West Flemish

West Flemish (West-Vlams or West-Vloams or Vlaemsch (in French-Flanders), Dutch: West-Vlaams, French: flamand occidental) is a collection of Dutch dialects spoken in western Belgium and the neighbouring areas of France and the Netherlands.

West Flemish
West-Vlaams
Native toBelgium, Netherlands, France
RegionWest Flanders
Native speakers
(1.4 million cited 1998)[1]
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
vls – (West) Vlaams
zea – Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
Glottologsout3292  Southwestern Dutch
vlaa1240  Western Flemish
Linguasphere52-ACB-ag
West Flemish is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

West Flemish is spoken by about a million people in the Belgian province of West Flanders, and a further 50,000 in the neighbouring Dutch coastal district of Zeelandic Flanders (200,000 if including the closely related dialects of Zeelandic) and 10-20,000 in the northern part of the French department of Nord.[1] Some of the main cities where West Flemish is widely spoken are Bruges, Dunkirk, Kortrijk, Ostend, Roeselare and Ypres.

West Flemish is listed as a "vulnerable" language in UNESCO's online Red Book of Endangered Languages.[2]

This article is a part of a series on
Dutch
Low Saxon dialects
West Low Franconian dialects
East Low Franconian dialects
Position of West Flemish (colour: light blue) among the other minority languages, regional languages and dialects in Belgium, the Netherlands and French department Nord
Flemish (green) and French (red/brown) as spoken in the arrondissement of Dunkirk in France, in 1874 and 1972
Bachten de Kupe scenic road sign.

Phonology

West Flemish has a phonology that differs significantly from that of Standard Dutch, being similar to Afrikaans in the case of long E, O and A. Also where Standard Dutch has sch, in some parts of West Flanders, West-Flemish, like Afrikaans, has sk. However, the best known traits are the replacement of Standard Dutch (pre-)velar fricatives g and ch in Dutch (/x, ɣ/) with glottal h [h, ɦ],. The following differences are listed by their Dutch spelling, as some different letters have merged their sounds in Standard Dutch but remained separate sounds in West Flemish. Pronunciations can also differ slightly from region to region.

  • sch - /sx/ is realised as [ʃh], [sh] or [skʰ] (sh or sk).
  • ei - /ɛi/ is realised as [ɛː] or [jɛ] (è or jè).
  • ij - /ɛi/ is realised as [i] (short ie, also written as y) and in some words as [y].
  • ui - /œy/ is realised as [y] (short ie, also written as y) and in some words as [i].
  • au - /ʌu/ is realised as [ɔu] (ow)
  • ou - /ʌu/ is realised as [ʊ] (short oe), it is very similar to the long "oe" that is also used in Standard Dutch ([u]), which can cause confusion
  • e - /ɛ/ is realised as [æ] or [a].
  • i - /ɪ/ is realised as [ɛ].
  • ie - /i/ is longer [iː]
  • aa - /aː/ is realised as [ɒː].

The absence of /x/ and /ɣ/ in West Flemish makes pronouncing them very difficult for native speakers. That often causes hypercorrection of the /h/ sounds to a /x/ or /ɣ/.

Standard Dutch also has many words with an -en (/ən/) suffix (mostly plural forms of verbs and nouns). While Standard Dutch and most dialects do not pronounce the final n, West Flemish typically drops the e and pronounces the n inside the base word. For base words already ending with n, the final n sound is often lengthened to clarify the suffix. That makes many words become similar to those of English: beaten, listen etc.

The short o ([ɔ]) can also be pronounced as a short u ([ɐ]), a phenomenon also occurring in Russian and some other Slavic languages, called akanye. That happens spontaneously to some words, but other words keep their original short o sounds. Similarly, the short a ([ɑ]) can turn into a short o ([ɔ]) in some words spontaneously.

