Talk:double Dutch

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Latest comment: 3 years ago by 2A01:598:9905:C468:7F99:AA33:F42B:7B4D in topic Particularly hard to understand
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Shouldn't there be a usage note like the one on the nigger page or is it alright to pejorative to us Dutch?

It's not nearly as pejorative as the N-word (few words are!). --129.11.248.42 12:02, 1 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

Origin

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There is a seemingly deeper and more thorough etymology at Phrasefinder: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/double-dutch.html

Particularly hard to understand

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Certainly the English have never found Dutch or Low German "particularly difficult to understand". To the contrary these two are the only languages that may have some, albeit a very limited, degree of mutual comprehensibility with English. And I think that's precisely the point: When something is "double Dutch" you do get some words here and there, but you don't understand what it's all about. Just like a speaker of (older) English with Dutch and Low German. 2A01:598:9905:C468:7F99:AA33:F42B:7B4D 18:06, 19 March 2021 (UTC)Reply