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'Flemish for Dummies'

 

..........................................'Sideways Dutch'.............................

                          Full Tilt Flemish
                                                  (...with training wheels)
                                    
         To help English speakers learn the pronunciation, grammar, and rhythm of Flemish-Dutch, Calidocious Inc. proposes a simplified way to use Flemish pronouns (words that stand for things, like the words 'it', 'he', or 'she'). and gender assignment. This modified style of Standard-Dutch is called 'California Dutch', and is also nicknamed 'Sideways Dutch' or 'Dot Dutch'. 

          The new lingo makes use of several 'old-fashioned' pronouns from 'Medieval', or 'Middle, Dutch', which was spoken from about 1100 until about 1491, ie. the year just before Columbus returned from the 'New' World.  In particular, the Middle Dutch pronouns for 'you', both singular and plural, (the equivalents of 'thou', 'ye' , and 'thy' in Middle English), are added back into Modern Dutch. Several of the pronoun changes also mimic pronouns used in various modern-day Flemish dialects of Dutch or in the Limburgish language which is spoken in the Limburg regions of Flanders and Holland.
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         'California Dutch' may alternantely be described as 'Standard Dutch', spoken with a Flemish accent, and suplemented with several colloquial Flemish, Limburgish, and Northern Dutch pronouns.  Traits of the Flemish variant of Dutch that are important in California Dutch include: 1.Use of (mostly) three genders, 2. Rolling of 'r's' (with one trill) in the French manner, 3. Softening of 'g's so they are less gutteral, 4. Softening of terminal 'tie's so they are pronounced 'sie' instead of 'tsie', 5. Extensive substitution of 'u' and 'uw' for 'jou' and 'jouw' ('you' and 'yours'- singular-informal), 6. Use of 'du̇'-('you-singular-informal' and pronounced 'duh') in place of 'je' after simple verbs, 7. Use of variants of the Middle Dutchl/Limburgish pronouns 'gij/ge' for 'you-plural-informal' pronouns, and 8. Reduction of use the pronoun 'die'.
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        Although the changes to 'Standard Dutch' may initially seem to add, rather than decrease the complexity of Standard Dutch, they allow students to make all pronoun choices based on rules, rather than on arbitrary speaker preferences (which vary from community to community in Flanders). They also make writtien Dutch nearly 100% phonectic, ie. "what you see, is what you say".
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        The seven grammatical and/or stylistic differences between 'California Dutch' and both  'Standard ABN Dutch'- (General Proper Dutch) and 'Flemish Dutch' are: 1. Reduction of almost all subject, object, possessive, and reflexive pronouns to one syllable,  2. Increased use of contraction of post-verb subject, object, and possessive pronouns, (which is a reason for the nickname 'Sideways Dutch'),  3. Contraction of the first word in triple-or-more word adjective-noun constructions and the penultimate word in triple or more word verb constructions 4. Reduction of the use of pronoun homonyms (by increasing the overall number of pronouns), 5. Redefinintion of the often ambiguous {male/female) genders of Modern Dutch mono-syllable Common Gender pronouns which refer to inanimate objects, 6. More extensive and consistent use of commas to set of subordinate clauses, as is done in English, and 7. Spelling modifications to help clairify pronunciations and to help indicate the tempo of speech- (which is the reason for the nickname 'Dot Dutch'.  The Written 'California Dutch' is over 99% phonetic, with the exception of capitalized proper names.
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       A counter-intuitive feature of the changes is that even though 'California Dutch' in general strives to shorten pronouns, prounouns are usually as long/distinctive as they can be, as long as they don't impede sentence flow.  For example: the subject pronoun 'jij'-(you) is always preferred before a verb, as opposed to the condensed post-verb forms 'je' or 'du̇', as long as the more lengthy pre-verb form 'jij' doesn't impede the flow of a spoken sentence.
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      The nine most noticable vocabulary deviations from Standard Dutch are:  1. Elimination of the  two-syllable subject, object, and posessive pronoun 'jullie' (y'all/y'all's).  Restriction of  the use of 2. the object pronoun 'jou' (you-singular-informal) and 3. the possessive pronoun 'jouw' (yours-singular-informal) to just emphatic, reflexive, abstract.(such as in instructions), or end-of-sentence use 4. Repurposing of the colloquial Dutch pronoun 'd'r'-(her) as the object pronoun for 'you-plural-informal-object', 5. Reintroduction of the 'Middle Dutch' pronouns 'Du' (You-singular-object-emphatic), and 6. 'Gîj/gij' (pre-verb) or ' ge/ ġe ' (post-verb)- ('You-plural subject')- where the circomflex-accent indicates a gutteral 'g+juh' sound,  and where the over-dot indicates the word is slurred onto  the termianl consonant of a preceding verb). 7. Use of the Flemixh post-simple-verb you-singular-informal-subject pronoun 'du̇- which sounds like 'duh', 8. Use of the colloquial Flemish possessive pronoun 'æ̂i'- (yours-singular-informal post-preposition penultimate-word.  It is pronounced as a single syllable dipthong 'ah-ee', except it is slurred together with the final consonant of the preceding preposition and the 'ah' sound has a touch of a gutteral 'j' sound, similar to the corresponding sound in Arabic, ). 9,  Use of unique object pronouns for 'you-singular informal' and 'you-plural-informal' when they are sandwiched between the parts of a compound verb,  10. Elimination of all uses of 'hem' (he/it) to refer to nouns that used to be feminine in Standard Dutch and are still feminine in Standard Flemish. And 11. Use of 'u-based' object and possessive pronouns following prepositions, or preterminal words, that end in consonants.  They include 'u̇'-(you-singular-informal-post-preposition- with a short 'uu' sound and slurred onto the final consonant of the preceding preposition), 'u̇w'-(yours-singular-informal post-preposition and slurred together with the final consonant of the preposition), 'u̇e'- (you-plural-informal-post preposition object, with a long 'uu' sound and slurred together with a preceding consonant), u-(you-singular-informal end-of-sentence), 'ùe' (you-singular-informa end-of-sentence) and 'uw/uẇe' (yours-plural-informal).

