De Boeventaal

Köster Henke, W. L. H.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 98K words
Chapters: 10

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.De Boeventaal by W. L. H. Köster HenkeAuthor: Köster Henke, W. L. H.,Language: Dutch, Class: PF: Language and Literatures: West Germanic, Release Date: May 8, 2009

Editor's review

This is a linguistic work written in Dutch whose title points directly to “thieves' language”; its subject is the slang, jargon, and social context of criminal groups. The author, W. L. H. Köster Henke, turns his attention to the linguistic practices of marginalized communities, materials of distinct value in linguistics, social history, and judicial folklore studies: they record the vocabulary usage of a particular era and also reflect how mainstream society imagined and sought to control criminal groups. As a public-domain Project Gutenberg e-book, the text is freely available and suitable as supplementary material for the study of Dutch historical linguistics or argot. Readers should note that the book's treatment of slang carries the biases of its time and should not be used as a neutral dictionary; critical reading alongside sociolinguistic discussion of “argot—identity—power” is recommended. For general readers it is more an intriguing linguistic archive than a coherent popular narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Dutch majors studying historical vocabulary and register
Enthusiasts of sociolinguistics interested in argot and the language of marginalized groups
Scholars and researchers of criminal history or judicial folklore
Translators seeking public-domain Dutch texts for translation practice

Not a good fit for

Casual readers expecting crime fiction or true-case narratives
Readers with no Dutch who are unwilling to consult reference works
Those seeking a modern, systematic criminological theory

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and format to determine whether it is a glossary, a discourse, or a hybrid, then decide how to read it.
Excerpt slang entries by theme or usage scenario for comparison with social-history sources.
Distinguish the author's period judgments from linguistic facts; do not take the book's positions as conclusions.
Use alongside a historical Dutch dictionary to verify word forms and semantic change.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a linguistic study?

Judging by its title and classification, it is a linguistic work centered on “thieves' language,” not a fictional narrative. Its content focuses on recording and discussing slang and jargon; the exact format should be confirmed from the e-book text. Readers should expect linguistic material rather than a storybook.

Can I read it without knowing Dutch?

Reading the original directly has a barrier to entry. Basic Dutch reading ability, or a dictionary and translation tools, is recommended. If you are interested only in the phenomenon of argot, you might first read a general introduction to sociolinguistics in Chinese, then sample entries and examples.

Are the slang entries in this book still usable today?

Slang changes rapidly with social conditions and group turnover; most usages recorded here are historical and should not be used directly as contemporary slang. Their value lies in linguistic and social-history research; focus on semantic change rather than copying them for use.

Comments

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About the author

Köster Henke, W. L. H. Author · Dutch

Köster Henke, W. L. H. was a Dutch author about whom public information is limited; neither the dates of birth and death nor detailed biographical facts have been reliably recorded. One work by this author is held in the collection, De Boeventaal, a study devoted to urban slang that shows an interest in the speech habits of lower-class society. Judging from the title and the existing description, the book is not a popular introduction but an examination and documentation of urban slang, and may involve the special vocabulary used by thieves, street workers, and similar groups. Such subject matter has some value for linguistic and folklore studies, offering readers clues about the history of colloquial speech in the Netherlands. Because sources are limited, the author's writing style and scholarly influence cannot yet be fully assessed, but the record of slang itself remains valuable primary material.