I have been spending time with a coupld of Dutch-speaking professors, so I decided to ask them how to pronounce ‘Trijntje.’ They recognized the name as a Dutch name, and they pronounced it like ‘tr(eye)ncha.’ The ‘r’ is guttaral and somewhat breathy, and the ‘ch’ sounded softer than what we would say in the English–maybe something between English ‘ch’ and English ‘j.’
I also showed them ‘Thije’; they said they did not recognize it as German or Dutch. They asked me, however, if he was from somewhere in the North of Germany; I said that he was from the North because I remember Bunde being somewhere in the north of Germany, but I might be wrong. They said that in the north there are certain people that speak a form of German that is almost a different language.
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That’s very interesting. I thought Germany had but one language…
that is very interesting! I tried for a long time to find any indication of what language “Thije” is from, and what it means. Most of what I found were people with the last name “ten Thije.”
Thanks for finding this out.
I showed these two names to my German professor, Mrs. Krabbendam, who is Dutch. When she saw, “Trijntje” she emphatically said that it was Dutch, like, “oh yeah, that is definitely Dutch.” She said that the “je” at the end means little. Like in Spanish’s “ita” like in Andrea-ita, is a kind way of saying “little Andrea.”
However, when I showed her Thije, she said she didn’t know what it was. She asked me then if the “e” could be an “s” because Thijs is a dutch name. It is pronounced “T(EYE)S”. Let’s see, what else did she say…oh yes, Meindert is also dutch and Frieling could be dutch or German.
Also, Gerdina’s maiden name was Rüiter, which is dutch, said Mrs. Krabbendam.
Interesting, Audrey. It looks like we have a stronger Dutch background than I thought!
It just occurred to me: if “je” is a diminutive in Dutch, and “Thijs” is a Dutch name, maybe “Thije” is a diminutive of “Thijs.” That would be interesting. Here is what I learned about “Thijs”:
THIJS
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Dutch
Pronounced: TIES [key]
Short form of MATTHIJS which is the Dutch form of MATTHEW
Source: Behind the Name
Then again, it would seem that Thije translated his name as “Tom” (is that right?). So maybe “ThijE” is not a diminutive of “ThijS.”
Ok, so this is my fourth comment on the same post in half and hour, but…i just found an absolutely fascinating (short) article on the Dutch traditions regarding first names. This is interesting in and of itself, but they use “Trijntje” and “Thijs” as examples! Here’s the article – and there are other interesting articles there on Dutch geneology 🙂
It is a very interesting article, Micah. Here is an excerpt from it that is reflected to a great extent in the naming patterns of our ancestors:
It’s so cool figuring all this stuff out! It’s like solving a mystery.