Gender in language and life: A dutch American example

Gender Issues

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 26-51

  Sinke, Suzanne M ^a  

^a CLEMSON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 22144433806     PISSN: 1098092X     EISSN: 19364717     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s12147-999-0009-5     Document Type: Article

References (131)

1. See, for example, Susan Gal, Language Shift (New York: Academic Press, 1979)
2. Pauline Burton, Ketaki Kushari Dyson, and Shirley Ardener, eds., Bilingual Women (Oxford: Berg, 1994)
3. Don Kulick, Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
4. For U.S. immigrants, one of the key works is Joshua Fishman et al., Language Loyalty in the United States (The Hague: Mouton, 1966), though gender is not a major component of this work.
5. See Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz, eds. Gender Articulated: Language and the.Socially Constructed Self (London: Routledge, 1995)
6. Micaela di Leonardo, ed., Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).
7. For some insight on language study related to gender and history, see Joan W. Scott, "On Language, Gender, and Working-Class History," International Labor and Working-Class History 31 (Spring 1987): 1-13.
8. Some historians have combined research on personal correspondence and U.S. ethnic perceptions effectively and, in these studies, issues of language figure heavily. For an overview of this material
9. see David A. Gerber, "The Immigrant Letter between Positivism and Populism: The Uses of Immigrant Personal Correspondence in Twentieth-Century American Scholarship," Journal of American Ethnic History 16 (Summer 1997): 3-34.
10. Among historians combining the study of language and gender, there are at least two main theoretical directions.
11. Virginia Yans McLaughlin exemplifies one, using anthropological techniques in combining gender and ethnic studies, focusing on oral histories: "Metaphors of Self in History: Subjectivity, Oral Narrative, and Immigration Studies," in Immigration Reconsidered (New York: Oxford, 1990), pp. 254-290.
12. A second approach derives from linguistics. Betty Bergland, for example, utilizes study of discourse to evaluate immigrant women's autobiographies: "Ideology, Ethnicity, and the Gendered Subject: Reading Immigrant Women's Autobiographies," in Seeking Common Ground, ed. Donna Gabaccia (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1992), pp. 101-121.
13. On this, see Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka. "Discourse and Culture," in Discourse as Social Interaction, ed. Teun A. van Dijk (London: Sage Publications, 1997), p. 232.
14. They adopt Dell Hymes's phrase "communicative competence" to describe the ways in which a speaker must not only use appropriate grammar and vocabulary, but also a style that fits the language and the setting.
15. Dell Hymes, "The Ethnography of Speaking," reprinted in Readings in the Sociology of Language, ed. Joshua Fishman (The Hague: Mouton, 1968), pp. 99-138.
16. This contrasts somewhat with the more elaborate model of "domains" of speech that Fishman and others utilize.
17. Goddard and Wierzbicka note age and gender are "near-universal" in requiring different discourse styles. Other factors which can determine speech categories they describe as being much more culturally bound, including things such as kinship, clan, ethnicity, caste, or rank.
18. Goddard and Wierzbecka, "Discourse and Culture."
19. There are several studies of Dutch language use in the U.S. in the twentieth century.
20. See especially, Caroline Smits, Disintegration of Inflection: The Case of Iowa Dutch (Proefschrift, Vrije Universiteit te Amsterdam, 1996)
21. Philip Webber, Pella Dutch: The Portrait of a Language and its Use in One oflowa's Ethnic Communities (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1988)
22. and Jo Daan, Is was te bissie. Nederlanders en hun taal in de Verenigde Staten (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1987).
23. Many of the sources are related to my book project on Dutch immigrant women, Home is Where You Build It: Dutch Immigrant Women in the U.S., 1880-1920 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, forthcoming).
24. For an overview of the three waves, see Suzanne M. Sinke, "Dutch," in A Nation of Peoples: A Sourcebook on America's Multicultural Heritage, ed. Elliott Barkan (Westport: Greenwood, forthcoming 1999).
25. The most complete study of Dutch immigration in this period remains Jacob van Hinte, Netherlanders in America, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985 [Reprint and translation of 1928 edition]).
26. See, for example, Smits, Disintegration of Inflection, p. 6.
27. The law passed by one vote. According to its provisions, children had to attend school for six years and to pass all classes up to the age of thirteen. Further, they needed to attend school "regularly."
28. Hans Knippenberg, Deelname aan het lager onderwijs in Nederland gedurende de negentiende eeuw. Een analyse van de landelijke ontwikkeling en van de regionale verschillen (Amsterdam: Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, 1986), p. 53.
