DUTCH DECLENSION

Dutch, like many other Indo-European languages, has gradually changed from a synthetic language into a chiefly analytic language. It has retained some vestiges of the original case system, more so than English, but to a much lesser extent than German. In modern Dutch, nouns and articles are no longer inflected, although an elaborate case system was used in the written language until the middle of the 20th century.

Contents

Historical overview

Middle Ages

16th to 18th centuries

19th and early 20th centuries

Later 20th century to present

Case system: usage

Nominative

Genitive

Dative

Accusative

Pronouns

Notes

References

Historical overview

Middle Ages

In Middle Dutch, a productive case system was still in existence. Given below is the so-called "strong" inflection.^[1]

('adjective' ''clein'' = small, 'noun' ''worm'' = worm, ''daet'' = deed/action, ''broot'' = bread)

'Grammatical Case'	'Male'	'Female'	'Neuter'
'Nominative' ('''sing''')	die clein'e' worm	die clein'e' daet	dat clein'e' broot
'Genitive' ('''sing''')	des clein's' worm's'	der clein'er' daet	des clein's' broot's'
'Dative' ('''sing''')	den clein'en' worm'e'	der clein'er' daet	den clein'en' br''o''d'e'
'Accusative' ('''sing''')	den clein'en' worm	die clein'e' daet	dat clein'e' broot
'Nominative' ('''pl''')	die clein'e' worm'e'	die clein'e' d''a''d'e'	die clein'e' br''o''d'e'
'Genitive' ('''pl''')	der clein'er' worm'e'	der clein'er' d''a''d'e'	der clein'er' br''o''d'e'
'Dative' ('''pl''')	den clein'en' worm'en'	den clein'en' dad'en'	den clein'en' brod'en'
'Accusative' ('''pl''')	die cl''e''n'e' worm'e'	die clein'e' dad'e'	die clein'e' br''o''d'e'

16th to 18th centuries

It was already observed in the 15th century that there existed no distinction between the nominative and accusative forms of nouns and articles in the northern dialects.^[2] From the Renaissance onward, the view that the Dutch language should somehow be 'ennobled' with an extensive case system after the model of Latin was wide-spread. Hendrik Louwerisz. Spieghel, an influential 16th-century grammarian, tried to reform and standardize the Dutch case system in his book on grammar, ''Twe-spraack van de Nederduitsche Letterkunst'' (1584).^[3] In particular, Spieghel wanted to create a distinction in grammatical function between two existing forms of the definite article, ''de'' and ''den'', having ''de'' pertain to subjects and ''den'' to objects. (In this system, no distinction was made between masculine and feminine nouns, as was later done; ''des vrouws'', ''den vrouwe'' (f) would stand alongside ''des heers'', ''den here'' (m).)^[4]
Another artificial distinction, still in use today, between the plural personal pronouns ''hun'' (for the indirect object) and ''hen'' (for the direct object) was created by Christiaen van Heule, who wrote the ''De Nederduytsche spraec-konst ofte tael-beschrijvinghe'' (printed in 1633).^[5] In the same vein, the distinction between masculine and feminine nouns was rigidly maintained, although this distinction was felt only vaguely at best in the northern dialects. (In the dialects of the Southern Netherlands, however, the distinction did indeed exist and is still in existence today.) Celebrated poets such as Joost van den Vondel and Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft often disagreed in assigning gender to nouns, which they arbitrarily based on equivalents in Latin, German, or other languages whenever they saw fit. Their choices were adopted by the grammarian David van Hoogstraten in his ''Aenmerkingen over de Geslachten der Zelfstandige Naemwoorden'' (1700); where Vondel and Hooft disagreed, Van Hoogstraten would assign a gender to a noun by his own choice. These "gender lists" were steadily extended, especially by professor Adriaan Kluit (1735-1807), who revised Van Hoogstraten's work. Kluit's list formed the basis of later 19th-and early 20th-century practice.^[6]

19th and early 20th centuries

This artificial approach to the Dutch language remained the prevailing practice through the 17th and 18th centuries, but attitudes began to change in the 19th century. The rigidity of the written language was satirized in 1865 by Jacob van Lennep in his ''De vermakelijke spraakkunst'', in which he noticed that the case system was hardly used in the spoken language.^[7] The practice of approaching Dutch as if it were a classical, inflecting language comparable to Latin and Greek was gradually abandoned in the 19th century, and it was recognized that word order played a far greater role in defining grammatical relationships. R.A. Kollewijn (1857-1942) advocated radical spelling reforms for the whole of the Dutch language, at a time when a rather extensive case system was maintained in the written language by the De Vries-Te Winkel spelling. The table below shows the conventions of the written language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Only the "strong" inflection is shown here.^[8][9]

'Grammatical Case'	'Male'	'Female'	'Neuter'
'Nominative' ('''sing''')	de klein'e' worm	de klein'e' daad	het klein'e' brood
'Genitive' ('''sing''')	des klein'en' worm's'	der klein'e' daad	des klein'en' brood's'
'Dative' ('''sing''')	den klein'en' worm	de klein'e' daad	het klein'e' brood
'Accusative' ('''sing''')	den klein'en' worm	de klein'e' daad	het klein'e' brood
'Nominative' ('''pl''')	de klein'e' worm'en'	de klein'e' dad'en'	de klein'e' brod'en'
'Genitive' ('''pl''')	der klein'e' worm'en'	der klein'e' dad'en'	der klein'e' brod'en'
'Dative' ('''pl''')	den klein'en' worm'en'	den klein'en' dad'en'	den klein'en' brod'en'
'Accusative' ('''pl''')	de klein'e' worm'en'	de klein'e' dad'en'	de klein'e' brod'en'

