Foreign languages

[Trufflehound]

Can believe it... I lived mostly in Den Haag, and it seemed even more gutteral there...

Where I am in Brabant the accent is relatively soft, so I consider myself lucky.

I always think the people of Den Haag sound like they're chewing toffee when they talk. And Rotterdammers roll their 'r's far too much - sound like they're digging up the road with pneumatic drills. But I find Amsterdammers the worst for guttural sounds and phlegm-spitting, and they seem to have most of the jobs in TV since everyone works just down the road from there in Hilversum.

On the other hand, at least i can make out what they're on about, even with annoying accents. Had some workmen from rural Friesland doing a job for me at home the other day - couldn't understand a blooming word they were saying.

Most amusing I find though is small town Limburg from down south (I spent 8 years working in the heart of it in Sittard). They sound like they're speaking bad German on Helium. Even other Dutch people can't understand them...

 

[pasty]

And Rotterdammers roll their 'r's far too much - sound like they're digging up the road with pneumatic drills.

Never really thought about Dutch regional accents until I was once told I speak Dutch with a Rotterdam accent. Fair enough I suppose though as that's where I was over there, and my Dutch ex-wife and her family were all from there.

 

[Gwylan]

On the other hand, at least i can make out what they're on about, even with annoying accents. Had some workmen from rural Friesland doing a job for me at home the other day - couldn't understand a blooming word they were saying.

Interestingly, Friesian is the closest living language to English so, in theory, it should be easier.

I was talking to someone last week who lived in the Netherlands, just inside the border, but went to school in Germany. He was saying how everyone around there speaks one dialect, no matter what side of the border they're from so the Dutch understand the Germans and vice versa

 

[Trufflehound]

Interestingly, Friesian is the closest living language to English so, in theory, it should be easier.

It is supposedly true about the Fries language, but I'm talking about northern yokels speaking in Dutch (at least I think it was Dutch), which is a whole different ball game. Fries as a language is unintelligible to most Dutch speakers.

 

[The Spanish]

Interestingly, Friesian is the closest living language to English so, in theory, it should be easier.

I was talking to someone last week who lived in the Netherlands, just inside the border, but went to school in Germany. He was saying how everyone around there speaks one dialect, no matter what side of the border they're from so the Dutch understand the Germans and vice versa

its a dialect continuum. thats how a lot of languages work, they kind of blur slowly rather than stop dead at a checkpoint. our word dutch is a corruption of deutsch. languages are just dialects with an army. or something.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Slightly different, Mrs SS has reached level 2 in sign language - enough to hold a conversation.

Sign is often overlooked as a language - BA cabin crew must have a second language for long haul and my mate's Mrs' second language was sign.

 

[Mexican Seagull]

Danish & Spainsh fluently but then have lived in Denmark & then Mexico for many years, and that was after failing French O levels 3 times.....

 

[daveinprague]

Think military slang could be included... some American woman was listening to us taliking in a bar in Miami, and asked us if we were French.... ??
Obviously, one of our party suggested to her, that she was lucky to be a girl, as if she had been a male, she would be on the floor...which of course had to
be repeated several fecking times until she understood.

 

[SouthCoastOwl]

French and T'Yorkshire

 

[tinycowboy]

I studied German and Italian at university, but I wouldn't say I'm that good any more as I left 20 years ago. Can get by in French. Can speak very limited 'holiday' Spanish, tiny bit of Dutch. Wish I was a bit better in all of them - jack of (some) trades, master of none.

 

[Racek]

Slightly different, Mrs SS has reached level 2 in sign language - enough to hold a conversation.

Sign is often overlooked as a language - BA cabin crew must have a second language for long haul and my mate's Mrs' second language was sign.

Is that a new requirement? My old housemate was BA long haul, but she had been doing it for 20 years and only spoke English.

 

[beorhthelm]

Interestingly, Friesian is the closest living language to English so, in theory, it should be easier.

would that not be closet to Old English, before it corrupted with all that Franch and Latin nonsence, so quite different?

 

[Marxo]

I speak Flemish Dutch, the local dialect here in Ghent is very vowel orientated, so not guttural. Because of the history here (up 'til the first half of the last century flemish speakers were forced to speak French in all administrative situations and even in the army) the Ghent dialect uses French for many tools and car parts etc. One thing that is strange in Dutch is that they join words together, e.g. safety razor is 'veiligheidsscheermes' or along the motorway you may see a sign saying Risicozone, looks like an Italian dish but it's just risk zone.

 

[pasty]

To help get my pronunciation right my ex used to try to get me saying "achtentachtig kacheltjes". Literally translated it means 88 little stoves, but it's bloody hard to pronounce. If you can get that one sorted, you can pronounce any Dutch word there is.

 

[pauli cee]

used to speak Indonesian/Malaysian to a pretty good conversational level, and also not bad in Swahili and Luganda,
tho struggling with just English most of the time now......

 

[Trufflehound]

I speak Flemish Dutch, the local dialect here in Ghent is very vowel orientated, so not guttural. Because of the history here (up 'til the first half of the last century flemish speakers were forced to speak French in all administrative situations and even in the army) the Ghent dialect uses French for many tools and car parts etc. One thing that is strange in Dutch is that they join words together, e.g. safety razor is 'veiligheidsscheermes' or along the motorway you may see a sign saying Risicozone, looks like an Italian dish but it's just risk zone.

When I first moved over here 25 years ago the Dutch news programmes used to subtitle Flemish speakers in interviews. Which is rather patronising, since although there are a few tiny word variations and colloquialisms, I'd say Flemish Dutch and Dutch Dutch are actually closer together than US and UK English.

As for sticking words together, to be fair to the Belgians/Dutch they aren't as bad as the Germans. The one I like best is luchtvaartmaatschappij - airline.

 

[Trufflehound]

To help get my pronunciation right my ex used to try to get me saying "achtentachtig kacheltjes". Literally translated it means 88 little stoves, but it's bloody hard to pronounce. If you can get that one sorted, you can pronounce any Dutch word there is.

In the last war the Dutch resistance used to test strangers by getting them to say Scheveningen. If they pronounced it wrong they shot them as they were clearly German infiltrators.

Another good test is the deceptively simple ui - onion. Only two letters but a bugger to get spot on. To avoid ridicule I never order uiensoep in restaurants, even though I love it...

 

[Gwylan]

would that not be closet to Old English, before it corrupted with all that Franch and Latin nonsence, so quite different?

Well, according to this site http://www.languageandlaw.org/FRISIAN/FRISIAN.HTM not as much as you'd think

A really interesting read about our near relative

 

[Trufflehound]

used to speak Indonesian/Malaysian to a pretty good conversational level

Apa kabar?

 

[Marxo]

Trufflehound: Another good test is the deceptively simple ui - onion. Only two letters but a bugger to get spot on. To avoid ridicule I never order uiensoep in restaurants, even though I love it...[/QUOTE]

And I don't ask for erwtensoep (pea soup) either! Another one they could have asked the Germans is murw (to get weary and worn down or can sometimes mean mellow).