Flemish

"Vlaams" redirects here. For the language named “Vlaams” in the ISO standard, see West Flemish.
For other uses, see Flemish (disambiguation).
Official languages of Belgium: Dutch (yellow), French (red) and German (blue). Brussels is a bilingual area where both Dutch and French have official status.
Map showing the dialects spoken in the Benelux: many people in Flanders speak a dialect and the common Flemish, and understand spoken Dutch; in writing, the dialects are hardly used, while Flemish and Dutch are nearly identical in this regard

Flemish (Vlaams), Belgian Dutch (Belgisch-Nederlands [ˈbɛlɣis ˈneːdərlɑnts]), Southern Dutch (Zuid-Nederlands) or Flemish Dutch (Vlaams-Nederlands) refers to the dialects or varieties of the Dutch language spoken in Flanders, the northern part of Belgium,[1][2][3] be it standard (as used in schools, government and the media)[4] or informal (as used in daily speech, "tussentaal" [ˈtʏsə(n)ˌtaːl]).[5]

There are four principal Dutch dialects in the Flemish region (Flanders): Brabantian, East Flemish, West Flemish and Limburgish.[6][7] Despite its name, Brabantian is the dominant contributor to the Flemish Dutch tussentaal. The combined region, culture, and people of Dutch-speaking Belgium (which consists of the provinces of West Flanders, East Flanders, Flemish Brabant, Antwerp, and Limburg and, historically, of Brussels) has come to be known as Flemish.[8] Flemish is also used to refer to one of the historical languages spoken in the former County of Flanders.[9]

Linguistically and formally, Flemish is not and does not refer to a current language or dialect but refers to the region, culture and people of (West) Belgium or Flanders. Flemish people speak (Belgian) Dutch in Flanders, the Flemish part of Belgium. Belgian Dutch does have slight differences compared to Dutch spoken in The Netherlands, mainly in pronunciation, lexicon and expressions. However, similar dialectical differences exist in other languages, like English (Australia, Canada, UK, USA, South-Africa, etc.), French (Belgium, Canada, France, Switzerland, etc.), or Portuguese (Brazil, Portugal, etc.). Equally as for those languages, the differences are not significant enough to constitute an individual language (e.g. American, Australian, Canadian and Brazilian have not yet diverted enough from the respective European sources to be considered separate languages). Using the term Flemish for the language used by Flemings is therefore incorrect: the official language in Flanders is (standard) Dutch.[10]

Dutch in Flanders

Dutch is the majority language in Belgium, being spoken natively by three-fifths of the population. It is one of the three national languages of Belgium, together with French and German, and is the only official language of the Flemish Region.

The various Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium contain a number of lexical and a few grammatical features which distinguish them from the standard Dutch.[11] As in the Netherlands, the pronunciation of Standard Dutch is affected by the native dialect of the speaker.

All Dutch dialect groups spoken in Belgium are spoken in adjacent areas of the Netherlands as well. East Flemish forms a continuum with both Brabantic and West Flemish. Standard Dutch is primarily based on the Hollandic dialect [12] (spoken in the Western provinces of the Netherlands) and to a lesser extent on Brabantian, which is the dominant dialect in Flanders, as well as in the South of the Netherlands.

Phonological differences

Main article: Dutch phonology
Bachten de Kupe scenic road sign.

Among vowels is the diphthong "ou" / "au". (ou) as in bout (bolt) and (au) as in fauna is realized as [ɔ̞u] in formal situations. In informal situations, the sound tends to be pronounced as [ɔ̞u] or as a monophthong [ɔ̞ː], depending on the dialect. In contrast, these are generally pronounced as [ʌu] in the North and Middle parts of the Netherlands. Among consonants, the northern Dutch pronunciation of "w" (as in wang cheek) is [ʋ], in some southern Dutch dialects it is [β̞] or [w]. Probably the most obvious difference between northern and southern Dutch is in the sounds spelled ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨g⟩. The sound spelled ⟨ch⟩ is a voiceless velar fricative [x] in Northern Dutch and a voiceless prevelar fricative [x̟] in Southern Dutch.[13] In the northern and western parts of the Netherlands the sound spelled ⟨g⟩ is usually realized as voiceless velar fricative [x] or voiceless uvular fricative [χ], whereas in the South the distinction between voiced and unvoiced has been preserved and ⟨g⟩ is pronounced as voiced pre-velar fricative /ɣ̟/.

Consonants

  1. ⟨w⟩ realised as [β̞]
  2. ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨g⟩ pronounced as (voiceless resp. voiced) front-velars, not as palatals, as often claimed.
  3. alveolar consonants /n, t, d, s, z, l/ are pronounced as denti-alveolars

Vowels

The difference between short and long vowels tends to be quantitive instead of qualitative, especially in the influential Brabantic pronunciation.

Diphthongs

Strong tendency towards monophthongisation.

