shopping basket
About Gnomjas
Imagine you are a foreigner settling down in the Netherlands. Armed with grammar books and audio tapes you are eager and prepared to master that lovely but tongue twisting language. You soon notice that the Dutch are very fond of diminutive words. As part of your 'inburgering', you duefully adopt the habit of turning every noun into something small and cute. A native Dutch speaker is most likely completely ignorant of the many little rules that apply to diminishing something big in Dutch (see also  diminutives at dutchgrammar.com).Gnomjas was one of my first attempts to diminish a Dutch noun. I thought I was saying 'little gnomes', which, as it turned out, I was not. No one cared to correct me. Instead, the kind Dutch people around me actually starting using the word as a term of endearment! A new word was born. And years later, it is still very much alive. |
|
