Flemish Dialects Research Articles

Continuity, change, and linguistic recycling in Flemish dialects: Negation, polarity focus, and mirativity1

The present paper revisits Neuckermans’s (2008) proposal concerning the geographic distribution and diachronic genesis of different functions of the particle en, a remnant of Jespersen’s Cycle in the Southern Dutch dialects, and addresses van der Auwera’s (2009) claim that en may in some dialects of Dutch have developed into a non-negative marker of clausal subordination at the end of the cycle. Based on a 400,000-word corpus of spontaneous dialect speech data from 65 locations in the southern Dutch dialect area (with an emphasis on West and East Flemish ones) as well as on historical data from the literature, it is concluded that Neuckermans’s implicational hierarchy (a) needs to be revised and (b) cannot not be a reflex of a diachronic retraction scenario, and that (c) an analysis of non-negative en as a marker of subordination as proposed by van der Auwera cannot be confirmed for the Southern Dutch dialects more generally. Instead, it is argued that the observable distribution points to the synchronic coexistence of several layers of change that have affected en since Middle Dutch, and have led to it having become co-opted as a mirative strategy.

Verb constructions in West and East Flemish dialects

The article deals with verb construction in West and East Flemish dialects in the 1960s and 1970s. The research was based on the unique dialect collection of the Ghent University Stemmen uit het Verleden (“Voices from the Past”). The main objective of the paper is to find verb constructions that are specific only for the Flemish dialects and to describe them. Based on a number of criteria, 21 recordings were examined. The article gives a detailed analysis of the use of such verb constructions as weten te + inf. (‘to know where something is located’) and durven te + inf. (‘to dare to do something’), gaan + inf. (‘going to’) and the infinitive constructions om/voor/van te + inf. In some cases, the results of the research correspond to the standard of Belgian Dutch, in other cases the constructions appear to be used in a specific way. We conclude that both weten + inf. and durven + inf. are used in the texts without the particle te. Auxiliary verb gaan can never occur as the only verb and is always doubled or even tripled. Besides, voor te + inf. turned out to be the most commonly used construction to express the aim of an action, although om te + inf. also frequently occurs in the function. Van te + inf., however, is used in other functions and never expresses purpose.

Phonaesthemic alternations in Flemish dialects: a matter of language contact in the emergence of phonaesthesia?

Abstract In this article, we present and analyse phonaesthemic alternations as they appear in Flemish dialects of Dutch, that is when a root-initial consonant or consonant cluster is replaced by a post-alveolar affricate /ʧ/ or /ʤ/ in order to create a phonaesthemically marked variant of a neutral base word. Although no longer productive in Flemish dialects, we show that such phonaesthemic alternations exhibit strong functional similarities to those found in other languages, in particular the evaluative notions of diminutivity and augmentativity. We also show that, formally speaking, Flemish phonaesthemic alternations differ from those attested in other languages in only targeting a single consonant or consonant cluster. We then put forward the hypothesis that Flemish speakers may have copied this mechanism to produce phonaesthemic alternations from Picard speakers, corroborating the notion that phonaesthemic alternations may emerge from language contact.

The Main Germanic Dialects of Flanders

Introduction. The article reveals a complicated language situation in the Flemish region of Belgium - a progressing extinction of Germanic dialects, which are historically spread on this territory. Each dialectal group has its unique features, and the West-Flemish and Limburgish groups might have become grounds for particular languages.Methodology and sources. The methodological base consists in a complex approach, combining the comparative-historical and contrastive methods with the method of sociolinguistic interpretation. The investigation is conducted on the language material, collected from different dialectal dictionaries of Dutch, as well as from special linguistic papers on the language situation in Flanders.Results and discussion. The article represents a multiplicity of Germanic dialects, existing on the territory of modern Flanders. A short revue is given on lexical and grammatical peculiarities of four main dialectal groups, as well as on their peculiar phonetics. A special attention is, respectively, paid to the urban dialects of Antwerp, Gent, Bruges and Hasselt. There are analyzed some interferential phenomena, caused by the contact of the investigated dialects with Romanic and Germanic environment and occurring on all language levels - from phonetic to the syntactic ones. It has been suggested, that certain specific grammar forms in Flemish dialects may be result of phonetic interference. For Marols, which originally belongs to the group of Brabant dialects, the juncture between Germanic morphosyntactic structure and Roman lexis is discussed.Conclusion. For the last 20 years the percentage of persons, speaking the Germanic dialects of Flanders, has demonstrated a catastrophic decrease. Along with that, the main features of these dialects (mostly of the Brabant ones) have gone over to an intermediate language “tussentaal”, in both lexis and grammar. This language is being formed inbetween the Germanic dialects and Dutch; the latter is represented in the Flemish region by two variants – standard (common) Dutch and Belgian Dutch. The progressing decrease in the number of persons, speaking the autochthonous dialects of Flanders, is thoughtprovoking towards the exigency to fix the disappearing language variants through a strict scientific way.

