DBAHC: Keep Amerikaans and Dutch from splitting

I've never understood why Amerikaans became a separate language from Dutch. My girlfriend from New Amsterdam claims that she can understand Dutch without much difficulty, the only real difference being the conjugation system and some orthographic details. (And obviously the large number of Algonquian loanwords in Amerikaans.) If there was never a serious barrier to communication, it seems strange that Amerikaners split off and formed their own standard while English-speaking Americans remained... well... English-speaking. How could the Amerikaans-Dutch split have been prevented?
 
The problem really occured after the English conquest of New Amsterdam. The Dutch speakers in New Amsterdam, at that time at least, actually did speak Dutch, albeit with loanwords from the Algonquins and other natives, but when the English gained control, there was less contact from the Netherlands, and the Dutch language there evolved one way, and the other evolved, with less influence from the European version. I beleive if the New Amsterdam colony was not annexed by the English, then the languages would still be one, but with New Amsterdam Dutch as a dialect. You can see similar things in Pennsylvania, where the Pennsylvaanisch German speakers control much of the Republic, or in the Deleware Republic, where the Swedish speakers there have their own language, with heavy native and english influences.
 
I've never understood why Amerikaans became a separate language from Dutch. My girlfriend from New Amsterdam claims that she can understand Dutch without much difficulty, the only real difference being the conjugation system and some orthographic details. (And obviously the large number of Algonquian loanwords in Amerikaans.) If there was never a serious barrier to communication, it seems strange that Amerikaners split off and formed their own standard while English-speaking Americans remained... well... English-speaking. How could the Amerikaans-Dutch split have been prevented?

I dunno, but maybe preventing the Split would help. That was what helped Amerikaans take off in the first place.
 
Top