In a previous article and video, I covered the differences between the two for beginners in which my conclusion was that the beginners . This situation explains the defensive attitude towards French in modern-day Flanders.Sometimes the syntax can even be different, for example, the Dutch say “vast en zeker”, and the Flemish turn that around. Find out more in the Privacy Policy. This is all from the perspective of you wanting to study the standardized variation of Dutch from that specific region in order to understand news(papers), books and take exams. In Flanders however, the usage of “u” has held its ground.There is a general tendency to use more diminutives in Dutch which generally is related to the Dutch so-called “We zitten op het terrasje in het zonnetje en we drinken een heerlijk wijntje.”(*) Without wanting to get into deep, but this is all of course in theory. In general Flemish is much more influenced by French than Standard Dutch, which can easily be explained by the fact that Flanders historically has been governed by the French for a while and French remained the language of choice for politics and the higher social ranks in general up until the beginning of the 20th century. Audrey spoke Dutch, with a Dutch accent. In the last 10-15 years of so, there have been some significant crossover successes though.That also means that the way that the language used, is significantly different: the Netherlands has a generally informal culture (the so-called sociological phenomenon of informalisation) which means that the usage of the personal pronoun “u” has all but been eradicated. (*) It’s the kind of subtle differences that would highly improve your odds of sounding less exotic and being integrated if you use the correct variation. The two standardized variations of Dutch, namely Dutch as spoken in the Netherlands (so-called “Nederlands-Nederlands”) and Flanders (“Belgisch Nederlands”) have been oft-discussed, mythologized and exaggerated.
The music, television, movies, the gap between Flanders and the Netherlands remains substantial with mostly literature being a significant exception to the rule where Dutch and Flemish authors are appreciated and read in both Flanders and the Netherlands. They will tell you whether a voice over in plain Dutch is advisable or not. Joachim Patinir , for example, played an important role in developing landscape painting , inventing the compositional type of the world landscape , which was perfected by Pieter Bruegel the Elder who, followed by Pieter Aertsen , also helped popularise genre painting . This is because the Dutch language makes use of stronger tones. However, this is not an indication of the likeliness of a specific word or expression being actually used on the streets. Generic Dutch (Algemeen Nederlands) is the standard language in both the Netherlands and Flanders. The Dutch language spoken in the Netherlands has more of an English influence, whilst the language in the Flander region, the Flemish speaking region of Belgium, has a stronger French manifestation. (**)Language is identity and you would sound very foreign or strange indeed if you were to use these colloquialisms in the wrong region. (**) The examples given below, are some of the most prominent ones but if you need more (and there are plenty), don’t be shy to check out the ON DICTIONARIES: Which ones you should use and how to get the most out of your (online) dictionaries!GRAMMAR: Modal Verbs in Dutch: kunnen, mogen, moetenThis site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. As a consequence, Dutch was absent from official life even though it was being spoken by half of the population.
While the two countries’ channels have their own very distinct programming, Dutch and Flemish public broadcasters often try to work together, airing language programs like for instance “Dutch is spoken in these two neighboring countries, but since they have different predominant religions, different historical backgrounds, and therefore different approaches to politics and formal institutions, it goes without saying that there are many differences in vocabulary.For instance, while the Dutch might use loanwords like Today, the Flemish still often act as language purists. The most obvious difference when talking with or listening to speakers of Dutch and Flemish is the pronunciation. In theory, there is none. Like German, Dutch is a dialect-continuum.
Dutch people also often mention that the Flemish dialect sounds softer. This is due to the fact that during the 19th century and until the first 50-60 years of the 20th century, French was considered as the ‘high’ language variant and Dutch as the ‘low’ one in Belgium. Most noticably in Dutch, there is a tendency to make certain long vowels and combined vowels into diphthongs in which a change in position of the mouth, lips, tongue is required to pronounce a single vowel: “e” gains a slight “j” toward the end, so it’s much closer to the English “ay” as pronounced in the word “day”. “o” gains a slight “w” towards the end so it’s much closer to the way that the “o” would be pronounced in English. The biggest difference between Flemish and Dutch is the pronunciation. My data will not be disclosed to third parties. The “ei / ij” is also harsher. Acolad will only use my data to respond to me and offer me content related to my interests. There is no such thing as the Flemish language or dialect, and there is no one overall dialect spoken in Belgium, or the Netherlands.Like German, Dutch is a dialect-continuum. This leads to another discussion about the often huge gap between Dutch as it is spoken locally vs. the standardized variations of it which I will dedicate a separate blog post to at some point in the future.