29. See also Fr. de Jong, "Vermenigvuldiging en deling: De groei van he Nederlandse Onderwijs," in Honderdvijfentwintig Jaren Arbeid op het Onderwijsterrein 1836-1961, ed. I.J. Brugmans (Groningen: J.B. Wolters, 1961), p. 112.
30. The Dutch school law of 1878 required that instructors teach girls handwork. Knippenberg, Deelname aan het lager onderwijs, pp. 51-52.
31. See also Corstius and Hollema, De Kunst van het Moederschap, pp. 54-55.
32. P. Th. F. M. Boekhout and E. P. de Booy, Geschiedenfs van de school in Nederland (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1987), p. 156.
33. I calculated these data using SPSS on a subtile of Dutch-born immigrants from the 1910 Public Use Sample, created at the University of Minnesota. The sample included 170 Dutch-born women, and 271 Dutch-born men. For comparison, the 1910 U.S. census listed a little over 120,000 persons born in the Netherlands.
34. See Appendix 2 in Stephan Thernstrom, Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980), p. 1059.
35. See Philip Webber, Pella Dutch, pp. 64-65.
36. O. Vandeputte, P. Vincent, T. Hermans, Dutch (Lauwe: Stichting Ons Erfdeel, 1986), pp. 55-56.
37. See also Vakgroep Neerlandistiek, Universiteit Wenen, "Dialecten," 1, 4 May 1998.
38. Smits, Disintegration of Inflection, p. 15-17.
39. This, I would argue, helps answer David A. Gerber's question about what one German immigrant woman gained by experimenting with English, "'You See I Speak Wery Well Englisch': Literacy and the Transformed Self as Reflected in Immigrant Personal Correspondence," Journal of American Ethnic History 12 (Winter 1993): 62.
40. Studies of linguistic differentiation of African American servants from their employers, for example, illustrated how some Americans sought to impose these distinctions. Likewise, British English managed to incorporate class into vocabulary, accent, and linguistic mannerism
41. See Judith Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and their Employers (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1985), chapter 5
42. and Peter Burke, "Introduction," in The Social History of Language, eds. Peter Burke and Roy Porter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 1-20.
43. This is a crucial point. See Joan W. Scott's "On Language, Gender, and Working-Class History," International Labor and Working-Class History 31 (Spring 1987): 1-13, in which she critiques Gareth Stedman Jones on specifically this point.
44. Compare Gareth Stedman Jones, Languages of Class: Studies in English Working Class History, 1832-1982 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
45. [William P. Dillingham et al.], Reports of the Immigration Commission, 42 vols. (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1911).
46. On this topic, see Sucheng Chan, "European and Asian Immigration to the United States in Comparative Perspective, 1820s to 1920s," in Immigration Reconsidered, pp. 37-75.
47. The burning of a church and school in Iowa was the most violent of these. Van Hinte, Netherlanders in America, p. 1015.
48. Herbert J. Brinks, "Impressions of the 'Old' World 1840-1948," in The Dutch in North America, eds. Rob Kroes and Henk-Otto Neuschäfer (Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1991), pp. 34-47.
49. For an overview of Dutch women's activities, see W.H. Posthums-van der Goot, ed., Van Moeder op Dochter (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1948)
50. Selma Leydesdorff, Verborgen arbeid, vergeten arbeid (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1977).
51. Reprinted in Suzanne Sinke, "Home Builders: Meat, Bread, and (sometimes) Oranges!," Origins 14 (1996), p. 4.
52. On advertising and the "American bluff' of arguing all things American as better.
53. see Anderw R. Heinze, Adapting to Abundance: Jewish Immigrants, Mass Consumption, and the Search for American Identity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), ch. 10.
54. For these images see Sinke, "Home Builders," pp. 2-8.
55. On this, see, for example, Rob Kroes, The Persistence of Ethnicity: Dutch Calvinist Pioneers in Amsterdam, Montana (Urbana: University of Illinois, 1992), pp. 90-93.
56. In the 1910 Public Use Sample, the percentage of Dutch immigrant women who were never married at age 45 was 1.2 percent. In the Netherlands, figures for never married women over age 30 were close to 20 percent.
57. See Suzanne M. Sinke, "I Don't Do Windows: Gender Roles in International Perspective, A Turn-of-tbe-Century Dutch Example," Journal of American Ethnic History 17 (Winter 1998): 4-5.
58. Cornelia de Groot, When I was a Girl in Holland (Boston: Northrop, Lee & Shepard, 1917).
59. The work was reissued privately in 1991 by Cor Bakker, who included a supplement of some of her writings and family stories about her.
60. On her life, see Annemieke Galema and Suzanne Sinke, "Paradijs der Vrouwen? Overzeese migratie naar de Verenigde Staten van Friese vrouwen rond de eeuwwisseling," in Vrouwen in den Vreemde, eds. Annelies Dassen, Christine van Eerd, and Karin Oppelland (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1993), pp. 30-46.
