LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 25.NOV.2000 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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  L O W L A N D S - L * 25.NOV.2000 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Roger Thijs [roger.thijs at euro-support.be]
Subject: LL-L: "Language varieties" LOWLANDS-L, 24.NOV.2000 (01) [E]

> From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
> Subject: Language varieties
>
> 2. I assume that in most schools in countries like Belgium and Canada
one
> of
> the two official languages is used as the medium of instruction and
> "taught"
> accordingly and the other is essentially taught as a "foreign"
language.
> Does the fact that "Vlaams" is taught in both senses in Belgian
schools
> tell
> us anything about whether it is a language or a dialect of Nederlands?

- "Vlaams" is not thaught at all in schools. More correctly, the subject
may be part of the advanced study of Dutch in the higher years of middle
school. It is also subject of study at universities (Linguistic depts.
of dialectoloy). I'm only aware of one "manual" of Flemish. It is
written in the variant of Bray-Dunes, France, and thaught in Dunkerque
to French speaking people (organization "Het Reuzekoor")

- School language is "Dutch" in the North, "French" in the South,
"French" or "Dutch" in separated schools in Brussels, and "German" in
the extreme East. Since the "Dutch used" has a Southern flavour, some
people call this Belgian Dutch "Flemish", but this is very confusing.
Btw schools in the North of Belgium are overpopulated by people coming
from the Netherlands. In Maaseik the Dutch part of some class
populations is over 70 perc.

- To the best of my knowledge there is no practice of introducing
"Flemish" or "Brabantish" in schools. "Limburgish" is promoted by the
government of Belgian Limburg, as a series of 16 modules they prepared
for middle schools (age 12-18), as part of the course of Dutch. The
course is rather "over" Limburgish, not "in" Limburgish.

- There was also primary school teaching in German in primary schools
the extreme South East (now the "Letzebuergesch" area in Belgium, but
this was replaced with French in 1947 "for patriottic reasons". There
have been movements for allowing German (later also Letzebürgesch) in
Kindergarten in the fifties and sixties, but without success.

- Most publications in local (parish) dialect variants of Flemish,
Brabantish and Limburgish. are written by older people, over 50 up to
over 70, and published by the mnicipal history circles, with subsidizing
by the municipality. Main purpose is to preserve old vocabulary, the
younger generation does not use any more. There is also a specialized
preparation of regional dictionaries by the University of Ghent
(Flemish) and a joint coöperation of the Universities of Leuven and
Nijmegen for Brabantish and also for Limburgish. These dictionaries are
"scientific" and "expensive", so that they are of no help for people in
the street. For each, about 20 vols. have been published in the past 20
years, and I guess 20 more years will be needed for these series to be
ready.

- For Belgium one must be aware of the historical Belgian context:.
People in the North were in the defensive against French. In this
process for getting their language recognized, there have been
historical cultural battles for supporting regional (and also
pan-low-germanic) variants in the middle of the 19th century, but a
majority prefered to "lend" standard "Dutch" as koiné as the best
political approach. A major milestone was the acceptance of the common
Dutch-Belgian spelling of De Vries in 1865. While the parish languages
varied from parish to parish, Dutch had allways kept it's place as
"written" koiné in the North, so the preference for Dutch was not just
arbitrarely.

Regards,

Roger

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