[Leica] Week 15 Boring Dutch landscapes

[leica at web-options.com (Bob W)]

 >[...] There are roots going 
> back to Low Saxon that explain many similarities between 
> English words, such as sister/suester, and plattdeutsch
> 

English and Friesian are considered to be 'sister' languages and were 
mutually
intelligible until surprisingly recently. If I remember correctly the 
influences
of Dutch on Friesian and Norman French on English are where they really 
started
to separate. 

> The German expression for double-Dutch is 'welsh' or 
> kauderwelsh' but probably has more to do with the Swiss 
> province of Wallis than the member country of the United 
> Kingdom, or perhaps even Wallachia/Moldavia. Apparently the 
> expression welsh is Germanic in origin and simply means foreign.
> 

...and foreign in a rather derogatory sense, like 'wogs', 'spics', 'dagoes' 
and
so on. My own surname (Walkden) includes the word. Walkden is a place in
Lancashire in the North-West of England, quite close to Wales. The name is
derived from Wealca Denu, meaning the Valley of the Welsh. The term was
apparently applied by the incoming Saxons to the Britons. 'Wealca' certainly
seems to be cognate with 'Wallachian', 'Vlach' etc.

[...]

Bob