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         All the changes are meant to be so slight that during speech a Dutch speaker from Holland might not recognize them as being "non-Flemish", and a Fleming would just think you were from some obscure community in south-eastern Holland near the Flemish border.  In writing, however, the changes are noticable. The written and spoken changes can be considered to be a hypothetical dialect of Dutch that might have evolved in the Dutch colony of 'New Netherland' (which now is roughly New York State), similarly to how American English evolved from British English..
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        In addition to the 'jullie/jou/jouw' eliminations/abbreviations that are based on 'Middle Dutch' and modern 'Flemish Dutch', several of the other grammatical/spelling changes can be found in "old fashioned" Standard Dutch books written before the mid 1900s..  A 1920 translation of the book 'Smoke Bellew' by Jack London is used as a reference at the end of this web page.

          The most "foreign" sounding of the California Dutch changes to Standard Dutch is the repurposing of the colloquial Dutch (and not Flemish)  pronoun 'd'r' (her) to become 'you-plural-informal-object'.  There are four variants of the pronoun: 1.'emphatic and pre-verb form 'dìėr'- (with a backwards accent over the 'ì'  and which is pronounced as a fast, single syllable, dipthong 'dih-ur', 2. 'post-verb form-'d'r' following simple verbs., which is pronounced like 'dir' would be, except faster, 3. post-verb-but between-compound-verbs form, reflexive from, and post preposition form following prepositions ending consonants 'dîr', which is pronounced like 'dir' would be, except with a hint of a 'juh' sound preceeding the 'r', and terminal-word form 'dì'r', (with a reverse accent ovr the 'ì' and which is pronounced like 'dìėr', except the dipthong is more drawn out.
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         There is a second moderately-foreign-sounding change based on the repurposing of eight pronouns to refer to unisex common-gender things that prior to 1950 were considered to be either male or female, and which are now treated as male in Standard Dutch.  The new unisex pronouns are further used to refer to human beings of indeterminate gender, such as a generic 'doctor'.  Note: It is always o.k. to use the correct Flemish/Old Fashioned Dutch gender pronouns for inanimate things, as long as a student is sure the gender is correct,
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         The eight unisex pronouns are: 1. initial-word and emphatic-subject- 'dæ̀r'-with a backwards accent over the the 'æ' which indicates a long 'ay' sound that is pronounced as quickly as the short 'eh' sound of 'der', 2. pre-verb subject elsewhere plus post-verb subject- 'die',  3. initial-word object and emphatic object- 'diėn'-(with an overdot over the 'ė' and pronounced like a dipthong- 'dee-uhn', except so fast it becomes a single syllable, 4. pre-verb object and terminal-word object- ' den' (with no accent),  5. post-verb object- ' dėn ', including between compound verbs, (pronounced like 'den', (except as fast as 'd'n' wpi;d be pronounced), 6. emphatic/initial word possessive ' diėn's '-(where the final 's' has 'z' sound), and 7. possessive elsewhere 'zijn', except if extra clarity is needed, in which case it is diėn's. Note: Together with these changes, the now rarely used Dutch article 'den' ('the'-male gender) is changed to d'n', as in 'op d'n duur'-(in the long run). It is pronounced like 'din', except faster. The spellings of proper names like 'Den Haag' aren't changed.
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          There is one change that doesn't have a background in colloquial or historical Dutch.  It is derived from a word in a song in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical 'The Sound of Music'.  In the "So Long, Farewell" song Oscar Hammerstein coined the 2nd-person-singular-object pronoun 'yieu'-(you) to rhyme with the final dipthong (two-vowel-multisound) of the Austrian pronunciation of the word 'Adieu'.  There are six variants of 'yieu' in 'Califoria Dutch'.
          The object pronoun has four 'yieu' variants.  'jìeu' (with a backwards accent) is the pre-verb form, 'jėu'-(with an overdot) is the post-verb form, 'jèu'- (with an backward accent) is the between-compund-verbs form, and 'jœu' is the 'end-of-sentence form following words ending in vowels that aren't prepositions. 'Jìeu' is pronounced as a dipthong 'yih-eu' where the final sound is the same as a German 'ö' or French 'eu,', 'Jėu' is prondouncd like 'yeuh', but as fast as the word 'je' would be, 'Jèu' is pronounced as very slight dipthong 'yuh-eu', is midway, lengthwise, between the sounds of 'jìeu' and 'jėu'- and is slightly accented and has a slightly raised tone.  It sounds similar to the Flemish word 'beu'-(fed up with). 'Jœu' is pronouncd as dipthong- 'yeu-uu'. and with a falling tone.
