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==More about Dutch, Flemish, dialect groups and dialects==
==More about Dutch, Flemish, dialect groups and dialects==
Native speakers can quickly distinguish spoken and even written variants of standard Dutch used by Flemish speakers from variants that are common in the Netherlands. The differences in vocabulary however, are quite small. The ''Woordenlijst der Nederlandse taal'', often referred to by its cover colour as the ''green bible'' of the Dutch language and published under the leadership of G. Geerts at ''Van Dale'', also known for the Van Dale dictionary standard work, had shown 1,500 typically 'Flemish' words... in a list of 110,000 different Dutch language terms, statistically proving Flemish and Dutch to be a single language. Thus in 1973 the Flemish Cultural Council, a predecessor of the [[Flemish Parliament]], decided that in any law the term "Vlaamse taal", ''Flemish language'', had to be replaced with "Nederlandse taal", ''Dutch language''. On [[9 September]], [[1980]] the treaty regarding the [[Nederlandse Taalunie]], ''Dutch-language Union'' between the Kingdoms of Belgium and of the Netherlands was signed.<ref name=nies>
{{cite web
|title=Van 'Hier spreekt men Nederlands' tot 'Tien voor taal' – De evolutie van de taalprogramma’s op de openbare omroep
|pages=p. 127–128
|language=[[Dutch language|Dutch]]
|year=academical year 2004–2005
|author=Nies, Paul, ''thesis''; Prof. Dr. Dhoest, A., ''promotor''; Prof. De Wachter, L., ''reporter''
|publisher=Department of Communications Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, [[Katholieke Universiteit Leuven|Catholic University of Leuven (KUL)]]
|url=http://statbel.fgov.be/studies/ac328_nl.pdf
|format=pdf
|accessdate=2007-09-05}}<br />Footnote: The practical vocabulary of an educated native speaker comprises about 10–20,000 terms. If this shorter list of more readily used words may be assumed to comprise most of the 1,500 'Flemish' ones, still 90% of the northern and southern vocabulary is mutual.</ref>

"Flemish dialects" as those of the present-day Flanders are often called by the layperson, do not form a unity: i.e. not all of the dialects are much more closely related to each other than to those spoken in the Netherlands. Instead there are several dialect groups, rather corresponding to the former territories of the feudal principalities Flanders, Brabant, and Limburg side by side from west to east. These were cut into northern and southern parts by separations of the [[Southern Netherlands]] and later Belgium. A few centuries of separate political life did generate quite some idiomatic differences in official language and various dialects, but linguists consider these [[isogloss]] bundles to be minor as to them, the dialects hardly underwent grammatical changes and not significantly more even in vocabulary — a point of view that may lead laypeople to sometimes wonder whether linguists ever overheard a proper conversation in an authentic dialect. Indeed in the company of outsiders or non-locals, most dialect-speakers apart from [[Antwerp|Antverpians]] tend to 'clean up' their speech towards a middle-of-the-road dialect, or since several decades often ''tussentaal'' ('in-between language') as a mix of dialect and standard Dutch is called.<ref>Footnote: The official television stations in Flanders adhere to standard Dutch, while commercial ones defend their use of ''tussentaal''. The latter is also known as ''verkavelingsvlaams'', pejoratively referring to the mix of several dialects and standard language heard in newly built-up areas.</ref>
"Flemish dialects" as those of the present-day Flanders are often called by the layperson, do not form a unity: i.e. not all of the dialects are much more closely related to each other than to those spoken in the Netherlands. Instead there are several dialect groups, rather corresponding to the former territories of the feudal principalities Flanders, Brabant, and Limburg side by side from west to east. These were cut into northern and southern parts by separations of the [[Southern Netherlands]] and later Belgium. A few centuries of separate political life did generate quite some idiomatic differences in official language and various dialects, but linguists consider these [[isogloss]] bundles to be minor as to them, the dialects hardly underwent grammatical changes and not significantly more even in vocabulary — a point of view that may lead laypeople to sometimes wonder whether linguists ever overheard a proper conversation in an authentic dialect. Indeed in the company of outsiders or non-locals, most dialect-speakers apart from [[Antwerp|Antverpians]] tend to 'clean up' their speech towards a middle-of-the-road dialect, or since several decades often ''tussentaal'' ('in-between language') as a mix of dialect and standard Dutch is called.<ref>Footnote: The official television stations in Flanders adhere to standard Dutch, while commercial ones defend their use of ''tussentaal''. The latter is also known as ''verkavelingsvlaams'', pejoratively referring to the mix of several dialects and standard language heard in newly built-up areas.</ref>


