Once again, I have to remind everyone that this is a language forum. Posts sent by trolls and those who indulge them will have to be deleted.
Think of the topic of this thread as "What do you know about the languages spoken in Belgium?" While EU politics are interesting and I enjoy a glass of Hoegaarden as much as the next guy, Antimoon just isn't the place.
On that count, well, I think there's a good many posts by a certain "Adam" which'd do well with being mass-nuked at this point... At this point, I at least am pretty sick of the excessive English nationalism of a certain someone on this board, and I wouldn't be surprised if many others were as well...
Dutch is a really facinating language => Many dialects , which aren't always intelligible !
Well, one should probably make sure to differentiate West Flemish from Dutch proper overall, and then make sure to not confuse Dutch with various Low Saxon dialects spoken in the Netherlands and like today, such as Gronings.
But where does it stop!!!!
Roermonds, Maastrichts, Limburgs, Drents...
I like to not differentiate at all, throw them all into a big pile, and imagine that General Cultivated Netherlandish is an unattainable figment of some anal linguist's imagination. (I know I'm writing rubbish, but it's still an idea I like.) I'll still make an exception for Frisian, which I have a soft spot for.
/me has a soft spot for Frisian as well (along with Catalan, Welsh, Low Saxon, (Irish and Scottish) Gaelic, Scots, Galician, Occitan, and so on), but that's pretty much because he's rather partial towards minority languages in general...
The dialects are a matter of culture,back in the old days...(1400-1700)
practically every city was free and had a justice system of theirown a certain trade etc.They were little kingdomes,though no kings.The cities did battle with eachother,made treaties etc.And had there own dialect!
So it's actually a good thing they standardized ( In order to understand eachother ) and a bad thing ( Loss of 'richness' of the Dutch language )
I'm proud to say my language did well , it's still very unintelligle with SD ( Standard Dutch )
mjd makes an excellent moderator....his patience seems inexhaustible. He would make a great football referee, or - down in England where they play a strange game called cricket - an umpire.
Yes, this is really a Language forum...I forget that myself quite often, I admit that. Guilty as charged.
Belgium is interesting from a linguistic point of view......French v Flemish.....two primary languages on either side...Dutch to the North and French to the South. Isn't Europe one truly interesting Continent with so many small countries divided by language issues.
Independent and seemingly self sufficient Switzerland has FOUR!
I hope it remains that way and I would hate it if the day ever came when, say, English became an Official Super Language, and the "minor" (for want of a better word) languages died a death. Tragique.
btw Belgian and Chocolate are synonymous with each other.....YUMMY!
!,
I really gave it a lot of thought but you have to admit that the belgians arren't excactly exciting.Belgians (on the whole) are a just a bit boring.I mean there isn't a word that makes my think about you.(ofcours the words "belgians" or 'belgium' do!) don't you think?!
And what makes the Dutch so exciting?
<<And what makes the Dutch so exciting?>>
I could tell you but this just isn't the place to do so.....and it isn't anything to do with their language .....I guess this now put's this post at very high risk of being subjected to mjd's powers of deletion ;-)
ooops.....spot the not so deliberate puncty typo..... :-(
Well Belgium could be described as the ultimate blend of :
Chocolate - French(ed) Fries - Beer - Pastry
And of course our educational system ; the best in the world !
=> And about language , I would say we're rather conservative about 'our' Dutch , I do have to admit that ...
Friday, March 18, 2005, 20:40 GMT