby language to poetry to the language of politics.
- “De Taalstaat” – This podcast is actually a rebroadcast of the radio program with the same name that has the Dutch language as its focus. It is on NPO Radio 1 weekly on Saturdays at 11am (CET).
Below are a few blogs and websites about the Dutch language, also in random order (beyond vandale.nl and onzetaal.nl that are widely known):
- https://taalpraat.nl/ – A language blog with current topics from the daily life of Corejanne and Marcel Lemmens (Marcel was one of DLD’s Distinguished Speakers in 2019).
- https://taaldacht.nl/ – A website with articles about “the nature and roots of our language”.
- taalcentrum-vu.nl/actueel/blog – This translation agency also writes blog articles about the Dutch language.
- https://neerlandistiek.nl/neerlandistische-weblogs/ – Neerlandistiek is an online magazine for linguistics and literature. They compile a list of published blogs about the Dutch language. At any time, their database contains blog posts of the last 100 days and a maximum of two blogs per day.
If you know of other podcasts and/or blogs about the Dutch language, please send them to irenestoeltranslations@gmail.com, and they can be published in a follow-up post.