The French Flemish dialect in the context of language situation of Belgium and France

This article addresses the historical language variants of Flanders, spoken both within and outside the region. The linguistic diversity of officially Dutch-speaking Flanders is represented by Limburgish, West Flemish, Brabantian, and East Flemish dialects, with Limburgish and West Flemish being entitled to the status of a distinct language. (Limburgish is recognized as a regional language in the Netherlands.) This paper reviews some sociolinguistic and political features of Flanders, acknowledging the area of West Flemish dialect group use. Special emphasis is placed on the French Flemish dialect, present in the territories of France and Belgium. This dialect is one of the most archaic West Flemish dialects that suffered a profound impact from French and other neighboring languages. The lexical and grammatical features of French Flemish are examined. It is noted that code switching is common for the French Flemish dialect. Some of the French Flemish syntax features related to the antecedent phenomena are explained via the binomiality idea, that states any verbal or substantive part of a sentence be composed of two parts, the first of which can be modified. Some syntax phenomena of French Flemish could be the result of grammatical interference between the West Flemish dialect and the French language. The paper also touches on the French Flemish support actions taken by France and Belgium, and discusses French Flemish seceding from West Flemish dialect group and acquiring a special status, that could be a status of a distinct language.

A Corpus-Based Analysis of V2 Variation in West Flemish and French Flemish Dialects

This paper explores V2 variation in West Flemish and French Flemish dialects of Dutch based on an extensive corpus of authentic spoken data. After taking stock of the existing literature, we probe into the effect of region, prosodic integration, form and function of the topicalized constituent, form of the subject, and the number of constituents in the prefield on (non)inverted word order. This is the first study that carries out regression analysis on the combined impact of these variables in the entire West Flemish and French Flemish region, with additional visualization of effect sizes. The results show that noninversion is generally more widespread than originally anticipated, with unexpected higher occurrence of noninversion in continental West Flemish and lower frequencies in western West Flemish. With the exception of the variable number of constituents in the prefield, all other variables had a significant impact on word order: Clausal topicalized elements, elements that have peripheral functions, and elements that lack prosodic integration all favor noninverted word order. The form of the subject also impacted word order, but its effect is sometimes overruled by discourse considerations.

ФОНЕТИЧЕСКАЯ И ИНТОНАЦИОННАЯ ИНТЕРФЕРЕНЦИЯ НА ПРИМЕРЕ ФЛАМАНДСКИХ ДИАЛЕКТОВ

The article conducts a theoretical scientific review devoted to the problems of studying phonetic interference. The language situation in Belgium is considered, in particular the results of speech contacts of the speakers of the Dutch and French languages by the example of phonetic features of modern Flemish dialects. Theoretical and practical (methodological) problems of studying intonation (its definition and classification of intonation constructions) and intonation interference are stated. The authors generalize the results of empirical studies of intonation interference over the past decades.

Gecombineerd gebruik van u en je in personeelsadvertenties

Abstract Combined use of u and je in employment advertisements: On the grammatical and cultural context of forms of address This paper concerns the use of forms of address, especially the second-person pronouns je and u, in employment advertisements in the Netherlands and Flanders. An innovative aspect of our study is that we created a corpus of advertisements in which a special property is that there is a combined use of u-forms and je-forms. Among other things, this makes it possible to find out why authors use a u-form, even though familiar forms of address are used elsewhere in the text. Our study elaborates on research by Vismans (2007), who focusses on forms of address in job advertisements for highly-educated persons. Our corpus, however, is not restricted to advertisements aimed at highly-educated candidates and our method is not based on identifications of whole advertisement texts in terms of very general patterns (as done in earlier research), but we focus on individual occurrences of pronouns. Our goal is to show the combined action of two relevant factors playing a role in the use of forms of address: (1) the differences between the Netherlands and Flanders in terms of cultural values and (2) the syntactic function (subject or non-subject) of the constituent in which the form occurs. We conclude that forms of address are not only determined by cultural factors, but that the choice of a certain form can reflect Flemish dialect and colloquial varieties, in which a u-form exists which is the non-subject-form of ge/gij. The results show that when we compare the use of pronouns in subject and non-subject functions, there is a preference for u-forms to be used in non-subject functions. An unexpected result is that a similar pattern is found in material from the Netherlands. This can be related to the historical paradigm (as described by Vermaas 2005), in which u was only used in non-subject functions in Netherlandic Dutch as well.