61. Kuijt's letters appear in translation in Dutch American Voices, ed. Herbert J. Brinks (Ithaca: Corneli University Press, 1995), pp. 443-450.
62. The rest of the Kuijt family letters are in the Heritage Hall Collection, Calvin College.
63. Various scholars have written about this phenomenon. See, for example, Elizabeth Ewen, Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1985).
64. On De Bey, see Mary Pieroni Schiltz and Suzanne M. Sinke, "De Bey, Cornelia Bernarda," in Historical Encyclopedia of Chicago Women, eds. Adele Hast and Rima Lunin Schultz (forthcoming).
65. Lucy Fitch Perkins, Cornelia: The Story of a Benevolent Despot (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1919), p. 2. The author based the story on tales recounted to her by an adult Cornelia De Bey.
66. For an overview of this work, see Susan Gal, "Language, Gender, and Power," in Gender Articulated, pp. 172-173.
67. Jo Daan, "Problems of Code Switching: Dialect Loss of Immigrants of Dutch Descent," in Papers from the Third Interdisciplinary Conference on Netherlandic Studies, ed. Ton J. Broos (Boston: University Press, 1988), p. 151.
68. Reports of the Immigration Commission: Abstracts of Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 1, Senate Document 747, 61st Congress, 3rd session, 1911
69. "Per cent of foreign-born employees who speak English, by sex, age at time of coming to the United States, and race," p. 481
70. and "Per cent of foreign-born employees who speak English by sex and race," p. 474.
71. Petronella M. de Boer van Pernis migrated from Rotterdam to Holland, Michigan, in 1908 at the age of 22. Tape 1004, P.J. Meertens Institute.
72. Lini de Vries, Up From the Cellar (Minneapolis: Vanilla Press, 1979), p. 9.
73. De Vries, Up From the Cellar, passim. De Vries is acid at best and scathingly critical in most sections in describing her mother. The title comes from a common punishment her mother advocated, sending the child to the cellar.
74. De Vries was born in 1905 in New Jersey, where her family lived in two major Dutch American settlements, Paterson and Prospect Park.
75. Medical education was generally considered better in Europe until the twentieth century.
76. See Robert P. Hudson, "Abraham Flexner in Perspective: American Medical Education, 1865-1910," in Judith Walzer Leavitt and Ronald L. Numbers, eds., Sickness and Health in America (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), pp. 153-154.
77. Translation of: In Nederland ben ik opgevoed In Nederland leerde 'k spreken Ik zal voor die taal steeds in 't gemoed dezellefde liefde kweken Niet dat ik op 't vreemde smaal Ik let alles in z'n waarde Maar ik zeg, voor mij is hollands taal, de schoonste taal op aarde
78. Tape 1035, woman born in Ooltgensplaat in 1893, emigrated with parents [and seven siblings and an aunt] in 1908 and settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan, P.J. Meertens Institute.
79. The family migrated in 1904. Tape 1053, P.J. Meertens Institute.
80. Tape 1097/1101, woman born in 1912 in Pella, Iowa, P.J. Meertens Institute.
81. Edward Bok, The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922), p. 4.
82. Ibid., pp. 438-439.
83. On this see Johannes L. Krabbendam, The Model Man: A Life of Edward W. Bok, 1863-1930 (Proefschrijft, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1995), Introduction.
84. This distinction related particularly to women's roles in rural areas.
85. See Jon Gjerde, The Mind of the West (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1997).
86. On Bok's relations to Dutch Americans and to the Netherlands, see Krabbendam, The Model Man, chapter 6.
87. Aart Plaisier to Cornelius van der Waal, 1 May 1910, reproduced and translated in Brinks, Dutch Immigrant Voices, pp. 323-324.
88. Letter from 24 November 1910, in Brinks, Dutch American Voices, p. 326.
89. Aart Plaisier to Cousin, Grant, Michigan, 6 January 1915, Heritage Hall Collection.
90. Gerrit Plaisier to Cousin, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 27 March 1911, Heritage Hall Collection.
91. Gerrit Plaisier to Cousin, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 18 May 1911, Heritage Hall Collection.
92. Ulbe Eringa to Minne and Jikke Sjaarda, Running Water, South Dakota, to Oosterend, Friesland, September 13, 1905, reprinted and translated in Brinks, Dutch American Voices, p. 195.
93. For information on this individual, see also Brian W. Beltman, Dutch Farmer in the Missouri Valley: The Life and Letters of Ulbe Eringa, 1866-1950 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996).
94. Bernardus de Beij to Pieter A. Lanting, 1 April 1870, Chicago, to Winsum, Groningen. Heritage Hall Collection.
95. Van Hinte, Netherlanders in America, p. 1009.
96. "Holland Notes," The Banner (25 January 1917), p. 64.
97. "Op's Werelds Tooneel: De Beweging om den Vrouwen vol Stemrecht," De Gereformeerde Amerikaan (September 1908), p. 504.
98. On domains, see Joshua Fishman, Language Loyalty in the United States (The Hague: Mouton, 1966).
99. Tape 1004, woman born in Rotterdam in 1886, migrated with parents in 1908 and settled in Holland, Michigan, P.J. Meertens Institute.
100. This parallels several aspects of Sydney Stahl Weinberg's findings on Jewish immigrant women in The World of Our Mothers (New York: Schocken, 1988).
101. For example, a domestic in Kralingen wrote to her sister in Beaverdam, Michigan: "Here everything goes on as always. Mijnheer [master, male equivalent for mevrouw] has been at home for some time. Mevrouw still suffers from nerves., they both send their greetings."
102. Lucie to Sister [Susan D. Langreis], Kralingen, 1 June 1895, Heritage Hall Collection [my translation].
103. W.H. Posthumus-Van der Goot and Anna de Waal, Van Moeder op Dochter: De maatschappelijke positie van de vrouw in Nederland vanaf de franse tijd (Nijmegen: SUN, 1977 [1948]), p. 221.
104. H. Koopman (probably to Brother; Chicago to Borger-1894 fragment), reproduced in Dutch American Voices, p. 431.
105. To confh'm my impression of this shift, I specifically examined obituaries from De Hope. Weekblad in het Belang can Maatschappij, School en Kerk from 1880, 1898, and 1919.
106. This newspaper, published from Hope College in Holland, Michigan, enjoyed a circulation not only in the area, but also among Reformed Church members in various parts of the country. On the paper
107. see Van Hinte, Netherlanders in America, p. 456.
108. Holland Union Benevolent Association, Board Meeting Minutes book 1896-1900, 1 September 1898, p. 209.
109. Cornelia De Groot, "Nine Farmerettes-They Prove Woman is not Weak," article from unknown joumal, date estimated at 1906.
110. Reproduced in When I Was a Girl in Holland, supplement.
111. See also Gjerde, The Minds of the West, part 3.
112. This is a form of passing according to some studies, compare Mary Bucholtz, "From Mulatta to Mestiza: Passing, and the Linguistic Reshaping of Ethnic Identity," in Gender Articulated, pp. 354-361.
113. The exception was in speeches, where "'Dames en Heren" remained a standard form of greeting.
114. A classic example was the Ladies' Aid society associated with the Holland Home, which included representatives from various women's church auxiliaries in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. Despite its name, the group kept minutes in Dutch for almost forty years. Holland Home Archives.
115. "Advertising our Women's Societies," The Banner, 29 April 1915, p. 264.
116. Ibid., p. 264.
117. Nieland, 'nfonnie bisnis (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, n.d. [1929?]), p. 71.
118. Academics disagree as to what exactly should be included as "Yankee Dutch."
119. In popular parlance, any mixture of Dutch and English qualifies, and I use that definition here. Only a speaker of Dutch and English could get the full effect.
120. On the phenomenon see Walter Lagerwey, ed., Neen Nederland, 'k vergeet u niet: Een beeld van het immigrantenleven in Amerika tussen 1846 en 1945 in verhalen, schetsen en gedichten (Baarn: Bosch & Keuning, 1982), p. 121 ff.
121. 'n fonnie bisnis, p. 97.
122. "'n goed kid, o sjoer, joebet! En 'n goed kebbenetmeeker, hood. Maar ik meen om zijn breens te joezen bij de woemens."
123. 'n fonnie bisnis, pp. 97-98.
124. "dat 't 'n sjeem was dat 'n man efter zijn jaap hog houswerk doen moest."
125. 'n fonnie bisnis, p. 51.
126. 'n fonnie bisnis, p. 117
127. "'t is fonnie in de wereld. Maar mebbie komt 't eten nog wel uit de fesjen. Ik heb gehoord dat latse woemens al gestaart zijn met een heel luddel bit te eten, omdat ze schinnie willen zijn, want dat is in de fesjen."
128. Van Hinte, Netherlanders in America, p. 952.
129. See Van Hinte, Netherlanders in America, pp. 948-950.
130. Cobie de Lespinasse, The Bells of Helmus. Portland: Metropolitan Press, 1934, pp. 71-72.
131. See Nella Kennedy, "The Man from Helmus: Dr. A.F.H. de l'Espinasse," in A Century of Midwestern Dutch-American Manners and Mores-and More (Orange City: Northwestern College, 1995), pp. 1-9.