Revision as of 00:21, 5 September 2007

Flemish (Vlaams in Dutch), as the general adjective relating to Flanders, can refer to the speech of the Flemings, inhabitants of Flanders, though for the Flemish Community[1], Algemeen Nederlands (Common Dutch) is the official name of the standard language hence in English referred to as standard Dutch. 'Flemish' is the term for a limited group of non-standardized dialects ; the widespread contemporary usage for 'Dutch as spoken in Belgium' (in particular the Flemish Region and Brussels-Capital), is not considered correct by linguists, since boundaries between relevant areas of distinct groups of historical dialects do not at all coincide with the national borders.[2][3]

Different linguistic meanings of Flemish

To the term Flemish, as a linguistic notion, several meanings can be given:

  • The variants of standard Dutch as generally perceived from speakers or writers of 'Common Dutch' that are native to the Belgian regions Flanders or Brussels-Capital;
  • The non-standardized dialects as spoken in the present region Flanders, often perceived as related;
Note: for linguists however, these are part of three distinct groups:
  1. the dialects of Limburgish, a regional language or dialect group spoken in an area corresponding to several historical territories, at present roughly the provinces Limburg (the Netherlands) and Limburg (present region Flanders, in Belgium), and adjacent parts in Germany,[4]
  2. the dialects of the former duchy named Brabant which once covered the provinces North Brabant (the Netherlands), Antwerp and Flemish Brabant (present region Flanders), the Brussels-Capital region, and —historically because the original dialects have become (all but?) extinct— the now French-speaking province Walloon Brabant (present region Wallonia, in Belgium),
  3. the dialects of the former countship named Flanders, which once covered the provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders (present region Flanders), Zeelandic Flanders (province of Zeeland in the Netherlands), and French Flanders (départements Nord and Pas-de-Calais in France);[5]
  • The non-standardized dialects of the former countship of Flanders (see here above), a proper usage of 'Flemish' to linguists;
  • The non-standardized dialects of the provinces of West Flanders, Zeelandic Flanders and French Flanders, as a whole called West Flemish by linguists — compared to East Flemish, less influenced by Brabantian dialects;
  • A range of mixes of standard Dutch with non-standardized dialect as individuals may tend to speak outside the most formal and their most familiar local environments, or in a familiar local environment while addressing an audience; or as in particular younger people who may not master a dialect tend to speak in any but the more formal environments.
  • Any combination of the above.

Depending on the definition used, Flemish shows more or less important differences with the standard Dutch as officially determined by the Nederlandse Taalunie. Some usages that are common in Belgium, but not in the Netherlands, are recognized as being interchangeably correct, and are therefore correct Dutch, while even in Flanders others are rejected as dialectisms.

More about Dutch, Flemish, dialect groups and dialects

Native speakers can quickly distinguish spoken and even written variants of standard Dutch used by Flemish speakers from variants that are common in the Netherlands. The differences in vocabulary however, are quite small. The Woordenlijst der Nederlandse taal, often referred to by its cover colour as the green bible of the Dutch language and published under the leadership of G. Geerts at Van Dale, also known for the Van Dale dictionary standard work, had shown 1,500 typically 'Flemish' words... in a list of 110,000 different Dutch language terms, statistically proving Flemish and Dutch to be a single language. Thus in 1973 the Flemish Cultural Council, a predecessor of the Flemish Parliament, decided that in any law the term "Vlaamse taal", Flemish language, had to be replaced with "Nederlandse taal", Dutch language. On 9 September, 1980 the treaty regarding the Nederlandse Taalunie, Dutch-language Union between the Kingdoms of Belgium and of the Netherlands was signed.[6]

"Flemish dialects" as those of the present-day Flanders are often called by the layperson, do not form a unity: i.e. not all of the dialects are much more closely related to each other than to those spoken in the Netherlands. Instead there are several dialect groups, rather corresponding to the former territories of the feudal principalities Flanders, Brabant, and Limburg side by side from west to east. These were cut into northern and southern parts by separations of the Southern Netherlands and later Belgium. A few centuries of separate political life did generate quite some idiomatic differences in official language and various dialects, but linguists consider these isogloss bundles to be minor as to them, the dialects hardly underwent grammatical changes and not significantly more even in vocabulary — a point of view that may lead laypeople to sometimes wonder whether linguists ever overheard a proper conversation in an authentic dialect. Indeed in the company of outsiders or non-locals, most dialect-speakers apart from Antverpians tend to 'clean up' their speech towards a middle-of-the-road dialect, or since several decades often tussentaal ('in-between language') as a mix of dialect and standard Dutch is called.[7]

Standard Dutch has largely replaced local dialects in wide parts of the Netherlands, particularly in the densely populated areas around Amsterdam and The Hague. While still having local dialects, their everyday practical use has become much more limited than of that of dialects in Flanders.