  1. ⟨au⟩/⟨ou⟩ realised as [ɔ̞ː]
  2. ⟨ij⟩/⟨ei⟩ realised as [ɛ̞ː]
  3. ⟨ui⟩ realised as [œː]

Lexical differences

Belgian Dutch includes different French loanwords in its vocabulary compared to Netherlands Dutch.[14] There are also different Dutch terms for similar things: for example, the former Belgian gendarmerie was known as the Rijkswacht ("Guard of the Realm") in Belgium while the equivalent body in the Netherlands is the Koninklijke Marechaussee ("Royal Military Constabulary").

The traditionally most spoken Dutch dialect in Belgium, Brabantian, has had a large influence on the vocabulary used in Belgium.[5] Examples include beenhouwer (Brabantian) and slager (Hollandic), both meaning butcher (slager is however used in Belgium to mean the kind of butcher who sells salami, sausages, etc.: cf. the difference between beenhouwerij (butcher's shop) and slagerij (delicatessen)); also schoon (Brabantian) vs. mooi (Hollandic) "beautiful": in standard Dutch, schoon means clean, whereas in Belgium it is often used for pretty or beautiful. Another notable difference is ge / gij ("you" in Brabantian and "thou / thee" in the Dutch Bible, originally translated by Belgian Protestants fleeing the Inquisition under Philip II of Spain) vs. je / jij ("you" singular in Hollandic), jullie ("you" plural in Hollandic). The changes (isoglosses) from northern to southern Dutch dialects are somewhat gradual, both vocabulary-wise and phonetically, and the boundaries within coincide with mediaeval territorial borders. There is a distinct boundary located in the river area of the Netherlands, south of which northern variants of Brabantian are spoken, which share phonological traits with the souther variants spoken in Belgium. A second distinct border area is located around the border with the Belgian territories, where the transition is mostly lexical, but also with an intensification of the phonological diversion from northern Dutch. An exception to the border with the Belgian territories for this border is Zeelandic Flanders ("Zeeuws-Vlaanderen"), a part of the Netherlands where Flemish is spoken.

Flemish and Dutch television shows are occasionally subtitled for the other country in their standard language when using informal speech or dialects because of the differences in pronunciation, lexicon and expressions.[15]

In 2009, one of the main publishers of Dutch dictionaries, Prisma, published the first Dutch dictionary that distinguished between the two natiolectic varieties "Nederlands Nederlands" (or "Netherlandish Dutch") and "Belgisch Nederlands" ("Belgian Dutch"), treating both variations as equally correct. The selection of the "Flemish Dutch" words was based on the Referentiebestand Belgisch Nederlands (RBBN): an electronic database built under the supervision of Prof. Dr. W. Martin (Free University in Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Prof. Dr. W. Smedts (Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium).

Professor Willy Martin, one of the Flemish editors, claimed that the latter expressions are "just as correct" as the former. This formed a break with the previous lexicologists' custom of indicating Dutch words that are mostly only used in Flanders, while not doing the same for Dutch words mostly only used in the Netherlands, which could give the impression that only usage in the Netherlands defines the standard language.

In the Dutch language, around 3,500 words exist which are considered "Flemish Dutch", and 4,500 words which are considered "Netherlands Dutch".[16][17]

In November 2012 the Belgian radio channel Radio 1 wrote a text with words used in Flanders and asked several Dutch speaking people to "translate" it into general Dutch. Almost no inhabitant of the Netherlands was able to make a correct translation, whereas almost all Flemings succeeded.[18][19]

Tussentaal

The supra-regional, semi-standardized colloquial form (mesolect) of Dutch spoken in Belgium, which uses the vocabulary and the sound inventory of the Brabantic dialects, is often called Tussentaal ("in-between-language" or "intermediate language", i.e. between dialects and standard Dutch).[20]

The tussentaal is a primarily informal variety of speech which occupies an intermediate position between regional dialects and the standard language. It incorporates phonetic, lexical and grammatical elements that are not part of the standard language but are drawn from local dialects. It is a relatively new phenomenon that has been gaining popularity during the past decades. Some linguists note that it seems to be undergoing a process of (limited) standardisation[21][22] or that it is evolving into a Koiné language.[23]

Tussentaal is slowly gaining popularity in Flanders, since it is being used a lot in television dramas and comedies. Often, middle-class characters of a TV series will be speaking tussentaal, while lower-class characters will use the dialect of the location where the show is set, and upper-class characters will speak standard Dutch.[24] This has given tussentaal the status of normalcy in Flanders, hence it is slowly being accepted by the general population. This evolution has led to some controversy among linguists, who are afraid it dilutes the usage of standard Dutch.[25] Tussentaal is only used in entertainment television however, informative programmes (like news shows) in general use standard Dutch.