Later 20th century to present

Kollewijn's proposals for a much simplified spelling, which included the effective abandonment of the case system, were adopted by Minister of Education Marchant for use at schools in 1934, which meant that the case endings were no longer taught at school. Kollewijn's spelling was officially implemented by the Belgian and Dutch governments in 1946 and 1947 respectively.^[10]
Since 1946/1947, only one form is used for all cases, and the only remaining distinction is the one between singular and plural.^[11]
[12] The ''-n'' has been lost in adjective nouns.

'Grammatical Case'	'Male'	'Female'	'Neuter'
'''singular'''	de klein'e' worm	de klein'e' daad	het klein'e' brood
'''plural'''	de klein'e' worm'en'	de klein'e' dad'en'	de klein'e' brod'en'

Case system: usage

Note: the examples below were chosen randomly, and this section should not be taken to represent any specific stage in the development of the Dutch language.

Nominative

The nominative or ''eerste naamval'' in Dutch is used to describe the function of the subject or noun phrase.
Examples:

★ De legerleiding aanschouwt haar troepen. ('subject')
:(''The army staff views its troops.'')

★ Hij is de baas van Shell. ('nominative predicate')
:(''He is the director of Shell.'')

★ De koningin houdt de troonrede. ('subject')
:(''The queen is giving the [traditional] Speech from the Throne.'')

★ Elizabeth II is de huidige koningin van het Verenigd Koninkrijk. ('nominative predicate phrase')
:(''Elizabeth II is the current queen of the United Kingdom.'')

Genitive

The genitive or ''tweede naamval'' in Dutch, is used to express a relation with a noun. (The forms given below are archaic, but have survived as biblical expressions; in modern Dutch, the possessive case is expressed with the preposition ''van'' (= of, from).)
Examples:

★ De dag des oordeels.
:(''The day of judgement.'')

★ Het woord des Heren.
:(''The word of the Lord.'')

★ Godes plegen.
:(''To honour God.'')

Dative

The dative or ''derde naamval'' in Dutch, is used to express an indirect object or after the preposition ''te'' ("to"). Originally, nouns in the dative case took an -e ending, but in later centuries this -e was lost, as can be seen in the tables. (The forms given below are obsolete, except for ''ten slotte'', which is a now a fixed expression that actually has retained the -e.)
Examples:

★ Hij gaf den ouden man twee muntstukken.
:(''He gave the old man two coins.'')

★ Ik heb vandaag mijnen besten vriend wat geld geleend.
:(''Today I lent my best friend some money.'')

★ Ze hebben ten slotte besloten niet daarheen te gaan.
:(They decided not to go there after all.)

Accusative

The accusative or ''vierde naamval'' in Dutch, is used to express a relation between an direct object and was used after all prepositions except "te". (The masculine form in -n, given below, is now obsolete.)
Examples:

★ Hij ontmoette den ouden man weer.
:(''He met the old man again.'')

★ Zie je dat meisje daar? Ik ken het goed. Met dat meisje heb ik vaak gesproken. 'k wou dat het mijn vriendin was.
:(''Do you see that girl there? I know her well. I've often talked with that girl. I wish she were my girlfriend.'')

Pronouns

===Personal Pronoun===
The only true relic of productive case markings in Dutch nowadays can be seen with personal pronouns, where there is a morphological subject/object distinction.

'Singular'
	1	2	3
Nominative	ik ('k)	jij (je), gij (ge), u	hij, zij, het
Dative	mij (me)	jou (je), u	hem, haar, het
Accusative	mij (me)	jou (je), u	hem, haar, het

'Plural'
	1	2	3
Nominative	wij (we)	jullie, gij (ge), u	zij (ze)
Dative	ons	jullie, u	hun
Accusative	ons	jullie, u	hen

The genitive of the personal pronoun is usually replaced by the possessive pronoun.
===Reflexive pronoun===
The reflexive pronoun is always accusative or dative:

'Singular'
	1	2	3
Dative	mij(zelf) / me(zelf)	je(zelf), zich(zelf), u(zelf)	zich(zelf)
Accusative	mij(zelf) / me(zelf)	je(zelf), zich(zelf), u(zelf)	zich(zelf)

'Plural'
	1	2	3
Dative	ons(zelf)	je(zelf), zich(zelf), u(zelf)	zich(zelf)
Accusative	ons(zelf)	je(zelf), zich(zelf), u(zelf)	zich(zelf)

Notes

References

★ Cases in Dutch

★ Dutch Grammar on nouns and pronouns

★ DutchGrammar.com on pronouns

★ Jan de Vries, Roland Willemyns and Peter Burger, ''Het verhaal van een taal. Negen eeuwen Nederlands''. Amsterdam 1993 (Dutch)

★ ''Taalunieversum'', website of the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union): information on the Dutch case system (with examples, in Dutch)

★ E. Rijpma and F.G. Schuringa, ''Nederlandsche spraakkunst'', fifth edition, The Hague 1930