Gerard Nolst Trenité (; 20 July 18709 October 1946), publishing under the pseudonym Charivarius, was a Dutch writer, teacher, and observer of the
English language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
.
Nolst Trenité is best known in the English-speaking world for his poem ''
The Chaos'', which demonstrates many of the
idiosyncrasies
An idiosyncrasy is a unique feature of something. The term is often used to express peculiarity.
Etymology
The term "idiosyncrasy" originates from Greek ', "a peculiar temperament, habit of body" (from ', "one's own", ', "with" and ', "blend ...
of English spelling and first appeared as an appendix to his 1920 textbook ''Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen''.
The subtitle of the book means "English pronunciation exercises".
Weakened from war and
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...
, Nolst Trenité died a year after the
Liberation
Liberation or liberate may refer to:
Film and television
* ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War
* "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode
* "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode
Gaming
* '' Liberati ...
at the age of 76.
Education
Nolst Trenité was the son of a Utrecht minister. After grammar school, he studied classical literature, law and political science at the
University of Utrecht
Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of 39,769 students, a ...
from 1890 to 1894, but did not complete any of these courses. Adventurous, he embarked on a self-promised trip around the world in 1894, which ended prematurely in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, where he became a home tutor for the children of the Dutch consul. Two years later he was back in the Netherlands and resumed his studies in political science, at the same time preparing for the qualification to teach English at secondary level; he obtained the relevant certificate in 1898. In 1901 he obtained his doctorate in political science at the University of Utrecht.
Teacher
From 1900 to 1918, Trenité was, as he preferred to call himself, a teacher of English and
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...
at a
secondary school
A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...
in Haarlem. His school books, ''The Nutshell. Shortest English grammar'' (1906), ''First Pictorial word book'' (1908) and ''Drop your foreign accent. Vocal gymnastics'' (1909), date from that period. His poem ''The Chaos'', included in later editions of the latter book, intended as a practice material for English words Dutch speakers found difficult to pronounce, also became popular outside the Netherlands. It is known in England among the few who seek a
spelling reform
A spelling reform is a deliberate, often authoritatively sanctioned or mandated change to spelling rules. Proposals for such reform are fairly common, and over the years, many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent high-profile examples a ...
. In the field of
constitutional law
Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...
, he wrote ''The Constitution'' (1912).
Charivarius
From 1903, Trenité wrote a language column for the weekly ''
De Groene Amsterdammer
''De Groene Amsterdammer'' () is an independent Dutch weekly news magazine published in Amsterdam. It is one of the five independent opinion magazines in the Netherlands, alongside '' HP/De Tijd'', '' Vrij Nederland'', ''Elsevier'' and the Jewish ...
'', which had been published since 1877, under the name with which he acquired his fame: Charivarius, a pseudonym probably borrowed from the French satirical magazine ''Le Charivari'' (1832–1937) and its English counterpart, ''Punch, or the London Charivari'' (1841–1992); the French word ''charivari'' stands for a
carnival
Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras.
Carnival typi ...
esque procession with noise and kettle music.
The Charivarius section was continued by Nolst Trenité until ''De Groene'' was banned by the occupying forces in 1940. Three anthologies — ''Charivari'' (1913) and ''Charivaria'' (1915 and 1916) — have been published, as well as five collections under the name ''Ruize-rijmen'' (1914-1918), from which an anthology was compiled in 1922, also under the title ''Ruize-rijmen''. His book ''Is that good Dutch?'' (Amsterdam, 1940) is one of the best-known language advice books: it reached ten editions and was reprinted in a facsimile in 1998.
The column consisted partly of ironic and sometimes cynical rhymes (especially those about the bloodshed of the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
), partly of an ironic approach to language derailments that Charivarius identified in various publications. Later he went on about running text, citing many examples of errors. He gave colorful names to certain mistakes. For example, a succession of short sentences was called panting style, and he coined the names "Fnaffers" and "Fnuiters" for people who redundantly used the Dutch words "vanaf" and "vanuit" ("from off" and "from out") instead of the more simple "van" ("from").
''The Chaos''
"The Chaos" is a poem demonstrating the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation. It includes about 800 examples of irregular spelling. The first version of 146 lines of text appeared in an appendix to the author's 1920 textbook ''Drop Your Foreign Accent: engelsche uitspraakoefeningen'', but "the most complete and authoritative version ever likely to emerge", published by the
Spelling Society
The English Spelling Society is an international organisation, based in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1908 as the Simplified Spelling Society. It primarily aims to raise awareness of problems caused by English spelling's irregularity and ...
in 1993–94, has 274 lines.
[
]
Aunt Betje
The most famous term attributed to Charivarius is the "aunt betje". This is an inversion error, which occurs with compound sentences (after coordinating conjunctions such as and, because, or but). Traditionally, in Dutch the order subject-verb must be the same in both sentences.
