This week we heard of the demise of the Dutch absurdist multidisciplinary artist Wim T. Schippers, also the oldest voice of Sesame Street’s Ernie in the world.
Schippers was 83 when he passed. Just recently he had finished some new recordings for Sesamstraat with his friend and the oldest Bert voice in the world, Paul Haenen (79).
There’s been a lot of coverage in the Dutch media about this rebellious artist, whom every Dutch native, and non-native child alike, knows by his voice. A very distinct voice, and for some non-native adults one of the first they get to hear when learning Dutch.
His art, radio and television shows were all groundbreaking and disruptive.
But Schippers also contributed to the Dutch language, through new sayings that many a Dutch person still uses to date. One of these I taught in his honor to my own NT2 students this week: Jammer, maar helaas, which they’ve been using with glee since then.
It means something like: too bad, but unfortunately.
Indeed, nonsensical. But more fun than the alternative helaas pindakaas—particularly popular among Dutch learners—right?
Less nonsensical was Schippers’ striving in his eighties radio show Ronflonflon with Jacques Plafond to change the Dutch personal pronoun jij into joe, much in line with the English language.
Joe would solve some bugging language issues, most of all the difference between jij and u. Back then, and even now, Dutch speakers faced a major dilemma regarding when to use the formal u, and when jij.
So Schippers said: everybody just say joe! [/ˈju/]
Implementing joe would have solved yet another problem which many of my NT2 students face.
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