LL-L "Language varieties" 2009.04.18 (05) [E]

Sun Apr 19 01:17:31 UTC 2009

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L O W L A N D S - L - 18 April 2009 - Volume 05
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L Language history was Re: LL-L "Travels" 2009.04.16 (05) [E]

*> From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
> Subject: **LL-L Travels, was Re: LL-L "Resources" 2009.04.15 (06)
[E/French]
*   **
*> I will come back to Brussels local language in a few days*.

This is an intermediate step, just focussing on the *French Variant, with
Brussels-Brabantish elements*.

Even when linguist say French-Brussels is not a real spoken language, it is
clearly still a *literary language*. Every year books are printed in
French-Brussels, most with short stories. Most of it is "easy fun" for local
French speakers, but literary crap.

There are a couple of exceptions with quality, and the most noteworthy is:
*Le mariage de mademoiselle Beulemans,*
written in 1910 by *Frantz Fonson and Fernand Wicheler.*
It is about two Brussels brewers, Beulemans et Meulemeester, their kids
Suzanne Beulemans and SÃ©raphin Meulemeester, prÃ©paring for mariage, further
with Albert Delpierre, a guy from Paris, working for Beulemans, in love with
Suzanne, and a parallel story of Beulemans's actions for becoming honorary
president of the brewers association.
The familie Beulemans is in a process of cultural switch towards better
French.
This gives several levels of language performance:
- the parents in normal situations and in more formal situations
- the kids who are already at a different level
- the guy from Paris, who tries to adjust to Suzanne's language level
this all in a play with a lot of Schwung and clever dialogues.

It has been translated in several languages.
The English version was prepared by Sidney Blow and Douglas Hoare, staged in
1912 in the Vaudeville Theatre in London, and was apparently a big success.
The English story played in *Carmarthen* and almost all actors were of Welsh
origin,
except for a Londoner playing the role of the Albert Delpierre, now called
Walter Barrington.
Beulemans became Enos Llevelyn (played by Edmund Gwen)

During WWI the play had a big succes in South-America, but I have no
details.

The *Theatre des GalÃ©ries in Brussels*, where the play was performed, still
has some rights on the play.

The play introduced also some vocabulay in Belgian Durch, as e.g. "*
verbeulemansen"* (process of becoming French speaking),
as e.g. on the titel page of: Ria van Alboom, *De verbeulemansing van
Brussel*,
Instructieve Omroep (well documented accompanion volume for 3 television and
6 radio programmes of the BRT, Belgische Radio en Televisie), 1990, ISBN
90-5114-020-7, 296 pp + map.
It is an historical analysis of the cultural switch of Brussels from Dutch
(incl. Brabantish) into French.
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/io.jpg

The text of the play is frequently reprinted:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/book.jpg
I got my copy for 3 euro in an antiquarian bookshop:
Frantz Fonson - Fernand Wicheler, "*Le Mariage de Mlle Beulemans",* 1991
Espace Nord, Ed Labor, Brussels, 220 pp, pocket size.

At the counter of the Theatre des Galeries one can get a double DVD for 19
euro,
one with a performance of 1967, in black and white
an other with a performance of 1978 in color.
I have seen the 1967 version several times on TV and actually prefer that
one.
Some data from the box:
recto: http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/dvdrecto.jpg
verso: http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/dvdverso.jpg

The theatre is in the St Hubert Galeries (1847):
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galeries_royales_Saint-Hubert
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/trg.jpg

A map positions the Galleries between the Munt-Theatre, the big market and
the cathedral:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/map.jpg

Some impression of the wings, with a second name for each street, referring
to a comics figure:
South wing:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/sw1.jpg
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/sw2.jpg
West wing:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/ww1.jpg
North wing:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/nw1.jpg
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/nw2.jpg
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/nw3.jpg

The North Wing entrance is almost adjacent to the house in the
Arenbergstraat where a very good friend of Ron is working:
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/va1.jpg
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/va2.jpg
http://www.euro-support.be/tmp/mmb/va3.jpg

Regards,
Roger

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Thanks a lot, dear Roger.

My suggestion for the English name of the language variety (*franÃ§ais
bruxellois*?): "Brussels French".

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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