Champagne

I couldn't resist getting this at Vroom & Dreesman today! They had it in a cute pink as well but I couldn't resist the Dutch Oranje. Of course I had to buy a bottle of cava at the next stop. It is chilling in the fridge as I write.

I'm very fascinated by this Dutch/English everywhere here. I see it in signs and also in naming of stores and business. The apartment finding service that I used to get this apartment has letterhead with their company name as it is in English but the their little tagline is in Dutch. Last week I was at a supermarket and I heard the stockboys talking to each other in Dutch but they would swear using English words. It was amusing to me as Native English speaker. Packaging on everything will have a few phrases in English.

I have always been fascinated by the evolution of language. I'm most fascinated by Spanglish use by Tejanos, but it's a group that as much as they are part of my heritage are still very foreign to me. You'll see signs for "The Spring Baile" or the Spring Dance. They use Spanish and English words interchangably with English grammar and structure. it's usually a 50/50 split so it isn't a good comparison to the Dutch. It's fascinating to me.

The most extreme example I know of has to be Philipinos and their vanacular. Years ago I had a Philipina friend of mine. I would love to hear her and other Philipino friends speak tagalog. I was fascinated by their use of English and Spanish in the language. Naturally after colonizaton of the Spanish and later the US, they would adopt several words. They seemed to take it to this other level. The seemed to begin the sentence in tagalog, throw in a Spanish word and finish it in English. I remember being struck as they were speaking I could pick out the word "orange" and thinking "you didn't have a word for orange before the Americans or the Spanish?" Language doesn't operate that way. It's develops and evolves with the living beings that use it.

Still with all of the languages there are, the world is getting smaller and smaller. There are universal words that everyone recognize, not to mention the brand names and logos everyone recognizes.