Verbreiding en oorzaak van h-procope en h-prothese in het Middelnederlands

Abstract The diffusion and cause of procope and prothesis of h in Middle Dutch In this article we examine the geographical distribution of procope and prothesis of h in Dutch charters from the 13th and 14th centuries, and the frequency with which these phenomena occur, while trying to find patterns in the data. We then venture an explanation of why these phenomena originate in the Flemish dialects. Our hypothesis is that procope of h was induced by language contact between Dutch (Flemish) and French, due to the many bilinguals in Flanders. The contact situation triggered an already existing internal tendency by which h was lost or weakened before sonorants and glides to also affect prevocalic h.

Fragment answers with infinitives in a Flemish dialect

AbstractThis paper is devoted to a construction in a specific Flemish dialect, in which infinitives are used in fragment answers in contexts where this would be unacceptable in other varieties. Questions such asWaar is mijn boek?‘Where is my book?’ can be answered with constructions such asOp tafel liggen‘lay.INFon the table’. We apply an analysis in terms of ellipsis to these infinitival constructions. However, we find fragment answers with infinitives in contexts where the assumption of ellipsis is problematic, since there is no plausible underlying structure available. We show that the use of this construction has extended to contexts in which the infinitive independently expresses the clausal tense features. Our description of the construction is based on a questionnaire study in which around thirty speakers were tested.

Standardizing and destandardizing practices at a Flemish secondary school

Abstract1 For a couple of decades now, in Flanders, the functional elaboration of what is generally called tussentaal, i.e. mesolectal language use situated in between (‘tussen’) acrolectal Standard Dutch and basilectal Flemish dialects, has caused increasing concern about the position of Standard Dutch relative to other recognized ways of speaking. This has provoked intense debate about the proper characterization of this evolution. In this paper I focus on the daily language practices and overt attitudes of six girls at a Flemish secondary school to illustrate that it is relatively easy to find evidence that suggests the mentioned evolution is properly characterized as a type of destandardization. Yet by zooming in on the covert attitudes of the girls, which are influenced by the Standard Language Ideology (SLI), I will argue that a close ethnographic study of daily language use is able to go beyond the surface appearances of larger-scale ideologies and can demonstrate the continuing influence of standardization. Sociolinguistic ethnography may therefore have a vital role to play in the ongoing debate about language variation in Flanders.

Waar is je velo? Buiten staan

Abstract Waar is je velo? Buiten staan. On fragment answers with infinitives in Maldegem dialect This paper describes the properties of a construction in a specific Flemish dialect, in which infinitives are used in fragment answers in contexts where this would be unacceptable in Standard Dutch or other varieties. Questions such as Waar is mijn bril? ‘Where are my glasses?’ and Waar is je velo? ‘Where is your bicycle?’ can be answered in this dialect with infinitival constructions such as Op tafel liggen ‘layINF on the table’ and buiten staan ‘standINF outside’. We apply an analysis of fragment answers in terms of ellipsis (based on Merchant 2004) to these infinitival constructions. However, we find fragment answers with infinitives in contexts where the assumption of ellipsis is highly problematic, since there is no plausible underlying structure available in the dialect. We show that the construction has extended its use to contexts in which the infinitive independently expresses the tense features of the sentence. The description of the properties and restrictions of the construction is based on a survey in which more than thirty speakers were tested for their judgements of fragment answers depending on the features in the grammatical context of the infinitive.

Eliminating social inequality by reinforcing standard language ideology? Language policy for Dutch in Flemish schools

Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, is experiencing growing intra- and interlingual diversity. On the intralingual level, Tussentaal (‘in-between-language’) has emerged as a cluster of intermediate varieties between the Flemish dialects and Standard Dutch, gradually becoming the colloquial language. At the same time, Flanders is encountering increasing numbers of immigrants and their languages. This paper analyses the way Flemish language-in-education policy deals with perceived problems of substandardisation and multilingualism, in order to create equal opportunities for all pupils, regardless of their native language or social background. Both the policy and the measures it proposes are strongly influenced by different, yet intertwined ideologies of standardisation and monolingualism. By propagating Standard Dutch as the only acceptable language and by denying all forms of language diversity, Flemish language-in-education policy not only fails to create equal opportunities, but also reinforces ideologies that maintain inequality. Instead, language policy should be open towards language diversity, taking the role of teachers in forming and implementing policies into consideration.

