Ha, but you're not an 'average TFF member' And I was just being a douche because I was baffled by some of the stupid remarks made in that thread. :S
Oh, right. Govinda.
Haha. Did someone leave?
We only have 6 communists left. This is concerning. Now we just look like Soviet bastards.
Me and my friends wanted to support Ireland, because we have this thing for Ireland. But Thierry Henry (French footballplayer) took away their spot in the World Cup by stopping the ball with his hand. Now I'm superpissed at the French. And I used to like Thierry Henry. Since Belgium isn't in, I'm not sure what team I'll support.
South Africa just makes me think of the World Cup due to all the silly football related adverts on the telly just now. As you might guess, we're getting a whole bunch of adverts about supporting England. It wouldn't be so bad, but it's everywhere! Adverts for Master-Card, Mars Bars, Sony televisions etc. I don't want to support England! I don't even like football!
Woh. I just read through our conversation from some time ago and, man, can I nag on about languages. I could have just said: Dutch is the official/academic and most commonly used name for one language with two variants: Dutch and Flemish. At some point in the 20th century, people started calling the language Dutch, regardless of where it was spoken, whether it was used by a Dutch person or a Flemish person. So we don't usually use the word 'Flemish' when talking about language anymore. That would have been shorter. And now I will shut the **** up about languages. P.S. They speak a variant of Dutch in South-Africa too.
I have no idea whatsoever. I think it's just another word for 'jibberish'.
Ooh! I have another question (you must be getting sick of them, haha). What is the language 'Double-Dutch'? I know there's a skipping-rope game named that but I've heard the phrase "They may as well be speaking Double-Dutch." and other things like that. Is it a language, or just some unusual phrase.
Also, I just like the English language. I always liked chatting in English on MSN with Zoe (whom your somewhat friends with, I believe), even when I was just 16.
These languages? It's just all Dutch, but since there are two neighbouring countries in which they speak it, there are two official pronunciations of certain things. (Again, like Am. Eng. and Brit. Eng.) And I don't know. We get French from the age of 10 until we leave High School. English from the age of 14. German/Spanish too, but that depends on what you're studying in High School. And I studied English and Dutch Literature & Linguistics for two years. ^^ But due to my lack of discipline and not giving a crap for two years, I was forced to study something else. Now I'm studying Journalism. I did get 34 out of 60 credits of the first year of Lit. and Ling. though. It's not like it was too hard. I mean, organising and making sure I studied was difficult, not the material. Not to me. The level of English and Dutch in what I'm studying now is ridiculously easy. And yeah, I'm good at language. If I'm allowed to say that myself. O_o
Wait a minute... How many of these langauges and 'sub-languages' do you actually speak? And how on earth are you so good at English?
So in short: Written, it's the same. Spoken, it's like American and British English. The thing is that the way the Belgian newsreaders speak on the tele, is not how people would speak in real life. Personally, I think the ge/gij-je/jij difference is the main thing that makes 'standard' Belgian Dutch sound a little bit formal, but that's just me. I'm starting to bore myself.
Well it's both Dutch. The word 'Flemish' actually means 'from the Flanders', not necessarily a language. Dutch is the official, proper language, but 'Flemish' is used to describe the informal Belgian form of Dutch, though it's still just Dutch, if that makes any sense. So we speak Dutch and French in Belgium, but 'Flemish' is sometimes used in a context where the spoken, informal language is the issue. Dutch Dutch and Belgian Dutch are both Dutch. That's the terms linguists use to imply that both 'varieties' are exactly the same language (which they are). The difference between Standard Dutch Dutch and Standard Belgian Dutch is really similar to the difference between British English and American English. But Flemish is just a name we use for the informal, spoken form of Belgian Dutch. Flemish is not dialect that is jibberish to people form the Netherlands though. Not at all. So there's the language Dutch. You have (1) Dutch from the Netherlands and (2) Dutch from Belgium. In written language, there are no differences, except for the very few words and expressions that Dutch people don't know and vice versa. So that's like American and British English. In spoken (formal/standard) Dutch Dutch and Belgian Dutch, there are also just some pronunciation differences, and probably less differences than there are between British and American. But (3) the informal spoken form of Dutch they speak in Belgium is sometimes called Flemish, as in 'spoken in the Flanders'. The main difference is the use of 'ge/gij' instead of 'je/jij'. But it's really too complicated to explain so I'll just shut up. ^^
That's actually very interesting. I had no idea that Flemish and Dutch were the same language, that sort of explains why Belgium has so many 'official languages'. Though it's a little surprising if the difference is that small that the langauges are given different names. It sounds more like different accents than anything else, since in Britain accents tend to have their own words and spoken/internet spelling differences. I would have thought Northern Dutch and Southern Dutch would've been more suitable names
