LL-L "Language varieties" 2002.05.24 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 24.MAY.2002 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German) S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic Z=Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
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From: "Marco Evenhuis" <evenhuis at zeelandnet.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2002.05.23 (03) [E/Z]

And then Luc noted:

> Indeed Zeeus and Flemish are quiet the same language,but...
> This year and last year I spend some weekendholidays in Zeeland. You
> have some very pleasant isles .
> One day I went to the local bucher in Renesse and asked (without
> thinking)
> for 'drie schellen hespe'. The girl in the chop didn't understand it at
> all.
> Then I asked for 'drie schellen ham' It didn't work either. Only when I
> asked her 'drie plakken ham' it was ok.
> During my stay there I did not here Zeeuws, just common Dutch. Things
> are
> changing overthere.

It is true that Zeeuws is disappearing faster than West-
Flemish is. A recent study showed that nowadays no
more than 62% of the population still speaks the lan-
guage. I think that many other Lowland languages would
jealous of such a figure, but compared to West-Flemish's
stunning 89%, it's not that much.
Especially in the coastal areas, where hundreds of thousands
of tourists spend thir holidays, and in the bigger cities and
towns (Vlissingen, Middelburg, Goes), one could even
wonder if Zeeuws is still spoken at all.
This is even more the case during the summer, when
thousands of seasonal workers come and work in shops,
hotels, campingsites, etc.

I think the difference between 89% and 62% speakers of
a language in an area also makes a difference in attitude.
Here, we have more people interested in the regional
language; they read & write in Zeeuws, they buy books in
Zeeuws, they go to concerts of artists that perform in
Zeeuws. I think that in West-Flanders, that doesn't hap-
pen on the same scale as it does in Zeeland.
On the other hand, in a lot of places, Zeeuws is actually
a minority language, so there are far little domains where
it it spoken than where West-Flemish is.

So Luc, if you spend your holiday in Renesse again and
you don't hear any Zeeuws, bear in mind that Renesse has
a population of 1,500 in winter and over 50,000 in summer
and that a lot of the girls that work in butcher shops are not
actually from Zeeland. Just a few kilometres inland from
Renesse, you'll find villages like Scharendijke, Kerkwerve,
Brouwershaven and Zonnemaire. Visit one of them, go
to the local pub and Zeeuws might well be the only language
you hear!
Oh, and when you order your _schelletjes hespe_  again,
please bear in mind that _hamme_ (_'amme_) is the
north-Zeelandic word for _hespe_ ('ham').
And what your visit to Renesse is concerned: you must
have come across some Zeeuws; the official name for the
main road is in Zeeuws: _de Laone_ ('the Lane'). It's one
of the few streetnames in Zeeuws that actually made it to
an official level...

Regards,

Marco

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