West Flemish: Difference between revisions

West Flemish
West Flemish
West-Vlaams
West-Vlams, West-Vloams
Native to	Belgium, Netherlands, France
Region	West Flanders
Native speakers	(1.4 million cited 1998)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Low Franconian West Flemish; ; ; ;
Dialects	Zealandic; French Flemish;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; vls – (West) Vlaams; zea – Zealandic (Zeeuws)
Glottolog	vlaa1240 Vlaams / West Vlaams; zeeu1238 Zeeuws
Linguasphere	52-ACB-ag

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit Next edit →

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Revision as of 12:15, 6 June 2016

West Flemish (Dutch: West-Vlaams, French: flamand occidental) is a dialect of the Dutch language spoken in western Belgium and adjoining parts of the Netherlands and France.^[2]

West Flemish is spoken by about a million people in the Belgian province of West Flanders, and a further 120,000 in the neighbouring Dutch coastal district of Zeelandic Flanders (and another 220,000 if Zealandic is included), and 10,000 in the northern part of the French département of Nord.^[1] Some of the main cities where West Flemish is widely spoken are Bruges, Kortrijk, Ostend, Roeselare, and Ypres. The dialects of the rest of the Dutch province of Zeeland, Zeelandic, are often included in West Flemish; these are part of a dialect continuum which proceeds further north into Hollandic.

West Flemish is listed as a "vulnerable" language in UNESCO's online Red Book of Endangered Languages.^[3]

Flemish (green) and French (red/brown) as spoken in the arrondissement of Dunkirk in France, in 1874 and 1972

Differences from Standard Dutch

Phonology

West Flemish phonology differs a lot from the standard Dutch phonology. The best known are the (pre-)velar fricatives g and ch in Dutch (/x, ɣ/), being realised as glottal h - [h, ɦ], and the overall lack of diphthongs compared to Dutch. The following differences are listed by their Dutch spelling, as some different letters have evolved to the same sound in Dutch, but stayed separate sounds in West Flemish. Pronunciations can also differ a bit from region to region.

sch - /sx/ is realised as [ɧ], [sh] or [skʰ] (sj, sh or sk).
ei - /ɛi/ is realised as [ɛ:] or [jɛ] (è or jè).
ij - /ɛi/ is realised as [ɨ] (short ie, also written as y).
au - /ʌu/ is realised as [ɔw] (ow)
ou - /ʌu/ is realised as [ʊ] (short oe), it resembles a lot the long "oe" that is also used in Dutch ([u]), and can cause confusion
e - /ɛ/ is realised as [æ:] or [a].
i - /ɪ/ is realised as [ɛ].
ie - /i/ is more stressed towards [i:]
aa - /aː/ is realised as [õ].

Due to the non-existent /x/ and /ɣ/ sounds in West Flemish, native speakers of the dialect have to concentrate a lot to pronounce these sounds. This often results in hyper-correction of the /h/ sounds to a /x/ or /ɣ/.

The Dutch language also has many words with an -en (/ən/) suffix (mostly plural forms of verbs and nouns). While standard Dutch and most Dutch dialects don't pronounce the final n, West Flemish typically drops the e and pastes the n to the base word. For base words already ending with n, the final n sound is often prolonged to make the suffix clear. This mute-e is similar to many English words: beaten, listen, ...

The short o ([ɔ]) in words can also be pronounced as a short u ([ʌ]). This happens spontaneously on some words, but other words keep their original short o sounds. Similarly, the short a ([ɑ]) can turn into a short o ([ɔ]) in some words without apparent reason.

The diftong ui (/œy/) doesn't exist in West Flemish, and is (depending on the word) pronouced as a long u ([ʉ]) or a long ie ([i:]). Similar to the ui, the long o ([o]) can turn into an [ø] (eu) on some words, while it becomes a [wo] in other ones.

This transition often shows similarities with English.

Here are some examples showing the sound shifts that are part of the vocabulary:

Dutch	West Flemish	English
vol (short o)	vul [vʌl]	full
zon (short o)	zunne [zʌ:nə]	sun
kom (short o)	kom [kɔm]	come
boter (long o)	beuter [bøtər]	butter
boot (long o)	boot [bwot]	boot
kuiken	kiek'n [ki:kn]	chicken
bruin	brun [bryn]	brown

Grammar

Plural form

Plural forms in Dutch are made most often by appending an -en suffix, while West Flemish uses the -s suffix on more plural forms. This phenomenon is shared with the Lower Saxon Germanic dialects, and even more prominent in English (where a plural form on -en has become very rare). Under influence of Standard Dutch, the number of people that uses the -s suffix for the plural form on these words diverging from Dutch is diminishing. Younger speakers tend to resort more the the plural form on -en.

Verb conjugation

The verbs "zijn" (to be) and "hebben" (to have) are also conjugated differently.

Dutch	West Flemish	English	Dutch	West Flemish	English
zijn	zyn	to be	hebben	én	to have
ik ben	'k zyn	I am	ik heb	'k é	I have
jij bent	gy zyt	you are	jij hebt	gy ét	you have
hij is	ie is	he is	hij heeft	ie ét	he has
wij zijn	wydder zyn	we are	wij hebben	wydder én	we have
jullie zijn	gydder zyt	you are	jullie hebben	gydder ét	you have
zij zijn	zydder zyn	they are	zij hebben	zydder én	they have

Double subject and negation

West Flemish often shows a duplicated subject, and the negation can be announced by adding an en to the sentence. The latter is similar to French.

