Tussenvoegsel

A tussenvoegsel (pronounced [ˈtʏsənˌvuxsəl]) in Dutch linguistics is a word that is positioned between a person's first and last name similar to Irish or Scottish surname prefixes or French particules. The most common tussenvoegsels are "van" (as in Dick van Dyke) meaning "from" and "de" (as in Greg de Vries), meaning "the". Most Dutch surnames include no tussenvoegsel (as in Mark Rutte and Wim Kok).

The use of tussenvoegsels differs between the Netherlands and Belgium.

In the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, these tussenvoegsels are not included when sorting alphabetically. For example, in the Dutch telephone directory the surname "De Vries" is listed under "V", not "D". Therefore in Dutch databases tussenvoegsels are recorded separately. This often simplifies finding a Dutch surname in a Dutch database, because including the tussenvoegsel would result in many surnames being listed under "D" and "V".

According to Dutch language rules in the Netherlands, the tussenvoegsel in a surname is written with a capital letter only when it starts a sentence or is not preceded by a first name or initial. So referring to a Peter whose surname is "De Vries" we write "meneer De Vries" (Mr De Vries), but "Peter de Vries" and "P. de Vries".

In Belgium

In Belgium, surnames are collated with the full surname including tussenvoegsels. "De Smet" comes before "DeSmet" in a telephone book. Although Francophone surnames commonly also have tussenvoegsels, those are frequently contracted into the last name, turning e.g. Le Roc into Leroc or La Roche into LaRoche, thus explaining the collation preference.

In contrast to Dutch orthographic rules, in Belgium tussenvoegsels always keep their original orthography, as in meneer Van Der Velde, meneer P. Van Der Velde or Peter Van Der Velde.

History

Tussenvoegsels originate from the time that Dutch last names officially came into use. Many of the names are place names, which refer to cities (Van Coevorden, for example) or geographical locations (such as Van den Velde, or "of the fields"). The following list of tussenvoegsels includes approximate translations, some of which have maintained their earlier meaning more than others.

Common tussenvoegsels

• aan (at)
• bij (near)
• de (the, but "de" can also be French and Spanish for "of".)
• den, der, d' (of the)
• het, 't (the)
• in (in)
• onder (under, below)
• op (on, at)
• over (over, beyond)
• 's (of the)
• te, ten, ter (of)
• tot (till)
• uit, uijt (from, out of)
• van, van den, van der (of, of the, of the), e.g. Van Dijk, Van der Geest (from / from the)
• voor (to)

Combinations

Combinations of these words are also common. For example:

• aan de, aan den, aan der, aan het, aan 't
• bij de, bij den, bij het, bij 't
• boven d'
• in de, in den, in der, in het, in 't
• onder de, onder den, onder het, onder 't
• over de, over den, over het, over 't
• op de, op den, op der, op het, op 't, op ten
• van de, van den, van der, van het, van 't, van ter
• uit de, uit den, uit het, uit 't, uit ten
• uijt de, uijt den, uijt het, uijt 't, uijt ten (The uij spelling is Old Dutch)
• ver (a contraction of van der)
• voor de, voor den, voor in 't

See also

• Family name

External links

• Music Cataloging at Yale AACR2; Capitalization of foreign terms at library.yale.edu
• Music Cataloging at Yale AACR2; Entry element for surnames with separately written prefixes at library.yale.edu