Etymology

The English adjective Flemish (first attested as flemmysshe, c. 1325;[26] cf. Flæming, c. 1150),[27] meaning "from Flanders", was probably borrowed from Old Frisian.[28] The name Vlaanderen was probably formed from a stem flām-, meaning "flooded area", with a suffix -ðr- attached.[29] The Old Dutch form is flāmisk, which becomes vlamesc, vlaemsch in Middle Dutch and Vlaams in Modern Dutch.[30]

See also

References

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  1. ↑ Leidraad van de Taaltelefoon. Dienst Taaladvies van de Vlaamse Overheid (Department for Language advice of the Flemish government).
  2. ↑ Harbert, The Germanic Languages, CUP, 2007
  3. ↑ Jan Kooij, "Dutch", in Comrie, ed., The World's Major Languages, 2nd ed. 2009
  4. ↑ Speech Rate in a Pluricentric Language: A Comparison Between Dutch in Belgium and the Netherlands (abstract). Language and Speech, Vol. 47, No. 3, 297-308 (2004). By Jo Verhoeven, Guy De Pauw, and Hanne Kloots of the University of Antwerp.
  5. 1 2 Tussen spreek- en standaardtaal. Koen Plevoets. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
  6. ↑ Ethnologue (1999-02-19). "Linguistic map of Benelux". Ethnologue.com. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
  7. ↑ Their ISO 639-3 codes are, vls and lim, respectively
  8. ↑ "Vlaams". Ethnologue. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  9. ↑ König & Auwera, eds, The Germanic Languages, Routledge, 1994
  10. ↑ "Language and territoriality in Flanders in a historical and international context publisher=Flanders.be". Retrieved 2014-01-25. Article 4 of the constitution stipulates that there are four language areas. The Dutch, French and German language areas are monolingual. The Brussels-Capital area is bilingual. (p. 27 of the pdf)
  11. ↑ G. Janssens and A. Marynissen, Het Nederlands vroeger en nu (Leuven/Voorburg 2005), 155 ff.
  12. ↑ "De gesproken standaardtaal: het Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands". Structuur en geschiedenis van het Nederlands Een inleiding tot de taalkunde van het Nederlands (in Dutch). Niederländische Philologie, Freie Universität Berlin. 2014-06-10. Retrieved 2015-08-10.
  13. ↑ Pieter van Reenen; Nanette Huijs (2000). "De harde en de zachte g, de spelling gh versus g voor voorklinker in het veertiende-eeuwse Middelnederlands." (PDF). Taal en Tongval, 52(Thema nr.), 159-181 (in Dutch). Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  14. ↑ G. Janssens and A. Marynissen, Het Nederlands vroeger en nu (Leuven/Voorburg 2005), 156
  15. ↑ "Vlaamse TV kijkers verstaan geen Hollands (Flemish TV viewers do not understand Hollandic)". Taalunieversum.org. 2010-01-26. Retrieved 2012-01-19.
  16. ↑ Auteur: Dirk Musschoot (2009-12-06). "Nederlands uit Nederland of uit Vlaanderen: het kan allebei - Primeur: Prisma-woordenboek duidt regionaal gebruik aan". Nieuwsblad.be. Retrieved 2012-01-19.
  17. ↑ "Belgisch-Nederlands in de vertaalpockets". Prismawoordenboeken.nl. Retrieved 2012-01-19.
  18. ↑ redactie. "Nieuwsblad: De voor Nederlanders meest onbegrijpelijke Vlaamse tekst". Demorgen.be. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
  19. ↑ donderdag 08 november 2012 (2012-11-08). "Radio 1: De voor Nederlanders meest onbegrijpelijke Vlaamse Tekst". Radio1.be. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
  20. ↑ "Geeraerts, Dirk. 2001. "Een zondagspak? Het Nederlands in Vlaanderen: gedrag, beleid, attitudes". Ons Erfdeel 44: 337-344" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-01-19.
  21. ↑ G. Janssens and A. Marynissen, Het Nederlands vroeger en nu (Leuven/Voorburg 2005), 196.
  22. ↑ "Algemeen Vlaams". VlaamseTaal.be. Retrieved 2013-04-14.
  23. ↑ Rys, K. & J. Taeldeman (2007). Fonologische ingrediënten van Vlaamse tussentaal. In: D. Sandra, R. Rymenans, P. Cuvelier et al. (red.), Tussen taal, spelling en onderwijs. Essays bij het emeritaat van Frans Daems. Gent: Academia Press, 1-9, p.2.
  24. ↑ "Standaardtaal of tussentaal op televisie" (PDF). Universiteit Gent. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
  25. ↑ "Actie tegen onverstaanbare Vlaamse 'tussentaal' op televisie". volkskrant.nl. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
  26. ↑ "entry Flēmish". Middle English Dictionary (MED).
  27. ↑ "MED, entry "Flēming"". Quod.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
  28. ↑ "entry Flemish". Online Etymological Dictionary. Etymonline.com. which cites Flemische as an Old Frisian form; but cf. "entry FLĀMISK, which gives flēmisk". Oudnederlands Woordenboek (ONW). Gtb.inl.nl.
  29. ↑ "Entry VLAENDREN; ONW, entry FLĀMINK; Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal (WNT), entry VLAMING". Vroeg Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek (VMNW). Gtb.inl.nl.
  30. ↑ ONW, entry FLĀMISK.
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