Hello fellow languagelovers!

My name is Kenny and I'm from Belgium. I'm a Linguistics-Literature English-Spanish student at the University of Leuven. My mothertongue is Dutch (Flemish actually), but I'm able to speak several other languages. I know French, English, Spanish, some German and next year I will study Portuguese as an optional course in university. I studied Latin in high school, but I'm not using or practising it anymore. I'd love to learn more languages.

I'm also a beginning conlanger. The language I'm making (or trying to make) right now is called Olean and is based on the Hawaiian language.

Greetings!

So tell us a little something about your crazy dialect.

Flemish is the Belgian variant of Dutch. When a Flemishman and Dutchman have a conversation, they can understand each other almost perfectly. There are some phonological differences (the most obvious is that in Northern Dutch the sound spelled <g> is usually realized as voiceless velar fricative [x] or voiceless uvular fricative [χ], whereas in Flemish <g> is pronounced as voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/.). Also the diphtongs are more diphtongized in Dutch than in Flemish.

There are also some lexical differences. Flemish has a lot more French loanwords in its vocabulary (due to the period when French was the elite language) and for example the personal pronoun for the second person singular is in Dutch 'jij' or 'je' and in Flemish 'gij' or 'ge'.

I also have to say that Flemish is not just one dialect, it consists the dialects of West-Flanders, East-Flanders, Antwerp, Brabant and Limburg. The funny thing is that the different speakers of these dialects sometimes have trouble understanding each other.

I should've clarified that by "dialect" I meant "local variety", whether it be a local form of Brabants, Antwerps, Oost-Vlaams, West-Vlaams, or (God zij ons genadig!) Limburgs. Every Flemish speaker I've met has some odd things they say which make other Flemish speakers shake their heads in disbelief (laat staan de Nederlander).

Oh, I'm sorry :p

I come from the Flemish-Brabant region, so I have the most understandable and normal dialect. We do have some words of our own (like 'gemaan' which means the same as 'heel' (very)).

Are you a native Dutch-speaker or have you learned it?

I'm a native English-speaker. My Dutch is pretty basic--and badly Teutonicised.

Did you learn it out of interest or do you have a relative or friend who speaks Dutch?

What do you think about the language?

I figure if you study German, you get Dutch as a bonus. I had Dutch friends when I lived in Germany, but I haven't seen them in years.


ZO SNOEZIG! It's like German's darling baby brother!

Flemish definitely sounds better than Hollands. I regret now learning to speak with a northern accent, but that's what all my resources teach.

That's true, Dutch sounds a lot more softer and cosier than German.

I really hate the northern accent, but that's probably because of the rivalry between the Flemish and the Dutch.

No, it's because all those voiceless fricatives really do sound less pleasant to the ear. Sometimes when people are speaking (northern-accented) Dutch just within earshot, I can't tell at first if it's Dutch or Swiss-German.