NL-83762Now back to the card and the thing which makes my brain cells work harder....
The card comes from The Netherlands, but on it, it says Holland, so thats why i labeled it as Holland...it would be quite odd to name it as Netherlands, when pretty clear the card tells you it comes from Holland, im not gonna argue with it :)
Now....time ago, I finally made the distinction between Holland and the Netherlands....so Netherlands is the whole country, while Holland refers to a region in the western part of the Netherlands.....now, my confusion here is, does the card represent only that western region or the entire country? Or they had put Holland just to confuse the already way too confused foreigners :)
There is no particular information on the card, so I cant figure it out.
Thing is, for years, I had refered to the country as Holland, for a simple reason, and that is, here in Macedonia, we call the country Холандија (Holandija) which makes the perfect analogy to Holland, not the Netherlands...so I guess we have it all wrong....plus, another thing is, for years, when ive been sending letters to my pen-friends there, I always wrote "Holland" and the letters always arrived....and this wouldnt have been so odd if on the return address they also wrote "Holland"....so, I dont know..its pretty confusing all this....though for years now ive been refering to the country as The Netherlands....which is fair and square.....to call you by your name
I just still need a clarification of the card above....if its Holland, or the Netherlands on the pictures...
7 comments:
And that makes 2 of us. I always thought Holland was the whole country and not a region of the country. In Portugal we've 2 expressions for the country: Holanda = Holland and Países Baixos = the Netherlands but we always use Holanda. Now when i speak in english i always say Netherlands but in portuguese i use Holanda.
With our countries is some much easier, no confusions at all :D
good to know im not the only one ;-)
just that here we only have one name for it, and thats Holandija....nothing for the Netherlands.
yup, no problem with our countries :))))))
I can't help you with what's exactly shown on the card but I can explain the confusion about Holland and The Netherlands.
At least, this is what they told me in my history classes at university:
In a lot of languages 'Holland' is used as a synonym for 'The Netherlands' although, strictly speaking, Holland only refers to the two provinces North Holland and South Holland. The use of 'a part' to name 'a whole' is called a 'pars pro toto'.
Now, the question is still why they exactly use Holland as a synonym for 'The Netherlands'. The reason is historical: Holland was the most powerful province in the Netherlands during history. Holland had a lot of political influence in the rest of The Netherlands + Holland was best known in foreign countries. That's why in a lot of languages they still use Holland as a synonym for the Netherlands.
Even in Belgium and The Netherlands itself the word Holland is often used to describe the country in its whole.
For that reason, it is possible that you get cards with the name 'Holland' on it which shows pictures of the whole of The Netherlands. But, in this case, I don't know if the card represents only the provinces North and south Holland or the whole of The Netherlands. I don't recognize all the pictures, you better ask someone from The Netherlands.
Pfff, what a long text. :D
mmmm, now that was an exhaustive explanation and i must say that i love it! Thanks :) Explains things a bit, at least the usage of "Holland" on the cards.
As for whats exactly shown, i know thats almost impossible to say....frankly, that cow can be pictured absolutely anywhere in the country :)
As far as the pictures go, they could very well have been taken in the Holland region, but I have seen many other postcards saying Holland, with pictures from the entire country. There is no way of telling for sure.
If you want to be absolutely sure that the pictures are from the provinces that make up Holland, the best idea is to get postcards that say 'Noord Holland', or 'Zuid Holland'. That way, you can be pretty certain that the postcard shows pictures from that province.
I'm sure you won't mind if I were to send you one that says 'Noord Holland' in the near future.
Nope, i wont mind at all if i get a card of "Noord Holland" at all...I dont mind having cards which say Holland either...just that, ive been trying to stick to refer to it as The Netherlands for quite a while, and just as i got used to it, I get a card which says "Holland" :)
But all of them are welcome!
Thanks for the input.
I am from the Netherlands or Holland ;) Just what you will call it...
Our country has just 2 names, Holland is the whole country, but some of them say The Netherlands, because here we call it 'Nederland'. I don't know excactly why there are two names, but Holland is not just Noord & Zuid Holland :) It's all of the (little) country :)
Post a Comment