Van Dale's parents were from
Eeklo, in the Flemish province of
East Flanders, Belgium. There was a
smallpox epidemic in
Meetjesland, in East Flanders: Abram (Abraham) van Dale (1799-1837) and his pregnant wife Pietje (Pieternella Johanna du Bois, 1802-1865) fled from it to
Sluis, in the Netherlands; where their son, Johan Hendrik, was born. Johan Hendrik must have been an excellent student and scholar. At the age of 16, he was awarded an official teaching certificate (
onderwijsbevoegdheid), fourth class. Four years later, he was promoted to the second class. In 1854, he was appointed headmaster of the public school in Sluis. In 1857, he was appointed honorary city archivist. He wrote textbooks about the importance of clarity in language, and articles about the history of Sluis. In 1866, he published his first lexigraphical work:
Taalkundig handboekje, of alphabetische lijst van alle Nederlandsche woorden, die wegens spelling of taalkundig gebruik aan eenige bedenking onderhevig zijn ("
Linguistic handbook, or alphabetical list of all Dutch words which, on account of their spelling or linguistic use, may be open to objection"). In 1867, he was asked to revise the
Nieuw woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal ("
New Dictionary of the Dutch Language" (
nl)) of 1864 by and , which used the obsolete Siedenbeek spelling (
nl) rather than the recently proposed De Vries and Te Winkel spelling (
nl). He accepted the task, and completed it within four years. He wrote in the preface to the first edition, of 1872: The dictionary was in its final stages of completion - the first volume had already been published - when, in 1872, van Dale caught smallpox, and died of it. His pupil (
kwekeling (
nl)) saw the rest of it through to publication. The first edition of the
Groot woordenboek received some criticism for not upholding academic standards of correctness; but was also widely praised. From its fourth edition on, and in its later revisions, van Dale's name has been attached to the
Groot woordenboek as a sign of its authority in all matters concerning the Dutch language. ==References==