The Middle Dutch negative clitic: Status, position and disappearance

The Middle Dutch negative clitic en/ne disappeared from standard Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries (in Flemish dialects it is still around). The factors favoring the deletion of the clitic in the initial stages of this change have been well-studied (cf. van der Horst and van der Wal, 1979; de Haan and Weerman, 1984; Burridge, 1993; Hoeksema, 1997; Zeijlstra, 2004; Postma and Bennis, 2006; Breitbarth, 2009), and show interaction of syntactic with phonological factors. The negative clitic is syntactically a proclitic on the finite verb, but phonologically an enclitic, which creates problems in V1 contexts (questions, conditionals and imperatives), precisely the contexts where ne-drop is most frequent. In the present paper, using a large database of occurrences from 1200 to 1800 covering most of the Dutch-speaking regions, we go over the evidence for this account, and look at some complications (some texts have phonological as well as syntactic proclisis when the clitic element is ne, rather than en) and refinements (difference between niet ‘not’ and n-words). Alongside factors favoring deletion, there are also factors favoring retention to consider, especially for the later periods (16th–18th centuries). In particular string adjacency of niet+en turns out to matter greatly in preventing deletion of the clitic element. As a result, we see mostly SOV-clauses retaining clitics. We argue that the adjacency effect is an interface effect, as a result of syntactic chunking: reanalysis of a frequently recurring string as a unit. Both types of effect, V1, and string adjacency in SOV-clauses, are still reflected in dialect patterns in the SAND atlas (Barbiers et al., 2008): SOV clauses with clitic negation are more wide-spread in Belgium than main clauses, and V2 main clauses with clitic negation in turn are more wide-spread than V1 clauses. The main new findings of this paper are (1) differences between niet and n-words, and (2) the importance of adjacency in accounting for the longer retention of clitic negation in SOV contexts. In addition, the paper uses a broader data spectrum (more dialects) and more data points (3800 negative sentences) than previous studies. Two recent theoretical proposals regarding the loss of clitic negation in Dutch (Zeijlstra, 2004; Breitbarth, 2009) are discussed and criticized.

The Southern Dutch Dialect Dictionaries

The article on the three dictionaries of the southern Dutch dialects is divided into two parts. In the first part Joep Kruijsen (University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands) treats the history of the <i>Woordenboek van de Brabantse Dialecten</i> (<i>Dictionary of the Brabant Dialects</i>), the <i>Woordenboek van de Limburgse Dialecten</i> (<i>Dictionary of the Limburg Dialects</i>) and the <i>Woordenboek van de Vlaamse Dialecten</i> (<i>Dictionary of the Flemish Dialects</i>), three dictionaries which together record the vocabulary of the southern Dutch dialects. He describes the plan and method of collection and presentation. Because of the systematic arrangement (introduced by Weijnen) the three dictionaries are unique in Dutch and international lexicography. They combine a dictionary with a word atlas. In the second part of the article Jacques van Keymeulen (University of Ghent, Belgium) deals with a number of new methodological developments which were introduced following the start of the publication of part III General Vocabulary (apart from Part I Agricultural Terminology and Part II Nonagricultural Terminologies). After the institution of REWO (Regionale Woordenboeken), a coordinating body for the three dictionaries within the Dutch Language Union, and because of the introduction of sophisticated software, the databases can be combined to give a survey of the whole of the southern Dutch language area.<b>Keywords:</b> lexicography, onomasiology, dialect geography, language variation, phonology, historical linguistics, dictionary, regional dictionary, word atlas, cartography, general vocabulary, agrarian terminology, terminology of traditional crafts, dialect, traditional dialect, flemish, brabant dialect, limburg dialect, dutch, the netherlands, belgium, french flanders, methodology, systematical arrangement, automation, database, user groups, usefulness

Doubling PPs in Flemish dialects

Doubling PPs in Flemish dialects

Tussen feit en fictie - Over Roelants wapenschild en een Zuid-Vlaams ontstaansmilieu voor de Middelnederlandse Fierabras