Charivarius seems to have mentioned the term by name for the first time in his weekly language column in the De (Groene) Amsterdammer. Although some sources place the name in 1940 or 1918, the oldest site is 22 June 1913. Charivarius then writes:
:''"Aunt Betje — why should we keep the name of our old friend silent? – now has again in the NR Ct. written"''
(''"Tante Betje – waartoe zouden wij den naam van onze oude vriendin verzwijgen? – heeft nu weder in de N. R. Ct. geschreven")
Although Charivarius refers here to 'an old friend', and elsewhere states that he named the mistake after an elderly Aunt Betje, the general assumption is that a real Aunt Betje never existed.[Daniëls, Wim (1998]
"Inleiding bij heruitgave 'Is dat goed Nederlands?'"
p. XXIX-XXX
Criticism
As popular as Charivarius was among Dutch people, he was hardly taken seriously. For example, linguist Gerlach Royen (cited in ''Taalrhapsody'', Bussum, 1953) wrote:
Stage
He was also very interested in the stage. In 1912 he founded the Haarlemsche Tooneel Club with boys' book writer JB Schuil ("Declared Death", "De katjangs", "De AFC-ers") who played pieces written or arranged by him. Not infrequently he also composed the matching music. The story goes that he also took on many roles himself, although he rarely stuck to his own text. That was the author's personal freedom, he would say.
Bibliography
Linguistic
* Charivari. Amsterdam: Van Holkema & Warendorf, 1913.
Charivaria. 2e bundel. s.l.
De Nieuwe Amsterdammer, 1915.
* Charivaria. Derde bundel. Haarlem: H.D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon, 1916.
Is dat goed Nederlands?
Amsterdam, De Spieghel, 1940 (10e druk, Amsterdam: Van der Peet, 1953; facsimile-editie, Den Haag: SDU, 1998).
* Een ander woord. Nederlandse synoniemen en zinverwante woorden. 's-Gravenhage: Van Goor, 1945.
Lyrics
Ruize-rijmen
Amsterdam: De Nieuwe Amsterdammer, 1914 (dl. 2 1915, dl. 3 1916, dl. 4 1917, dl. 5 1918); eerste gezamenlijke druk 1922, vierde en laatste 1935.
* De roemruchte bedrijven van Ridder Don Quixote de la Mancha. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1925.
* Het scheepsjournaal van de Ark door Noach. Met hieroglyphen door Cham, opgegraven door I.L. Gordon en A.J. Fruen losbandig bewerkt. Amsterdam: Van Kampen, 925
Year 925 ( CMXXV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By date January – June
* January 5 – Gabellus becomes the first abbot of the monsastery of San Martín de Albelda in the Spanish kingdom ...
* Onze evendieren. Karakterstudies. Met ruize-rijmen van Charivarius. Amsterdam: Van Holkema & Warendorf, 1926.
* ''Herscheppingen, vrij naar Ovidius'', Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1926.
* De geschiedenis des vaderlands tot den dood van Karel V. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink. 1927.
* De geschiedenis des vaderlands. Het voorspel van den Tachtigjarigen oorlog. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1929.
* Klusjes en kliekjes naar Schopenhauer. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1930.
* Godengesprekken naar Lucianus. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1932.
* Het einde van Socrates. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1934.
* Odysseus. Vrije bewerking van Homerus' Odyssee in berijmd proza. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1935.
* De slimheidskampioen. Oud-Egyptisch dievenverhaal naar Herodotus. Amsterdam: De Spieghel, 942
Year 942 (Roman numerals, CMXLII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Summer – The Hungarian raid in Spain (942), Hungarians invade Al-Andalus (modern Spain) and besiege the f ...
Stage
* Het nieuwe systeem. Spel van de school in 3 bedrijven. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1911.
* De storm. (Shakespeare's Tempest). Losbandig bewerkt in 5 bedrijven met proloog en coupletten. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1913.
* Zaïre. Vrij bewerkt naar Voltaire. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1915.
* Hoe het weeuwtje uit het Hof van Holland gevrijd werd. Tooneelschets in vier tafereelen naar de novelle van Potgieter vrij bewerkt. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1919.
* De armband. Vrij naar het Engelsch van Alfred Sutro. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1920.
* Pak-idylle. Klucht in één bedrijf. Vrij bewerkt naar het Engels van Grattan. Den Haag: uitgever niet genoemd, 1922.
* Rondom de kroningslinde. Nationaal tafereel in één bedrijf (Naar aanleiding van het regeringsjubileum van Koningin Wilhelmina). Amsterdam: De Amsterdammer, 1923.
* Drie oorspronkelijke éénspelbedrijven (Een droom. De schim of het rose japonnetje. De echtelieden). Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 926
Year 926 ( CMXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Spring – The Italian nobles turn against King Rudolph II of Burgundy and request that Hugh of Provence, the effective rul ...
* De appel van Eris. Mythologische klucht in een bedrijf. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1935.
* Esmoreit, een abel spel. Vertaald it het Middelnederlands Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1938.
* Buiten werken, toneelschets in één bedrijf. 1931
Textbooks
* The Nutshell. Shortest English grammar. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1906.
* First pictorial wordbook (illustrations). Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1908.
* First pictorial wordbook (exercises). Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1908.
* Guck, so weisst du's. Bilder, Wörter und Sätze. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1908.
* Drop your foreign accent. Vocal gymnastics. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1909.
* Je vois tout. Images, mots et exercices. Méthode directe pour la langue française. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1909.
* Vedere è imparare. Incisioni, vocabolario ed esercizi. Haarlem: Tjeenk Willink, 1932.
Notes
References
External links
*
*
Biography and works
at the Digital Library for Dutch Literature
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nolst Trenite, Gerard
1870 births
1946 deaths
Dutch male writers
Writers from Utrecht (city)