Johan van der Meulen (11 January 1915,

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

- 13 September 2005, Breda), better known by his pseudonym John O'Mill (a jocular translation of his given name, as if O' stands for "of the"), was a Dutch author mostly known for his wordplay and

limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

s, and for using a

macaronic Macaronic language uses a mixture of languages, particularly bilingual puns or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages). Hybrid words ...

combination of Dutch and English words and sentence structures he called "Double Dutch" (itself a pun on various meanings of this phrase). Double Dutch appears English, but it cannot be fully understood without knowledge of Dutch, because it is based on the literal translation of

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

idioms into English and the similarity in sound of certain words and expressions. O'Mill, who was until 1975 a teacher of English at the public high school "Rijks-HBS" at

(

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the we ...

), was inspired by the clumsy English used by his students.

Books

*Lyrical Laria (1956) *Rollicky Rhymes (1957) in Dutch and double Dutch (D.&d.D.) *Curious Couplets (1958) & preposterous prose (D.&d.D.) *Tafellarijmvet (1958) (table drawer rhyming grease) *Bonny Ballads (1959) medley of verse and worse *Mixture (1961) *Louter Leuter (1962) (nothing but chatter) *Cocktail (1963) *Medical mess (1965) *Puure Piffel (1965) (pure drivel) *Complex (1965) *Op deuren en glazen (1973) (on doors and glasses) *Popsy Poems (1975) pre-popsylated poetry (D.&d.D.) *Literary Larycook ''Dutch:Lariekoek = nonsense''(1977) *Loony lyrics (1981) *Penfruit Prullaria (1983) ''Dutch:Prullaria = bits and pieces'' *Boloney belletrie (1984) (become sleepy unless med. description) *Apologische spreekwoorden (1984) (apological proverbs)

References

Summary at the ''Koninklijke Bibliotheek''

1915 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Dutch poets 20th-century Dutch male writers Dutch male poets People from Breda Macaronic language {{Netherlands-writer-stub