Compared by the speech in the Netherlands, Flemish is notable by nearly each hamlet, village, town, city having preserved its own unique variation in dialect, which born locals may accurately pinpoint to someone's place of origin, even to a specific quarter. This is so throughout the entire Flemish territory, except where communities have been newly founded or their uniqueness severely weakened by a strong foreign language influence or by influx from other dialectical areas. There has been some recent upheaval because the uniqueness and authenticity of many dialects is further endangered by standard Dutch in the media and in education which prohibits children from using dialectical vocabulary in written form and —also typical sounds— in classroom conversation, sometimes extended to the school playgrounds. To stop this trend many areas have started archiving their dialects, special school programs have been started that teach children and adults to speak the local dialect, also there have been promotions to use the dialects more in art, literature and music. The use of dialects appears to gradually become again popular and a source of pride for each community.

The dialect groups as these survived in Flanders have a distinct sound and rhythm. The remarkably tonal and notably slower speech of Limburgish people is for more western provinces a traditional source of mockery. Once a television station asked two politicians, one from Limburg, the other from West Flanders, where the fastest speech occurs, to comment on the subject 'Which is better: slower or faster'. The hilarious outcome was that the Limburger, who did speak notably slower, made his point in less than four minutes, while the West Fleming needed over eight to make his. A similar observation is noticed between the fluent uninterruptable speech of Dutch people in general, and the comparatively hesitating style of many Flemish speakers.

Classification

Flemish can be classified as followed:

See also

Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Flemish edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Footnote: The Belgian institutional Flemish Community has specific powers, including regarding language, in the officially Dutch-speaking institutional Flemish Region and the bilingual enclave therein, the Brussels-Capital Region — though in the latter aimed at its minority of speakers of Dutch.
  2. ^ Matthias Hüning (1996, last updated 2005-11-18). "History of the Dutch Language". Retrieved 2006-06-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Invicta Media (copyright holder) (2000-02-18). "The Flemish language - "flamand"". Retrieved 2006-06-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Footnote: Recently, the Netherlands recognized Limburgish as a 'regional language' protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by the Council of Europe. Belgium still sees it just as it regards Brabantian and the linguists' concept of Flemish: without official status; Belgians take all three for dialect groups of the Dutch language. Professional viewpoints on Limburgish or its subgroups of dialects, including their reach into Germany, appear to be influenced by the linguists' Dutch, Belgian, or German nationality.
  5. ^ Footnote: Zeelandic is seen as either belonging to West Flemish (together with most dialects in Zeeland's part called Zeelandic Flanders), or rather as the link between Hollandic and West Flemish. The dialects in an eastern part of Zeelandic Flanders are regarded as dialects of the East Flemish group. Dialects closely related to medieval West Flemish, had once also been spoken in the County of Hainaut which corresponded to parts of the province of Hainaut (Walloon Region) and of the département Nord (France).
  6. ^ Nies, Paul, thesis; Prof. Dr. Dhoest, A., promotor; Prof. De Wachter, L., reporter (academical year 2004–2005). "Van 'Hier spreekt men Nederlands' tot 'Tien voor taal' – De evolutie van de taalprogramma's op de openbare omroep" (pdf) (in Dutch). Department of Communications Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Catholic University of Leuven (KUL). pp. p. 127–128. Retrieved 2007-09-05. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) CS1 maint: year (link)
    Footnote: The practical vocabulary of an educated native speaker comprises about 10–20,000 terms. If this shorter list of more readily used words may be assumed to comprise most of the 1,500 'Flemish' ones, still 90% of the northern and southern vocabulary is mutual.
  7. ^ Footnote: The official television stations in Flanders adhere to standard Dutch, while commercial ones defend their use of tussentaal. The latter is also known as verkavelingsvlaams, pejoratively referring to the mix of several dialects and standard language heard in newly built-up areas.

General online sources

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