The chosen name Jan Kees may have been partly inspired by a dialectal rendition of Jan Kaas ("John Cheese"), the generic nickname that Southern Dutch used for Dutch people living in the North. Its Anglicized spelling Yankee could, in this way, have been used to mock Dutch colonists. The Oxford English Dictionary calls this theory "perhaps the most plausible".Īlternatively, the Dutch given names Jan ( Dutch: ) and Kees ( Dutch: ) have long been common, and the two are sometimes combined into a single name (Jan Kees). Quinion and Hanks posit that it was "used as a nickname for a Dutch-speaking American in colonial times" and could have grown to include non-Dutch colonists, as well. Michael Quinion and Patrick Hanks argue that the term comes from the Dutch Janneke, a diminutive form of the given name Jan which would be Anglicized by New Englanders as "Yankee" due to the Dutch pronunciation of J being the same as the English Y. The exact application, however, is uncertain some scholars suggest that it was a term used in derision of the Dutch colonists, others that it was derisive of the English colonists. Most linguists look to Dutch language sources, noting the extensive interaction between the Dutch colonists in New Netherland (New York, parts of New Jersey, and Delaware) and the English colonists in New England ( Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut). Historically, it has also been used to distinguish American-born Protestants from later immigrants, such as Catholics of Irish descent. Thus, a visitor to Richmond, Virginia, commented in 1818, "The enterprising people are mostly strangers Scots, Irish, and especially New England men, or Yankees, as they are called". In the 19th century, Americans in the southern United States employed the word in reference to Americans from the northern United States, though not to recent immigrants from Europe. As early as the 1770s, British people applied the term to any person from the United States. Mark Twain used the word in this sense the following century in his 1889 novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In the 18th century, it referred to residents of New England descended from the original English settlers of the region. The meaning of Yankee has varied over time. New Englanders themselves employed the word in a neutral sense the " Pennamite–Yankee War", for example, was a series of clashes in 1769 over land titles in Pennsylvania between settlers from Connecticut Colony and "Pennamite" settlers from Pennsylvania. Later British use of the word was in a derogatory manner, as seen in a cartoon published in 1775 ridiculing "Yankee" soldiers. "I can afford you two companies of Yankees, and the more, because they are better for ranging and scouting than either work or vigilance". Etymology and historical usage of the term New England origin īritish General James Wolfe made the earliest recorded use of the word "Yankee" in 1758 when he referred to the New England soldiers under his command. The speech dialect of Eastern New England English is called "Yankee" or "Yankee dialect". Its sense is sometimes more cultural than geographical, emphasizing the Calvinist Puritan Christian beliefs and traditions of the Congregationalists who brought their culture when they settled outside New England. Elsewhere in the United States, it largely refers to people from the Northeastern states, but especially those with New England cultural ties, such as descendants of colonial New England settlers, wherever they live. In the Southern United States, Yankee is a derisive term which refers to all Northerners, and during the American Civil War it was applied by Confederates to soldiers of the Union army in general. It has been especially popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand where it may be used variously with uncomplimentary overtone, endearingly, or cordially. Outside the United States, Yank is used informally to refer to an American person or thing. Their various meanings depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, the Northeastern United States, the Northern United States, or to people from the US in general. The term Yankee and its contracted form Yank have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Pennsylvania Dutch, New York Dutch, Acadians United States, Northern States, New England
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