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Dutch profile | ||
Tags: Dutch | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Collaborative writing | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7162 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes  12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 40 20 September 2005 at 7:41am | IP Logged | ||
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A reader has kindly submitted me the following profile for the Dutch language. I wonder if anybody with knowledge of or about that language could expand or correct the following profile:
Usefulness: Dutch is not a major world language. It is spoken in the Netherlands and Wallonia (the northern half of Belgium). Although the Dutch once commanded a mighty empire in south-east Asia (namely Indonesia), the use of the language there has greatly declined. Also nearly every Dutch person can speak impeccable english! Beauty: Dutch is not a beautiful language. It is very gutteral with an overdose of silent vowels. However, it is easy to become fascinated as you have no idea how you're understanding what you're hearing! It sounds just like double dutch! Chic Factor: Dutch is not a major language of the European Union and very few people outside of the Netherlands and Belgium can speak it. People will gawk as you gag speaking Dutch. The variety of hard gutteral sounds mixed with a very soft accent can cause you to sound very exotic! Speakers: As aforementioned Dutch is not spoken in many places. 17 million claim it to be their mother tongue and another 4 million claim to use it as their second language. Countries: Netherland, Belgium, small communities in Carribean, Germany, France and Indonesia. Regional Variations: Dutch speakers are concentrated in one part of Europe so regional variation is limited. However Flemish speakers (Dutch speakers in Belgium) are said to have a less gutteral accent and use more French loanwords than their cousins in the Netherlands. Travel: Dutch will help you if you ever travel to the netherlands, although most people (especially the younger generation) can speak good english. Culture: Everyone knows about Dutch cuture with it's love of flowers and canals, and it's liberal attitude to what are vices almot everywhere else! Phonemes: English speakers shouldn't have to many pronunciation problems. The "g" is rolled in the throat so it sounds like you're trying to cough up phlegm. The "r" is also rolled by the tongue and "ch" is pronounced like "loCH" (in scottish accent). Syntax: Word order can be different to english although SVO patterns are the norm. Very similar to German in many ways. Seperable verbs are commonplace. However conjugation is easy as there is little variation and few tenses to learn. Vocabulary: Speaking another Germanic language helps GREATLY. English speakers will see many cognates on paper, but will probably not recognise in speech. Overall Difficulty: Not too hard. I would say **/*** for a native english speaker. Time Needed: To be able to hold a decent conversation or read a newspaper article with an hour's study per day: 2/3 Months. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bart Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6946 days ago 155 posts - 159 votes Speaks: Dutch*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish | Message 2 of 40 20 September 2005 at 8:39am | IP Logged | ||
Only mistake I found in the profile was here. Wallonia is the French speaking southern half of Belgium. Flanders is the northern and Dutch speaking half. Other than that it looks really nice, although the difference between "Flemish" and Dutch is not really explained all that clearly. (I can't really explain it myself but I'll try to get one of the Dutch visitors to upload a sound file and try to get one up myself, with my Flemish accent) Edited by Bart on 20 September 2005 at 8:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sapedro Triglot Senior Member Portugal descredito.blogspot. Joined 6904 days ago 216 posts - 219 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, French Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Greek | Message 3 of 40 21 September 2005 at 4:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Dutch is getting a little popular in Portugal...probably because many young people are going there for living...
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6820 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 40 24 September 2005 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Looks OK to me!
Just a few notes on the language though: 1. Dutch is also the main language in Suriname. 2. The dialects: In Holland we have 1 minority language called "Fries". It is spoken in the province Friesland. (I can't really understand that myself :-) And we have 2 recognised dialects: "Limburgs" (Limburg) and "Nedersaksisch" (northern and eastern parts of Holland). Nedersaksisch has a few variations, one of them is "Gronings" (my dialect). (There are also parts of Germany where Nedersaksisch is spoken.) Everybody knows Dutch and the majority speaks Dutch. But in some parts people use their dialect or minority language (Fries) for daily communication. But if you're a foreigner they'll switch to normal Dutch or English :-) 3. "African" which is spoken in South-Africa and Namibia originates from Dutch. Since the 17th century it has evolved on it's own. It's simular to Dutch in the degree that in principle Dutch people can read African and Africans can read Dutch. I hope this helps. Tuffy Edited by tuffy on 25 September 2005 at 8:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JLanguage Newbie United States Joined 6933 days ago 31 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 40 27 September 2005 at 8:18pm | IP Logged | ||
I believe the name for that language in English is "Afrikaans", not "African". Have you tried reading Afrikaans before? have you ever spoken to Afrikaans-speakers? If so, you could include a note on that in terms of transparency and mutual intelligibility. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bart Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6946 days ago 155 posts - 159 votes Speaks: Dutch*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish | Message 6 of 40 28 September 2005 at 1:57am | IP Logged | ||
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a native speaker of Dutch can read and understand Afrikaans perfectly, but I don't think that's the case the other way around.
I've never talked to someone who speaks Afrikaans, but I have heard it spoken and to me it sounds like Dutch baby-talk but with some kinda rude 'sailor-words'. In other words: Afrikaans is intelligible to Dutch speakers, but Dutch is not to speakers of Afrikaans. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7024 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog | Message 7 of 40 28 September 2005 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||
I usually don't point out these things, but it should be from English if we're talking about the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6820 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 40 28 September 2005 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have read it once and could understand it quite well. I don't know if it works the other way around. For that info I relied on a language webpage where they wrote this was the case.
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