[Idyllchat] Speaking of language...

[Jay Cloidt]

It's the exact same written language, but they pronounce things a bit
differently on either side of the border. I think the whole Flemish / Dutch
thing stems more from regional rivalries and political differences than
actual language. As the article stated, Belgium including Flanders gained
independence from the Netherlands. A friend of mine has cousins who live on
either side of the border and they basically think the other sounds funny.
It would be sort of like listening to the same sentence pronounced with a
non-regional American accent and a really heavy Jamaican accent. To an
American, the Jamaican speaker might sound like they are speaking a
different language, especially, when they speak fast.

On Dec 17, 2007 3:47 PM, Jerry Clancy <jclancy at billtrak.com> wrote:

> It's interesting that you note this because that sort of occurred to me as
> well. I've always heard it referred to as Flemish, not Dutch.
>
> At 03:24 PM 12/17/2007, Jay Cloidt wrote:
>
> >The people of Flanders would be offended by this article, since they do
> NOT speak Dutch. They speak Flemish (even though the written language is
> identical).  The author would be booed in Flemish. ;-)
>
>
>
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