Dutch stuff

Harry Fluks H.W.Fluks at research.ptt.nl
Tue Aug 30 18:42:04 CEST 1994


Don:
> 	Is my Coot Dutch?
> Maybe he had a Dutch accent in "His Majesty McDuck" -- it's hard enough
> to show ANY sort of accent in written dialogue

You mean the weird-spelled American English of Cornelius Coot does NOT 
indicate an American accent? Just indicates Coot couldn't spell?

And Barks at least once tried to write English with a (pseudo-)Dutch accent:
in "Darkest Africa" the villain impersonated "Brofessor Van Tulip vrom
Rotterdam".

> 	Yes, in chapter 11 [..] I DO mention selling wind to the windmill
> makers along the Zuyder Zee.

In the 17th century, there were so many windmills in certain parts of 
Holland, that the counts (or dukes or whoever ruled the country)
introduced the 'right to use the wind'. If a mill was too close to
another, that mill didn't have any wind left, so some regulation was
needed. Millers could *buy* the right to use the wind from the count,
so one could say the count was *selling wind*. Maybe some of the old
wind rights were still active in the 19th century, and Scrooge somehow
got them... But in the steam and electrisicky age, wind wasn't scarce
anymore.
(BTW: I have to dig deep to find out where I heard or read the above...)

--Harry.



More information about the DCML mailing list