LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 21.MAY.2000 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 21.MAY.2000 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
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From: Roger Thijs [Roger.Thijs at village.uunet.be]
Subject: Printed sources

In the Assimil series a booklet is published as introduction to the
Brussels language:
"Assimil évasion, Le bruxellois de poche", ISBN 90-74996-34-5, Assimil
Benelux S.A., Brussels, 2000, 184 pp, small pocket format.

It's not the best that is published about Brussels dialect, but since
Assimil books are distributed worldwide, it may be easely accessible, while

other books about the subject are generally only printed for distribution
in a small cercle.

We have already discussed that French speaking people consider all dialects

of their area as "French" dialects. It's something Ron doesn't understand,
but one shouldn't try to understand this linguistically. It results from a
relation of "the cultural language" versus the variety of "patois" of the
realm, patois that are used for communicating with the municipal cows.
Quote: "leur dialecte... Ils l'utilisent aussi pour parler aux bêtes sur
lesquelles, de toute éternité, ils ont commandement" (p. 215 in: Jean
Lefèvre, Traditions de Wallonie, Marabout).

So let's make a brief analysis of the Brussels "romance" language. For the
examples I'm quoting, I add my own transcription, preceded by "BD",
standing for "Belgian Dutch", and leave it for you to judge how this
dialect should be classified.

--- quote:
E bountje veui éemant emme: avoir une fève pour quelqu'un, avoir un
penchant pour quelqu'un;
BD: Een boontje voor iemand hebben.

Mei stïentjes smaïete: jeter avec des petits cailloux, aiguiser subtilement

l'intérêt de quelqu'un (afin d'obtenir généralement quelque chose);
BD: Met steentjes smijten.

'k Zeg ae moe da!: Je ne te dis que cela!
BD: Ik zeg u maar dat!

Flak af zeghe: Dire "carrément", sans ambages.
BD: Vlak af zeggen.

Véese steike oïetange: Prendre de drôles de régions, Avoir de drôles de
manières, être étrange.
BD: Vieze streken uithangen.
The author clearly has been using a dictionnary since he translates
"streek" by "région" for this particular case.

--- all quotations were from page 118

So, to my opinion, the Brussels French-only speaking part of the community
would have big difficulties in judging whether this language is Dutch,
Basque or Walloon.

Curiously, there is a raising interest, in Brussels, for learning Dutch.
But this phenomenon is rather occuring in French speaking middle and
upperclass, for not loosing contact with the mono-lingual North of this
kingdom, where Brussels is enclaved in.
I'm not a sociologist, but I feel the behaviour is:
- Brussels-Brabantish dialect speakers: still moving to French (only); this

process is slowing down though, the group is shrinking though, and many
kids are not fed in dialect anymore,
- French speakers, tending to learn Dutch (seriously) as second language.

More important nowadays is that the composition of the people that really
"live" in the Brussels area, shows a growing percentage of foreign
immigrants. Many of these came from North-Africa, where the French culture
is part of the colonial heritage, and so the French-language option may be
obvious for these people.

Regards,

Roger

----------

From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Language varieties

Thanks for giving us the book review and the intro to Brussels Dutch above,
Roger.

What I find interesting is the umlauting (o > ö) in _veui_ 'for' (cf. Dutch
_voor_, Low Saxon/Low German _för_/_veur_).  Does this occur in any other
Dutch dialects as well?

Striking is also vocalization of /r/.  Of course, in Low Saxon this occurs
regularly at the end of a syllable (e.g., _för_ [fœ.V]).  However, in
Brussels Dutch /r/ seems to be vocalized in all environments (e.g., in
_steike_ 'streaks', 'strips', 'regions', cf. Dutch _streken_ ['stre:k@(n)],
Low Saxon _Streken_ ['stre:k=N]).

Interesting information!  Thanks again.

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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