In 1860, Blommaert edited a manuscript fragment, found in the municipal archives of Bourbourg. The fragment offers a unique text witness of a Middle Dutch Carolingian epic, nowadays known as the Fierabras. Just before the fragment breaks off, the text discusses the shield (escutcheon) of the epical heroes Roland and his father Milon, bearing a red lion rampant on a field of gold. In 1937, Knuttel recognized in this heraldic detail an unambiguous allusion to the arms of the counts of Holland. Ever since, researchers believe the Bourbourg-text to have been written for the court of Holland, being one of the sparse testimonies of the interest the Dutch nobility in the north took in patronizing Middle Dutch chivalric literature. Our investigations, however, seem to counter this view. Members of the House of Gavere, in the south of Flanders, took on a variant of Roland’s shield by the end of the thirteenth century, claiming descendance from a comrade-in-arms of the epic hero. This legend took root in southern Flemish manuscript illumination around 1300. It will be demonstrated that southern Flanders – the region around Gavere – is an equally likely context for the composition of the Bourbourg-text, offering a much more plausible explanation for the southern Flemish dialect of its poet.

The geography of gender change: pronominal and adnominal gender in Flemish dialects of Dutch

In the history of some Germanic languages, a shift is observed from a ‘grammatical’ system of pronominal reference to a semantic system. In English this development culminated in the disappearance of the grammatical gender system, and a similar resemanticization process is currently observed in Dutch. In Dutch, there is geographical variation in the speed with which resemanticization takes effect: northern varieties are ahead in the change, and within the southern varieties, it has been claimed that West Flemish dialects have undergone more extensive change than, e.g. East Flemish and Brabantic dialects. In this article it is attempted to quantify the geographical differences in pronominal gender in the southern varieties of Dutch spoken in the Belgian provinces of West and East Flanders, using data from a questionnaire survey. The findings corroborate the alleged correlation between the maintenance of grammatical gender in pronouns and the richness of gender marking in the noun phrase: grammatical gender is less explicitly marked on articles and adjectives in West Flemish than in other southern varieties of Dutch, and, correspondingly, West Flemish has further advanced the resemanticization process. A statistical analysis of the data shows that by and large all geographical variation is explained as the result of such differences in adnominal gender marking, more specifically of the presence or absence of a separate masculine indefinite article.

Werkwoordvormen in de zuidelijke Nederlandse dialecten. Stamkeuze, werkwoorduitgangen en fonologische aanpassingen van de stam – II. 1/3 mv

1st and 3rd p. plural verb forms have largely converged into one form with nasal ending; only in a very small part in the southeast there is an opposition between the simple nasal ending and /nt/; the former occurs with most verbs, the second being restricted to the small class of vowel stems. The latter category (gaa-n, zie-n, doe-n, etc.) also displays very occasionally double endings (ga-nen, doe-ene, zie-nen). This text focuses on the following topics: •morphological stem variations, all of which also occur with other verbal forms (§ 2); we mention the interaction of plural / singular stems in preterits and the reduction of consonant to vowel stems; •the phonetic realisations of the nasal ending, as [], [n] or [n], with consonant stems, both present and preterit, and [n] or zero with vowel stems, both primary and secondary (§ 3 – 4 - 5.1-5.3); with consonant stems the character of the final consonant appears to be a major conditioning factor; •phonological changes in vowel stems with underlying tense vowels: these include both shortening (du.n > dun) and palatalisation (du.n > dy.n, which is generally combined with shortening: du.n > dun/dy.n > dyn) (§5.4); palatalisation occurs in most eastern (Brabant and Limburg dialects that have shortening, but does not in the western (Flemish) dialects; between these geographical entities a number of dialects display forms with velar/palatal diphthongs (e.g. duin). The text ends with the discussion of two specific issues: the development of a new ,,pronominal ending in 1st p. pl. (deriving from the homophonic enclitic subject pronoun) on the one hand, the generalisation of the nasal ending to the 2nd p. plural in a small number of dialects, both in the northwest and in the southeast, on the other.

Intersystemic Correspondence Rules and Headwords in Dutch Dialect Lexicography

The headwords in the three regional dialect dictionaries of the southern Dutch dialect area-the Dictionary of the Flemish Dialects (WVD), the Dictionary of the Brabantic Dialects (WBD) and the Dictionary of the Limburgish Dialects (WLD)-are 'Dutchified' forms: that is, headwords are rendered in Standard Dutch orthography and generalize across a number of phonologically distinct dialect forms. This article explains how the Dutchification of headwords was operationalized in the Dictionary of the Flemish Dialects. It is shown that a number of so-called correspondence rules can be found that mediate between dialect and Standard Dutch phonology and which form the basis of Dutchification. Phonological models confirm this lexicographical intuition; the work of Rys (2007) is used to exemplify the correspondence rules with examples from the Maldegem dialect.