West Flemish
| West Flemish (West Vlams) | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Belgium , Netherlands , France | |
| speaker | 1.2 million | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
according to |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
vls |
|
West Flemish is a language spoken in Belgium , the Netherlands, and France . The distribution area extends from the western part of Zeeuws-Vlaanderens in the Netherlands, the province of West Flanders in Belgium to the northeastern tip of French Flanders .
distribution
West Flemish is still spoken by a few thousand people in the far north of France in French Flanders. Interest in the dialect is growing again after the language was suppressed for centuries for nationalistic reasons. In the western part of Zeeuws Vlaanderen , a small minority speaks West Flemish. The West Flemish there is often mistakenly assigned to the Zeeuws . In the province of West Flanders, the dialect is the common everyday language. In a 1993 survey, there was an average dialect knowledge of 88% among students in West Flanders. In contrast, in East Flanders the proportion was 50% and in Limburg 40%. West Flemish has a total of 1.2 million speakers.
Demarcation and internal subdivision
There is a dialect continuum between West Flemish and East Flemish , which means that there is a seamless transition between the two variants. With increasing distance, East Flemish resembles the Brabant dialects more and more . Zeeland (Zeeuws), which is still spoken by 200,000 people in the Dutch region of Zeeland , is also closely related to West Flemish.
The West Flemish dialects form a fairly homogeneous unit. In contrast to the situation in East Flanders, a West Flemish from the north understands the dialect from the south-east without any problems. Differences are mainly selective. Nevertheless, four groups can be identified:
- northern coastal west Flemish
- western coastal west Flemish
- Continental West Flemish
- French West Flemish
Example: The diminutive -tje ( huzetje , Dutch: huisje , German: little house ) is common on the coast. The opposite is the -ke ( huzeke ) in the interior of the country. Typical of Coast West Flemish when using the first person singular is the inflection of the verbs for the first person plural. ik zin (German: “I am”), ik peizen (“I think”) instead of ik ben, ik peis .
Flemish in the French Westhoek is more distinct and, thanks to the political separation from the rest of the Flemish language area, has retained its similarity to archaic Middle Dutch .
Official status
The differences between West Flemish and Dutch are sometimes greater than between Afrikaans and Dutch, but West Flemish is not recognized as an independent language. In Belgium recognition as a minority language has not been ratified in order not to increase linguistic confusion . In France, West Flemish is on the list of the langues régionales de France . The closely related Zeeuws sought recognition in the Netherlands. However, one application was rejected in 2004.
history
As the cultural and financial center of the Burgundian Netherlands, Bruges ensured a certain standardization of Middle Dutch, the predecessor of today's Dutch. The dialects of that time did not differ as much from one another as they do today. West Flemish has retained most of the characteristics of Central Dutch to this day.
Although a Lower Franconian language , West Flemish has many North Sea Germanic features that give rise to the thought that West Flemish has Frisian substratum .
In the second half of the 19th century linguistic particularists opposed the introduction and standardization of “half-Jewish, half-pagan High Dutch” in Belgium. The main fear was that Protestantism would spill over . During this time, the Catholic poet Guido Gezelle made a name for himself as a West Flemish pioneer.
Because of the rural character and the peripheral location of West Flanders, West Flanders has been able to assert itself more strongly than other dialects to this day. However, due to the strong influence of Flemish Brabant in the media and the introduction of the standard Dutch language , this dialect is also on the decline.
North Sea Germanic characteristics
The relationship to English , English dialects , Old English and Frisian is sometimes very clear. Coastal West Flemish is even more similar to the North Sea Germanic languages, as continental West Flemish was more exposed to the influences from Brabant.
| German | Dutch | West Flemish | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| gently | carefully | draws | soft |
| brought | brings | breaks | brought |
| from | af | of | off |
phonetics
The h-elision found in many English dialects at the beginning of the word is also found in coastal West Flemish. The glottalization of the g [χ] to an h is characteristic of the entire West Flemish region . The combination of characteristics is often stigmatizing for West Flemings. De hoed zit goed is what Algemeen Nederlands (AN) says . This becomes De oed zit hoed . This can lead to hypercorrection when using AN . The old Dutch text Hebban olla vogala shows examples of such an uncertainty when using the h sound: old Dutch hic instead of ic (German “I”) and Latin abent instead of habent (German “they have”).
