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Old 07-12-2014, 06:11 AM   #15
Japo
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The German dialects spoken in Switzerland are completely different from the the language of the Netherlands, and I don't think they're ever denominated "Dutch".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_German

What I mean is that the Dutch reserve the word "Duits" for Germans from Germany, or the standard German language, and they never refer to themselves with any similar word in their own language any longer--even though the rest of the world use the English word "Dutch".

In the Dutch national anthem, written in archaic Dutch, William of Orange claims "ben ick van Duytschen bloet," that is "I am of German blood," because at that time that the political separation between the Netherlands and the rest of the old German Holy Roman Empire was recent and the cultural one was very tenuous yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelmus#Interpretation
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