Netherlandic

Lekker   Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:37 am GMT
Hello antimooners!

I read that Netherlandic is the collective term for Dutch, Flemish, and Afrikaans. It's justifiable since after all those languages originated in Low Countries as "Nether/Neder" means low.

In your own opinion, are the linguist right in coining up this term?
Guest   Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:12 am GMT
Does this mean that Frisian is not included in the Netherlandic family?
Guest   Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:28 pm GMT
Maybe yes, maybe no.

Frisian is a separate language from Dutch.

Flemish considered as a dialect/variant while Afrikaans is now viewed as a separate language by the linguists and yet they always considered it technically as a dialect of the Dutch language and they even refer to it as Cape Dutch.
Vytenis   Tue Sep 25, 2007 3:15 pm GMT
Thenk add the dialects of lowland German too. They are also more similar to Dutch than to Hochdeutch...
Guest   Wed Sep 26, 2007 3:49 pm GMT
Do Dutch and Afrikaans speakers can still communicate with each other using their respective speeches?

If so, is it the to same extnet as between the Spanish spakers in Latin America?
Sergio   Wed Sep 26, 2007 4:52 pm GMT
Hi Guest,

>If so, is it the to same extnet as between the Spanish spakers in Latin America?

You can't compare these cases. Afrikaans and Dutch are now different languages with different grammars and spellings, no matter how much the former still may resemble the latter (nor the fact that Af. is a daughter languages of Dutch).

On the other hand, Spanish is only one language, with some regional (and quite subtle) variations in pronountiation of some sounds, melody, and vocabulary, but under the same grammar. And please don't mention the eternal "Ustedes vs. Vosotros" argument......

Let's just say that it was a bad example.
Guest   Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:35 am GMT
Sergio,

Spoken Spanish varies greatly from 1 country to another and the differences mabybe greater than that between Dutch and Afrikaans.

The only reason why they give an impression that they are linguitically unified it's because the written form is the same. If in case each variant of Spanish chose to write in their peculiar speech then I assure you that the differences would be much wider.
Guest   Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:39 am GMT
The most divergent forms of Spanish is Chilean, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, Dominican Republic, Argentinian, and Uruguayan.

The closest to Castellano is Colombian.

Afrikaans on the other hand is closer to Southern dialects of the Netherlands.
Guest   Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:12 pm GMT
Hi Guest,

>Spoken Spanish varies greatly from 1 country to another and the differences mabybe greater than that between Dutch and Afrikaans.

Oh, no way my friend. Having Spanish as my mother tongue I assure you that you don't have such a great distance either in pronountiation of the sounds/words/intonation or the morphology of the words, let alone the grammar itself.

What is your knowledge of Spanish Guest, or where do you have your statements from? I'm just curious, and just in case, please, I don't mean to be rude here....