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Dutch, Flemish, Tussentaal

As a linguist (in Dutch), I feel compelled to share some common linguistic(s') knowledge here. There is a lot of agreement between linguists in Belgium and the Netherlands, that Dutch is the standard language in both countries. The standard language however, enjoys different status in the two countries: in the Netherlands, regional pronunciation is not frowned upon, and very often, the standard language (with regional accents) is the only variety of the language people have. There are also people that still have a local dialect, but those seem to disappear rapidly lately in spite of recent local and regional projects to preserve these dialects. In Belgium, due to the late start of standardisation (after being held hostage by French ruling upper class for a more than a century), three rather distinct varieties have emerged: in between the officialy accepted Standard Dutch and the old (mediaevel origins!) local, not mutually intelligible dialects, an intermediate regiolect has emerged. It is often reffered to as Tussentaal (in-between-language). It is probably this variety that people have in mind when they say that there is such a language as Flemish, but it is not, like Standard Dutch, a language that is constant all over Flanders. There are distinct varieties in East Flanders, Limburg, and the Brabantine area which includes Vlaams Brabant and Antwerp. These division sort of go along dialect group borders. Not only the pronunciatoin, but also syntax can differ widely. In West-Flanders, this Tussentaal hardly exists: people seem to be either more loyal to their dialect, or they make more effort to speak something closer to Standard Dutch. Which doesn't mean they don't have distinctive accents when speaking Dutch, far from it. The scientific use of the term 'Flemish' is restricted to the not at al homogenous dialect group that covers East and West Flanders, Zeeland Flanders (in the Netherlands) and French Flanders (France). When people insist on using the word 'Flemish' for a supraregional variety in the northern half of Belgium, they can eiter mean the forementioned Tussentaal - which Dutch people can hardly understand indeed - or the Standard Dutch that is also spoken in Belgium. The latter might have a distincitive accent from northern Dutch, but is understood in Holland. It is used in news programmes, and by most professional broadcasters. Tussentaal however, has been seeping into fictional programmes like comedy, and, more recently, drama. It is those programmes (mainly drama) that are being broadcasted on Dutch channels, with necessary subtitles. Dutch people however, will have no problem understanding Flemish news readers, 'announcers' (we still have hosts and hostesses that link programmes on screen), and professional broadcasters (not including one-trick celebrities). Because Antwerp and Vlaams-Brabant form most of the economical stronghold of Flanders (together with parts of East Flanders), the Tussentaal mostly used in drama, is the Brabantine one. Sometimes, dialect is used, but then it is also usually a Brabantine-based one. This is all for commercial reasons. For example: Antwerp has more than double the ihhabitants of Limburg, so go figure. For the other Flemings (people from West-Flanders, East-Flanders and Limburg), this is about as alien as the northern Dutch accent, so subtitling wouldn't go amiss for them either. It is true though, that everyday language for most Flemish people varies between their dialect, their regiolect (Tussentaal) and Standard Dutch. Flemish like code-switching, even within sentences. That makes it difficult for foreigners (including Dutch and our French-speaking compatriots) to communicate with us in Dutch. Apparantly, many people don't want to make the effort to speak their standard language, although with the older generations, it is usully due to a lack of education and, more importantly, their lack of social mobility. Flemings who call Belgian Standard Dutch 'Flemish', often do so because they feel the need to differ from the Dutch. It might be based on right-on hatred, but more often it has to do with friendly neighbourly competition, which also exists between the countries that make up the UK. When Dutch use the term Flemish, they usually do so because of political correctness. Although they know that what Flemish speak is (some kind of) Dutch, they do not want to offend a neighbouring people by sounding imperialistic. As an end remark, and in this I'm not speaking as a scientist: I believe that cohesion between the Southern and Northern Dutch is still the best way to maintain Flemish identity and (semi-)independence within the Belgian context, where our language and culture is looked down upon by (a minority of) francophone Belgians. By those I don't mean the ones living in Wallonie, minding their own lives, but the monolingual Bruxellois, and their unadapting overspill in the surrounding Flemish countryside. They are morally the descendants of minority of Flemish francophone bourgeois and clericals, that caused Belgium to separate from the (rest of the) Netherlands, installing a French speaking regime that denied cultural but, more importantly, social rights to the Dutch dialects speaking majority of the new-found country.

Sent by: Chris

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