Originally posted by Turnbull:
This reminds me of a story I read many years ago:
It is said that the origin of the word "Yankee" occured when the Dutch lost Niew Amsterdam to the Duke of York. The still-largely Dutch population of New York deeply resented their new British masters. They charicatured Brits as always being named "John" and always eating cheese. Hence Dutch New Yorkers referred to British New Yorkers as "Jan Kaes" or as it became, "Yankees."
Imagine Fidel Castro constantly denouncing Americans with an ancient Dutch expression. 
Another theory is that "Yankees" originated in another Dutch word, "Jankes," which I believe means "barking dog." 
Nice, I didn't know that.
But I also have to correct you on some things.
Cheese in Dutch is 'kaas', not 'kaes'. But in the spelling of that time (17th century), it was indeed 'kaes'.
The former name of NY was Nieuw (so not niew) Amsterdam. And a 'janker' literally means 'cryer'.
So children, that was all for today's Dutch class...
