Wikipedia:De kroeg/Archief/20230722

Stoffel

Why is Christoffel Polhem's name spelled so differently in Dutch? Is there any basis for that spelling? Maybe it should be explained in the article, or simply corrected? LA2 (overleg) 14 jul 2023 21:27 (CEST)

Just wait until you see Christoffel Columbus! In all fairness, I don't know why it's like that. Maybe there is a historian in the house that would like to elaborate on that? - TheGoodEndedHappily (overleg) 14 jul 2023 21:39 (CEST)

Hi LA2,

Thanks for raiising this question!

I'm not sure what to do with the article, but Christoffel is simply a Dutch spelling for Christopher and variations of this name. See also Christoffel Columbus and many, many others. It's a bit outmoded now  →bertux 14 jul 2023 21:39 (CEST)

Actually, it's a 2-step explanation:

1) The English language actually changes a lot of names as well, to adapt these names more to the English speech range;

2) The reason why it is spelled like that in Dutch is because there used to be a time to Dutchify every name (Michael is sometimes also spelled Maikel, for example). Especially with internationally famous people (e.g. Chris Colomubus -> Spanish & Portuguese = Cristobal Colón) many languages tend to change those names to make it easier to pronounce, and more convenient to spell in certain cases. Paolingstein (overleg) 14 jul 2023 21:48 (CEST)

Hi LA2, Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant recently wrote an informative article about this phenomenon. I guess Google or DeepL can swedify that text for you. — Matroos Vos (overleg) 14 jul 2023 23:43 (CEST)