Dutch	West Flemish	English
Jij hebt dat gedaan.	G' é gy da gedaen.	You have done that.
Ik heb dat niet gedaan.	'K en é 'kik da nie gedaen.	I didn't do that.

Articles

In Dutch, the indefinite article doesn't depend on gender, while in West Flemish, it does. Though this practice is dying, and the gender-independent article more often being used. And similar to English, a connection n is only made when the next word starts with a vowel.

Dutch	West Flemish	English
een stier (m)	ne stier	a bull
een koe (f)	e koe	a cow
een kalf (o)	e kalf	a calf
een aap (m)	nen aap	an ape
een huis (o)	en 'us	a house

Conjugation of yes and no

A unique feature about West Flemish is the conjugation of yes and no to the subject of the sentence.

Vocabulary

West Flemish inherited many words from Saxon settlers, and later on received loanwords from wool and cloth trade with England. These two categories both differ from standard Dutch, and show similarities with English, and as such, it's difficult to differentiate between both categories.

During the industrial revolution, the trade with French became more important, and many industrial words are French loanwords

False friends

Even when words exist in Dutch and West Flemish, their meaning isn't guaranteed to be the same. This can sometimes cause confusion for native speakers who don't realise these words are used differently.

Dutch	West Flemish	English
achter	bachten	after / behind (a notion of space)
na	achter	past / after (a notion of time)

References

^ ^a ^b (West) Vlaams at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Zealandic (Zeeuws) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ RL Trask, "Number of Languages", in Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts, 2nd ed. 2007
^ UNESCO.org Template:Wayback

External links

Euromosaic report on West Flemish (thus Dutch) in France

This Indo-European languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[e18-1] (West) Vlaams at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Zealandic (Zeeuws) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] RL Trask, "Number of Languages", in Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts, 2nd ed. 2007

[3] UNESCO.org Template:Wayback

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 85: / Line 85: @@
 === Grammar ===
+==== Plural form ====
 Plural forms in Dutch are made most often by appending an ''-en'' suffix, while West Flemish uses the ''-s'' suffix on more plural forms. This phenomenon is shared with the Lower Saxon Germanic dialects, and even more prominent in English (where a plural form on ''-en'' has become very rare). Under influence of Standard Dutch, the number of people that uses the ''-s'' suffix for the plural form on these words diverging from Dutch is diminishing. Younger speakers tend to resort more the the plural form on ''-en''.
+==== Verb conjugation ====
 The verbs "zijn" (to be) and "hebben" (to have) are also conjugated differently.
@@ Line 106: / Line 109: @@
 |-
 | zij zijn || zydder zyn || they are || zij hebben || zydder én || they have
+|}
+==== Double subject and negation ====
+West Flemish often shows a duplicated subject, and the negation can be announced by adding an ''en'' to the sentence. The latter is similar to French.
+{| class="wikitable"
+|-
+! Dutch !! West Flemish !! English
+|-
+| Jij hebt dat gedaan. || '''G'''' é '''gy''' da gedaen. || You have done that.
+|-
+| Ik heb dat niet gedaan. || 'K '''en''' é 'kik da '''nie''' gedaen.  || I didn't do that.
+|}
+==== Articles ====
+In Dutch, the indefinite article doesn't depend on gender, while in West Flemish, it does. Though this practice is dying, and the gender-independent article more often being used. And similar to English, a connection ''n'' is only made when the next word starts with a vowel.
+{| class="wikitable"
+|-
+! Dutch !! West Flemish !! English
+|-
+| een stier (m) || ne stier || a bull
+|-
+| een koe (f) || e koe  || a cow
+|-
+| een kalf (o) || e kalf || a calf
+|-
+| een aap (m) || nen aap || an ape
+|-
+| een huis (o) || en 'us || a house
+|}
+==== Conjugation of ''yes'' and ''no'' ====
+A unique feature about West Flemish is the conjugation of ''yes'' and ''no'' to the subject of the sentence.
+=== Vocabulary ===
+West Flemish inherited many words from Saxon settlers, and later on received loanwords from wool and cloth trade with England. These two categories both differ from standard Dutch, and show similarities with English, and as such, it's difficult to differentiate between both categories.
+During the industrial revolution, the trade with French became more important, and many industrial words are French loanwords
+==== False friends ====
+Even when words exist in Dutch and West Flemish, their meaning isn't guaranteed to be the same. This can sometimes cause confusion for native speakers who don't realise these words are used differently.
+{| class="wikitable"
+|-
+! Dutch !! West Flemish !! English
+|-
+| achter || bachten || after / behind (a notion of space)
+|-
+| na || achter || past / after (a notion of time)
+|-
 |}

v t e Languages of Belgium
Official languages	Dutch French German
Germanic	Brabantian East Flemish Limburgish West Flemish Yiddish
Romance	Champenois Lorrain Picard Walloon
Francosign	Flemish Sign Language French Belgian Sign Language
Germanosign	German Sign Language
Indo-Aryan	Sinte Romani

v t e Languages and dialects of Benelux
Dutch Brabantian Central Dutch Hollandic East Flemish Kleverlandish West Flemish Zeelandic Stadsfries English French Belgian French Champenois Lorrain Picard Walloon High German Standard High German Ripuarian Limburgish Low German Northern Low Saxon Gronings Westphalian Achterhoeks Drèents Sallands Stellingwarfs Tweants Urkers Veluws Luxembourgish Papiamento West Frisian
Sign languages	Deutsche Gebärdensprache, DGS Langue des signes Francophone de Belgique, LSFB Nederlandse Gebarentaal, NGT Vlaamse Gebarentaal, VGT
Languages of Belgium Languages of the Netherlands Languages of Luxembourg