         The possessive pronoun (yours-singular-informal) has one new 'yieu' variant: 'jœ̀u'-(with a reverse accent), which is the post-verb form.  It is pronounced similarly to 'jèu' except it is more drawn out.
           The final, very condensed, use of the word occurs in the words 'jùself- (yourself) and  'alsjùblief'-(please)- where 'ù' represents an accelerated variant of 'jèu'
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          In addition to the above "new" words, there are six essential stylistic features of 'California Dutch' that are fairly common in Flemish dialects of Dutch: 1. the strenghening/shortening of several pronouns when they are the first word in a clause, 2 a. the expansion of several subject and object pronouns at the end of a clause- or 2 b. in the case of possessive pronouns, as the second-to-last word in a clause, 3. the reduction of the first word of  triple word noun or verb consturction into a monosyllable, 4. the contraction of the 1st person-informal singular and plural object-pronouns 'you', and 1st-person-singular possessive pronoun 'your'  to 'u̇' (u terminal), 'u̇e' (ùeterminal), 'u̇w', and æ̇i' after prepositions ending in consonants, 5, contraction of 'you-singular-informal' to 'u' and 'you-plural-informal' to 'ùe' at the end of a sentence when following a consonant, and 6. contraction of the two-syllable common-gender possessive pronouns, 'onze' and 'uwe' ('ours' and 'yours) to ' oṅze ' and ' uẇe ' except if they are penultimate words.  ' oṅze '  and ' uẇe ' are pronounced like 'onz-uh' and 'uw-uh', except faster.  Both are just slightly longer than a monosyllable. (Note: The penulitmate-word elongation only occurs before one or two syllable nouns.)
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          To recap, the central change of  'California Dutch' is that several pronouns change, according to where they appear in a sentence and whether they are stressed or not.  These distinctions include use of the pronouns as: 1. the first word in a clause, 2. use in an emphatic way, 3, use before a verb, 4. use after a verb, 5. use between the parts of a compound verb, 6. use after a preposition ending in a consonant, and 7. use at the end of a clause, or, in the case of possessive pronouns, as the penultimate word in a clause.  (As a result of these changes, the effort a speaker needs to pronounce pronouns decreases as the sentence progresses.)
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           The complete list of the three-dozen modified 'California Dutch' pronouns is: gîj, ġe, dìėr, d'r, dîr, dì'r, u̇e, ùe, œu̇r, uẇe, de eure, dæ̀r, diėn, dėn, diėns, U-Uw,  jîj, du̇, dú, jìeu, jèu, jėu, u̇, u, jœu, jôu, jœ̀u, u̇w, æ̂i, du, de hulle, oṅze, on's, 'se,  've, 'sie , and díe.  (Note: due to limitations of the type of font used on this web page, prescribed compression of the ligated letters 'ij' and compression of apostrophes and the letters they precede, hasn't been implemented'.)
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           A bonus feature of 'California Dutch' is that it open to adapting and incorporating any word from its sister language Afrikaans.  One of the fun new imported words is 'de sambreėl'-(umbrella)- pronounced like the Afrikaans 'sambreel', except the 'ay' sound is shifted to an 'ay-uh' dipthong..
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          Note: This web page is meant to be used together with the web page www.zoot.co, which explains how English speakers can master Dutch genders ASAP.
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          In Standard Dutch, subject pronouns continuously morph depending on whether they are stressed or unstressed, and depending on how much time they are required to fill. For example, the word for "we" is sometimes pronounced and written "wij" ( pronounced 'why'), and sometimes "we" (pronounced 'wuh').  It is difficult for English speakers to know when to use which option.
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          In 'California Dutch', however, the long, stressed, variants of subject pronouns only preceed verbs- (except in exceptional cases where a pre-verb pronoun is used after the verb emphatically, or at the end of a sentence to indicate maximum informality). 
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          Conversely, the non-stressed variants of subject pronouns almost never precede verbs in writing, and seldom do in speech- (with two exceptions: 1. when 'wij'-(we) or 'zij'-(they) immediately preceed  multisyllable helping verbs, including passive, past-tense, and modal verbs, they are condensed to 'we' and 'ze' in order to maintain the cadence, or rhythm, of a sentence, and 2. when 'wij' or 'zij' follow the conjunction 'dat' (that), they are also condensed to 'we' or 'ze').

