My Father Was a Dutchman

DESCRIPTION: "My father was a Dutchman, Das sprechen verstehst du? My father was a Dutchman, Verstehst du? Yah! Yah!" "Ich spoke ein funny lingo." The singer was a sailor who got in trouble. Or he climbed steeples, or otherwise made mischief
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1946 (Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage nonballad emigration shanty
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 46, "My Father Was a Dutchman" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Hugill-SongsOfTheSea, p. 188, "Mein Vader Vos Ein Dutchman" (1 dialect text, 1 tune)
Roud #9085
NOTES [82 words]: If it appears that the non-English part of this text is in German, but the singer calls himself a "Dutchman," recall that in the nineteenth century, "Dutch" was a common name for Germans ("Deutsch"). It is rather a surprise to see a German use it, since it was definitely derogatory. Hugill calls his version a "pidgin," but it is not in a pidgin, which is a technical term for a minimally grammatical pseudo-language used by two groups with no common language. It's just a fake-German song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Pet046A

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography