LL-L "Places" 2004.12.02 (09) [E]

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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Places" 2004.12.02 (05) [E]

Gary wrote:
"I've often heard the term 'Randstad' used for the urban sprawl in the West
Netherlands. Can someone be more precise with which towns are included in
the Randstad, or at least give me a rough indication of its extent?"

Unfortunately this isn't an answer to your question, Gary, but a related
thought. Here in Derry Randstad is an employment agency - apparently a
chain. I always presumed it to have a South African origin, but you've
explained its nativity now.

Go raibh maith agat,

Criostóir.

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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at worldonline.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Places" 2004.12.02 (05) [E]

>>>>> Hi Gary
I expect all Dutch subscribers to answer you, but I'll give it a try too.
De Randstad [d@ "rAntstat] is the rim-shaped agglomeration of cities in the
western part of the Netherlands; the name comes from Du _rand_ = edge, rim,
fringe, side, and _stad_ = city.

The Western provinces of the Netherlands are Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland and
Utrecht.
The most densely populated areas in these provinces are completely grown
together and are called De Randstad. The distance from North to South,
Zaanstad to Hoek van Holland is about 75 kilometers along the North Sea
Coast; from West to East there are two areas, a "North Wing" and a "South
Wing", both about 75 km as well.
De Randstad's largest cities are: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague (Den Haag)
and Utrecht.
Other cities with more than 100.000 inhabitants are: Haarlem, Leiden,
Hilversum.
The North Wing: Haarlem-Amsterdam-Utrecht, the South Wing: The
Hague-Rotterdam-Dordrecht.
Between these there are many smaller cities, towns, villages, housing
estates.
In fact the shape of De Randstad looks a bit like a horseshoe with the
opening on the right side,
a very roughly drawn C-shape. Inside that C, there is an area called Het
Groene Hart [@t "xrun@ hArt], "the Green Heart" which is less populated and
less urban, with towns like Gouda ["xA.wda:]
(after which the cheese was called!) and Alphen aan de Rijn. From a
Non-Western Netherlands point of view, this Groene Hart is still quite urban
and hasn't got such interesting landscapes or nature, but the
Randstedelingen=Randstad inhabitants mostly think differently about that.

The population density of De Randstad ranges from about 1200 to more than
2400 per square kilometer.
In Het Groene Heart that is about 600-1200 inhabitants per square km, for
the whole Netherlands an average of 450, which is already very high. But
there are also areas in the North Eastern Netherlands, e.g. in the Low Saxon
speaking province of Drenthe, with less than 150 inh. per square km.
I'm not sure how many inhabitant the whole Randstad area has, probably
something about four to five million.

The Netherlands have two capitals: Amsterdam and The Hague.
Amsterdam is the cultural capital with the international airport Schiphol,
The Hague the "Residentie", residence of the national Government and Royal
House.
In fact Rotterdam is the economic capital (together with Amsterdam) - being
the largest port in the world, and Utrecht the capital for transport and
railways, with it's very central geographical position.
Very Important University cities are (besides Amsterdam and Utrecht) Leiden
and Delft.

De Randstad as a whole should actually be seen as a single metropolis,
divided though by many municipal and provincial borders, with several
cities/areas accomplishing the different tasks that in most other counties
are concentrtated in one single capital city.

The different areas and cities still have their own accents -real dialects
are hardly spoken anymore- but in fact these are not so different from each
other, and all go back to
Hollandic pronunciations, and Standard Dutch is quite close to these
Hollandic dialects. Maybe we should speak rather of sociolects than of
dialects in De Randstad.
Since a few decades there is a new kind of Randstad Dutch coming up, called
"Poldernederlands" St Du ["pOld at rne:d at rlAnts], Polder Ned.
["powd at jnE:jd at jlQ~s]
with a special pronunciation that is seen as 'trendy' (young ambitious women
seem to be especially fond of it).
Personally I don't like this very much, but I'm sure it will be the new
Dutch Standard pronunciation for the Netherlands in the future.

Ingmar Roerdinkholder

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From:  Rikus Kiers <kiersbv at tiscali.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Places" 2004.12.02 (05) [E]

Hi Gary,

I am living in Katwijk, between the North Sea and the Randstad . It is not
exactly defined if I am living in or just outside the Randstad.The borders
are formed by Amsterdam, Utrecht, Gouda, Rotterdam, The Hague, Leiden. The
middle of the Randstad Forms Het Groene hart= the green heart, with farming
and lakes
Just about in the middle of it is Alphen aan de Rijn
Bye

Rikus kiers

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