The ü-sound [ʏ] as in put and dun (Eng .: “pit” and “thin”) becomes pit and dinne [ɪ] in West Flemish and pit and thin in English.
As in English, the a [ɑ] darkens to an o [ɒ] , which can be observed more closely using the table on the right.
While in AN and other dialects the suffix -en tends to omit the n , in West Flanders the n is added directly to the root of the word. Examples (AN in brackets): zotn ( zotten ), hurtn ( luisteren ) en bustn ( bristles ) (German: "crazy", "listening", "breasts"). This can also be found in English ( beaten , listen ).
In addition to hurtn and bustn, there is another characteristic in bus ( bos ), mussels ( mosselen ), vul ( vol ) en Zunne ( zon ) (German: “bush”, “shell”, “full”, “sun”): that o palatalized to ü [ʏ] .
Another characteristic of the coastal languages is the transformation of the Old West Germanic diphthong iu to ie , whereas continental dialects have developed a üü . Examples: kieken , four , stieren (analogous to English: chicken , fire , steer ) stand opposite kuiken (with diphthonging from uu to ui ), vuur , sturdy (German: chick, fire, steer)
Grammatical characteristics and vocabulary
Striking is the still partially implemented plural formation in West Flemish by -s , in contrast to -en in Dutch. Examples: trings ( treinen ), keuns ( konijnen ), brils ( glasses ), kleers ( kleren ), kinders ( kinderen ) ( Eng .: "trains", "rabbits", "glasses", "clothes", "children") .
On the one hand, many words from the Saxon heritage still live on in the West Flemish dialect. On the other hand, through trade with England, the dialect has taken over many loanwords .
French characteristics
The proximity to the French language and the economic dominance of Wallonia after the founding of Belgium have had a strong influence on the vocabulary of the West Flemish dialects.
| West Flemish | French | Dutch | German |
|---|---|---|---|
| pertank | pourtant | still tans | yet |
| forsette or ferkette | fourchette | prec | fork |
| assiete or talôre | assiette | board | Plate |
| couvers | couverts | bestek | cutlery |
| freings | freins | push | Brakes |
In West Flemish, as in standard Dutch, a negative adjective never (t) (“not”) is used in a negative sentence . But there is also a negative word, as used in French. Example: "Jan en ee never veel geld" (German: "Jan doesn't have a lot of money").
Before t , d and s the diphthong au (written ou ) mutates into u [ʊ] ( 't is koud in m'n oude kousen ). This is probably based on the French pronunciation. Likewise, a long o [o] shifts to ö [ø] .
Features from the Middle Dutch
For Brabant Dutch speakers, West Flemish often seems like an old language. This is because West Flemish has retained much of Middle Dutch.
Striking is the flexion of the answers yes and nee ( "yes" and "no").
| Yes | No | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | joak | nink |
| 2nd person singular | joaj / joag | nej / nêeg |
| 3rd person singular masculine | joaj / joan | nej / nen |
| 3rd person singular feminine | joas | nes |
| 3rd person singular neuter | joat | nent |
| 1st person plural | joam / joaw | nim / new |
| 2nd person plural | yoy | nej |
| 3rd person plural | joa (n) s | ne (n) s |
The monophthongs ie and uu for the standard-language diphthongs ij and ui have also been derived from Middle Dutch.
Sometimes there is a gender in the indefinite articles that has completely disappeared in the AN. Example: ne stier, en koe, e kalf (German: "a bull, a cow, a calf") - Dutch always een . Many female nouns also end in -e (example: de boane ; nl .: de baan ; German: “the street”).
See also
Web links
swell
Most of the information in this article comes from: Magda Devos en Reinhild Vandekerckhove: West-Vlaams. Lannoo, Tielt 2005, ISBN 90-209-6051-2
The following are also cited:
- ↑ http://www.uoc.es/euromosaic/web/document/neerlandes/an/i1/i1.html#3.1
- ↑ a b http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=vls
- ↑ a b Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.nd.nl/artikelen/2004/juni/23/-zeeuws-is-geen-taal-