The diphthong ui (/œy/) does not exist in West Flemish and is replaced by a long u ([y]) or a long ie ([i]). Like for the ui, the long o ([o]) can be replaced by an [ø] (eu) for some words but a [uo] for others. That often causes similarities to ranchers English.

Here are some examples showing the sound shifts that are part of the vocabulary:

DutchWest FlemishEnglish
vol (short o)vul [vɐl]full
zon (short o)zunne [ˈzɐnːə]sun
kom (short o)kom* [kɔm]come
boter (long o)beuter [ˈbøtər]butter
boot (long o)boot [buot]boat
kuikenkiek'n [ˈkiːʔŋ̍]chick
bruinbrun [bryn]brown

* This is as an example as a lot of words are not the same. The actual word used for kom is menne.

Grammar

Plural form

Plural forms in Standard Dutch most often add -en, but West Flemish usually uses -s, like the Low Saxon dialects and even more prominently in English in which -en has become very rare. Under the influence of Standard Dutch, -s is being used by fewer people, and younger speakers tend to use -en.

Verb conjugation

The verbs zijn ("to be") and hebben ("to have") are also conjugated differently.

DutchWest FlemishEnglishDutchWest FlemishEnglish
zijnzynto behebbenènto have
ik ben'k zynI amik heb'k èI have
jij bentgy zytyou arejij hebtgy ètyou have
hij isie ishe ishij heeftie èthe has
wij zijnwydder zynwe arewij hebbenwydder ènwe have
jullie zijngydder zytyou arejullie hebbengydder ètyou have
zij zijnzydder zynthey arezij hebbenzydder ènthey have

Double subject

West Flemish often has a double subject.

DutchWest FlemishEnglish
Jij hebt dat gedaan.G' è gy da gedoan.You have done that.
Ik heb dat niet gedaan.'K èn ekik da nie gedoan.I didn't do that.

Articles

Standard Dutch has an indefinite article that does not depend on gender, unlike in West Flemish. However, a gender-independent article is increasingly used. Like in English, n is pronounced only if the next word begins with a vowel sound.

DutchWest FlemishEnglish
een stier (m)ne stiera bull
een koe (f)e koejea cow
een kalf (o)e kolfa calf
een aap (m)nen oapan ape
een huis (o)en 'usa house

Conjugation of yes and no

Another feature of West Flemish is the conjugation of ja and nee ("yes" and "no") to the subject of the sentence. That is somewhat related to the double subject, but even when the rest of the sentence is not pronounced, ja and nee are generally used with the first part of the double subject. There is also an extra word, toet ([tut]), negates the previous sentence but gives a positive answer. It is an abbreviation of " 't en doe 't" - it does it.

Ja and nee can also all be strengthened by adding mo- or ba-. Both mean "but" and are derived from Dutch but or maar) and can be even used together (mobajoat).

DutchWest FlemishEnglish
Heb jij dat gedaan? - Ja / NeeÈj gy da gedoan? - Joak / NinkDid you do that? - Yes / No
Je hebt dat niet gedaan, hé? - Maar jawelJ'èt da nie gedoan, é? - BajoatYou didn't do that, eh? - On the contrary (But yes I did.).
Heeft hij dat gedaan? - Ja / NeeÈt ie da gedoan? - Joan / Nin (Joaj/Nij - Joas/Nis)Did he do that? - Yes / No (Yes/No - Yes/No)
Gaan we verder? - Ja / NeeZyn we? - Joat / NinckCan we go? - Yes / No

See also
Apartment building in Blankenberge (Belgium) with West Flemish name "Yzeren Rampe" (Iron embankment)

References
  1. (West) Vlaams at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Zeelandic (Zeeuws) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. "UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger". United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Archived from the original on 30 October 2010. Retrieved 2023-02-07.

Further reading
  • Debrabandere, Frans (1999), "Kortrijk" (PDF), in Kruijsen, Joep; van der Sijs, Nicoline (eds.), Honderd Jaar Stadstaal, Uitgeverij Contact, pp. 289–299
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