'Easy Button'- Staples office products
Flemish Lingust (and mathematician) Stevin (Pronouns really can be abbreviated after verbs!)
        To help clarify the pronunciation of some of the "new" modified pronouns, plus to clarify the pronunciation of some letters which represent multiple sounds, and finally, to help indicate the timing of Flemish-Dutch , 'California Dutch' introduces eight types of enhanced spelling hints to Standard Dutch.
        
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       1.  The ligated letter 'ij':  Ligiated, (or "thin"), 'ij' is used to indicate a 'short i' sound in the suffix '-lijk', as in 'mogelijk' ('possible'- pronounced 'mow-ge-lick'). When the 'ij' spelling represents an 'eye' pronunciation, as in 'hij'-(he), it is written without ligation.
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        Some computer fonts, such as the one used in this web page, sporadically, and arbitrarily, ligate, 'ij's.  It is o.k. if some 'ij' spellings representing 'eye' sounds are inadvertantly ligated.  However it is important that all spellings representing 'ih' sounds are ligated.
        2. Backwards accent marks over vowels. The old fashioned Standard Dutch backwards-accent 'è', which used to be used in the final syllables of French loan words like 'trompèt' is repurposed, and is used over vowels to indicate slightly altered pronunciations.. The backwards accent is nicknamed the 'tilting', or 'Fugezi' accent mark.
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          In the English loan word 'bàby' the reverse accent indicates that the pronunciation is shifted from an 'aah' to an 'aay' sound.
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          In the article 'èèn'- ('a'-after a prepostion and before an adjective), the accents indicate the word is slurred together with the final consonants of preceding prepositions.  Also, although 'èè' still represents a strong 'ay' sound, it is pronounced almost as quickly as a short  'e' would be. (Note: this 'slurring and accelerating' function is indicated by an overdot in other words, but using reverse accents in this case, due to the doubling of the vowels, improves the visual flow of a sentence.)
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         In the words 'wèreld'-(world) or 'kèrel'-(guy), , the 'è' indicates the pronunciation shifts from an 'ay' to an 'eh' sound.
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         In the object 'jèu'-(you-singular-informal-between parts of a compound verb) the reverse accent indicates the vowel is pronounced  like the French 'eu', as opposed to an 'uh-uu' dipthong. The same sound is written 'eu' at the beginning, or in the middle of a word. To enforce the pronunciation of this terminal 'èu' spelling, the word 'bèu'-(fed up with) is also written with a reverse accent.  (The four other words in Dutch that end in '-eu', 'keu'-(pool que), 'reu'-(male dog), 'sneu'-(unfortunate), and 'bleu'-(timid) are written witthout backwards accents and pronounced with 'uh-uu' dipthongs.

Old Fashioned Spelling on 'Thank You' gift to President Hoover in WWI. From the Hoover Tower Museum at Stanford.
Dutch Inscription in the 'Dutch Art' wing of Stanford Hospital
          The letter 'ì' is used together with 'ù'- 'uì' in words like 'duìvel; (devil) to indicate and 'oy' sound.
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          At the end of a syllable, an '-ìe' indicates an 'ee' pronunciation, as opposed to an 'ee-uh' pronunction.  It is used in words like 'goeìe' ('good'-neuter-colloquial speech). 
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         The new pronoun 'jìeu'-('you'-informal-object), is pronouncd as a single syllable dipthong 'yih-euh', but where the dipthong is quite fast and barely perceptible (instead of as a more pronounced 'nie-uu' dipthong, such as in 'nieuw'-(new).
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         The new pronoun 'dìjr', where the 'ì+j' are ligated, is pronounced as a mono-syllable dipthong 'dih-jur'- where the 'j' sound is barely perceptible.  Due to limitations of the font used in this web page, the correct spacing of the four letters can't be indicated in this text.  In addition to the "foot" of the 'j' extending under the 'i', the distance between the upright stroke-lines of the 'i' & 'j' must be slightly shorter than the distance between the 'd' & ì', and the 'j & r'.  The purpose of the correct spacing is to indicate the 'ì+j' are phonetically linked to each other.
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