|
|
Dutch Language
Dutch is spoken by 15 million people in Netherlands plus about 9 million in Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, South Africa and Indonesia. It is a Germanic language and is related to Frisian, German and English. Some Dutch words are now used in English (yatch, cookie).History of the language
Standard Dutch (or standard Netherlandic) is the term used to call the common language spoken in Belgium and Netherlands. The modern meaning of the term designates the people of the Netherlands or their language and arose only at the beginning of the 17th century, when Nederland intensified its cultural contacts and became an independent country. In the preceding centuries, Dutch was a general term which referred to any-German speaking area. The process of standardisation of the language began in the 16th century and the starting point was the urban dialect of Antwerp. What followed was the first Bible translation to Dutch, which created a common language in order to make the sacred text understandable by the greatest number of people. The first form of Dutch was based on the urban dialects of Holland, with some influence of various Low Saxon varieties.Dialects
There are many variations of Standard Dutch, the most important of which is Flemish Flemish is the collective term used for the Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium. Flemish could be defined as a "more gentle" form of Dutch, as it uses archaic words and sounds less harsh and guttural. In Flanders, there are four more dialects (West-Vlaams, OOst-Wlaams, Antwerps and Limburgs), which have incorporated French loanwords in everyday language, i.e. the substitution of "vork" with "fourchette" (the old French fro "fork"). The rest of the dialects differ from standard Dutch especially as for pronunciation and phonetics, i.e. in West-Vlaams the "soft g" sound is almost identical to that of the "h" sound. Some dialects such as Limburgs and several Low Saxon dialects are sometimes elevated to the status of streektaal (area language), and then discussed as separate languages. Some dialects are unintelligible to some speakers of Standard Dutch.Grammar
Being a continental West Germanic language, Dutch has a quite complicated word order and is also known for its tendency to glue together words to form astonishing long nouns...Just have a look at:de randjongerenhangplekkenbeleidsambtenarensalarisbesprekingsafspraken: the agreements for the negotiations concerning the salary of public servants who decide on the policy for areas where unemployed youth is allowed to hang out.
Or, if you prefer:
hottentottententententoonstellingsmakersopleidingsprogramma: the curriculum of an education teaching the makers of exhibitions about the tents of the Hottentots.
The most astonishing thing is that such long constructions are grammatically correct, even if its use is usually limited to two or three words stuck together.
Over the last 100 years, Dutch grammar has simplified a lot: noun and adjectives are no more case inflected and now cases are used only for pronouns. A peculiar feature od Dutch is that noun and adjectives are either common gender or neuter. This can be difficult for a learner whose mother tongue is English or a romance language (i.e. Spanish or French), as these languages use the concept of masculine and feminine.
Slang
And finally, if you want to speak Dutch with an attitude and make young friends, here you have a brief introduction to its slang.The following expressions are quite spread along students:
- brugpieper: a pupil in the lowest class of a lyceum. The word is used by pupils in the higher classes. It is a composition of "brugklas" (bridge-class; the first class being a "bridge" to different types of secondary education) and "pieper" (pipit, young chicken).
- knor: someone who gets everything wrong, always says the wrong things at the wrong moments, and is therefore considered a social failure. Example: 'John is een suffe knor!' means as much as 'John is a boring, uninteresting person'.
And if you do not get along well with someone, you can use the followings:
- dombo: dumbo, idiot
- Johny: A non-intellectual male person note Pejorative use of the male first name once popular in Dutch working class. Also 'Johnny' or 'Sjonnie'. Often used in conjunction with its female equivalent 'Anita'.
- zeiker: Someone who complains about trivial matters of things that cannot be changed.
But careful! They might sound quite offensive.