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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 Netherlands.

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West Flemish
West-Vlaams
West-Vlams, West-Vloams
Native to	Belgium, Netherlands, France
Region	West Flanders
Native speakers	1.4 million (1998)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Istvaeonic Low Franconian Dutch West Flemish
Dialects	Zeelandic French Flemish
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: vls – (West) Vlaams zea – Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
Glottolog	sout3292  Southwestern Dutch vlaa1240  Western Flemish
Linguasphere	52-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] The dialect has its own dedicated Wikipedia.[3]

This article is a part of a series on
Dutch
Languages of the Netherlands Dutch dialects Afrikaans
Low Saxon dialects
Northern Low Saxon Gronings Westphalian Achterhooks Drèents Veluws Sallaands Stellingwarfs Tweants
West Low Franconian dialects
West Flemish/French Flemish East Flemish Zeelandic Central Dutch Hollandic South Guelderish Surinamese Dutch Brabantian Antwerpian Brusselian Jersey Dutch Mohawk Dutch Stadsfries Bildts Meuse-Rhenish
East Low Franconian dialects
Limburgish Southeast Limburgish Low Dietsch
v t e

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, and where Standard Dutch has sch, 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. ^{[clarification needed]}

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

Dutch	West Flemish	English
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
kuiken	kiek'n [ˈkiːʔŋ̍]	chick
bruin	brun [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 Lower Saxon Germanic 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.

Dutch	West Flemish	English	Dutch	West Flemish	English
zijn	zyn	to be	hebben	èn	to have
ik ben	'k zyn	I am	ik heb	'k è	I have
jij bent	gy zyt	you are	jij hebt	gy èt	you have
hij is	ie is	he is	hij heeft	ie èt	he has
wij zijn	wydder zyn	we are	wij hebben	wydder èn	we have
jullie zijn	gydder zyt	you are	jullie hebben	gydder èt	you have
zij zijn	zydder zyn	they are	zij hebben	zydder èn	they have

Double subject

West Flemish often has a double subject.

Dutch	West Flemish	English
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.

Dutch	West Flemish	English
een stier (m)	ne stier	a bull
een koe (f)	e koeje	a cow
een kalf (o)	e kolf	a calf
een aap (m)	nen oap	an ape
een huis (o)	en 'us	a 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's an abbreviation of " 't en doe 't" - it does it.

Ja, nee and toet 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 (mobatoet).

Dutch	West Flemish	English
Heb jij dat gedaan? - Ja / Nee	Èj gy da gedoan? - Joak / Nink	Did you do that? - Yes / No
Je hebt dat niet gedaan, hé? - Maar jawel	G'èt da nie gedoan, é? - Batoet (kendoe)	You didn't do that, eh? - On the contrary (But yes I did.).
Heeft hij dat gedaan? - Ja / Nee	Èt ie da gedoan? - Joan / Nin (Joaj/Nij - Joas/Nis)	Did he do that? - Yes / No (Yes/No he - Yes/No she)
Gaan we verder? - Ja / Nee	Zyn we? - Jow / Niw	Can we go? - Yes / No

Vocabulary

West Flemish inherited many words from Saxon settlers and later on had English loanwords from the wool and cloth trades. Both categories differ from Standard Dutch and show similarities with English and so is difficult to separate both categories.

During the Industrial Revolution, the increasing trade with France caused many industrial loanwords from French.

False friends

Even when words exist in both Dutch and West Flemish, their meaning can be different. That sometimes causes confusion for native speakers who do not realise that words are used differently.

Dutch	West Flemish	English
achter	bachtn	after / behind (a notion of space)
na	achter	past / after (a notion of time)

See also

• Flemish
• Dutch dialects
• Flemish people (Flemings or Vlamingen)
• French Flemish
• Hebban olla vogala
• Westhoek

References

Further reading

External links

• Euromosaic report on West Flemish (thus Dutch) in France

На других языках

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[de] Westflämisch

Westflämisch ist eine Sprache, die in Belgien, den Niederlanden und Frankreich gesprochen wird. Das Verbreitungsgebiet erstreckt sich vom westlichen Teil Zeeuws-Vlaanderens in den Niederlanden, der Provinz Westflandern in Belgien bis zur nordöstlichen Spitze Französisch-Flanderns.

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- [en] West Flemish

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[fr] Flamand occidental

Le flamand occidental, aussi appelé westflamand, (en néerlandais : West-Vlaams ; en flamand de France : West-Vlaemsch, Vlaamsch en flamand occidental, Fransch Vlaemsch[1], abrégé WVL) est un groupe de dialectes du néerlandais, langue appartenant au groupe germanique des langues indo-européennes. Le flamand occidental est parlé dans diverses parties des Pays-Bas, de la Belgique et de la France.

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[it] Dialetto fiammingo occidentale

Il fiammingo occidentale (nome nativo West-Vlams) è un dialetto della lingua olandese parlato nei Paesi Bassi (segnatamente nella regione delle Fiandre zelandesi, in Zelanda), nel Belgio e nelle Fiandre francesi nella variante Frans-Vlaams.

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[ru] Западнофламандские диалекты

Западнофламандские диалекты — группа диалектов нидерландского языка, распространённая в Западной Фландрии, Французской Фландрии и Зеландской Фландрии. Существует несколько западнофламандских диалектов (побережный диалект, брюггский диалект, диалект Французской Фландрии и т. д), но разница между ними относительно невелика, и она не препятствует взаимопониманию носителей. Наиболее близки зеландскому диалекту. Иногда западнофламандский рассматривается как самостоятельный язык (см. Проблема «язык или диалект»). Имеет свой код ISO 639, трёхбуквенный идентификатор — vls.[1] Западнофламандский диалект (язык) не имеет официального статуса. Стандартизированная норма отсутствует.

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