'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. The 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. .          'California Dutch' may alternantely be described as 'Standard Dutch', spoken with a Flemish accent, and with several colloquial Flemish and Limburgish pronouns.  The Flemish variant of Dutch is characterized by 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', and 5. Extensive substitution of 'u' and 'uw' for 'je' and 'jouw' ('you' and 'yours'- singular-informal), and 6. use of variants of the Middle Dutchl/Limburgish pronouns 'gij/ge' for 'you-plural-informal' pronouns. .         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, and almost all spelling, choices based on rules, rather than on arbitrary speaker preferences (which vary from community to community in Flanders). .         The seven grammatical and/or stylistic differences between 'California Dutch' and 'Standard ABN Dutch'- (General Proper 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. Reduction of the first word in triple-or-more noun or verb constructions to a single syllable 4. Reduction of the use of pronoun homonyms (by increasing the overall number of pronouns), 5. Redefining the often ambiguous {male/female) gender of 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'-. Written 'California Dutch' strives to be 100% phonetic and ends up being about 99% phonetic (with the exception of capitalized proper names). .        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 the verb, over the condensed post-verb form 'je', as long as the more lengthy pre-verb form 'jij' doesn't impede the flow of a spoken sentence. .       The seven most noticable 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 or reflexive use.  4. Reintroduction of the 'Middle Dutch' pronouns 'Du' (You-singular-object-emphatic), and 5. 'Gîj/gij' (pre-verb) or 'ge/ 'ge ' (post-verb)- ('You-plural subject'- where the circomflex accent and the apostrophe indicate a gutteral 'g+juh' sound).  6. Use of the object and possessive pronouns 'u̇'-(you-singular-informal, with a short 'uu' sound), 'u̇e'-(you-plural-informal), with a long 'uu' sound), 'u̇w'-(yours-singular-informal) and 'uw'-(yours-plural-informal)- either a. after prepositions ending in consonants or b. terminally when following a consonant. (The over-dots indicate the 'uu' sounds are slurred together with preceding consonants.) And 7. 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. .          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 border with Flanders.  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 English English.. .         In addition to the 'jullie/jou/jouw' eliminations 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.  Other modifications used in 'California Dutch' occur in modern spoken Flemish, or in dialects/languages such as Frisian or Limburgs, and aren't officially recognized in 'Standard Dutch'.          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 three 'yieu' variants.  'jìeu' (with a backwards accent) is the pre-verb form,  'jėu'- (with an overdot) is the post-verb form, and 'jieu'-(with no accent) is the terminal form. 'Jìeu' is pronounced like the word 'yieu' in the musical.  Although it is technically a dipthong, 'jih-eu', the two halves of the dipthong are joined so closely that the ultimate pronunciation sounds almost like a simple vowel. 'Jėu' is prounouced so the vowel is the same as a German 'ö' or French 'eu,', except is it shorter/faster than either. (It is also shorter than the vowel in theFlemish word 'beu'-(fed up with)). 'Jieu' is pronounced like the English pronounciation of 'Adieu'. or the Dutch word 'nieuw'-(new).  It contains a slight 'ee-uu' dipthong.          The possessive pronoun (yours-singular-informal) has two new 'yieu' variants:  'jœu' is the 'default' pre- and post-verb possessive form and is pronounced like 'jėu', except it is longer.  'jœuw' is the penultimate-word form for common-gender nouns and sounds quite similar to 'jœu', except it ends with a barely perceptible '-wuh' sound.            The final, very condensed, use of the word occurs in the words 'jùself- (yourself) and  'alsjùblief'-(please)- where 'ù' represents an accelerated variant of 'jœu/jėu'. .          There are three other changes that use or repurpose a seldom-used pronouns from colloquial Dutch:  .          The first change is the coining of three monosyllable object/reflexive pronouns for 'you-plural-informal' based on the pronoun 'd'r'-which is used to mean 'her' in some parts of Holland.  They are: 1.'emphatic object' form, including use as an initial word,-'diėr'- (with an overdot) , 2. pre-verb and terminal form 'dîr'-(with a circomflex), and 3. 'post-verb object' and 'reflexive' form-('d'r').  'diėr', is pronounced as a single-syllable dipthong 'die-uhr'). 'dîr' is pronounced like a drawn-out form of 'dir' would be, with just a hint of a 'juh' sound between the 'ih' and 'r' sounds. 'd'r' is pronounced like 'dir' would be, except faster.. .        The second change is the use, emphatically and in place of 'jouw', of the colloquial Flemish possessive pronoun 'aȧi'- (yours-singular-informal- with a dot over the 'ȧ') after prepositions ending in consonants.  'aȧi' can also optionally be used emphtatically after non-preposition words ending in consotnants. The 'aȧi' spelling indicates the word is pronoounced like 'thy', but without the 'thuh', and that the 'eye' sound is slurred together with the final consonant of the preceeding word.  .        The third change is the introduction of eight new/repurposed unisex pronouns that refer to ex-female single-syllable common gender nouns that morphed into male nouns in 'Standard Dutch' prior to 1950. The unisex pronouns are also used with historically male nouns that refer to inanimate things, but that don't have an actual, physical, gender  They 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,          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, and sounds almost like 'dih-uhn', 4. pre-verb object and terminal-word object- ' den' (with no accent),  5. post-verb object- ' dėn ' (with an overdot and pronounced  like 'den', except as fast as 'd'n' would 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 dien's. .           In addition to the above "new" words, there are five 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 to a monosyllable, 4. the contraction of the 1st person-singular object-pronoun 'you', and 1st-person-singular possessive pronoun 'your'  to 'u̇/u̇w' (with over-dots),  after prepositions ending in consonants, and 5. 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' where the the 'o' and 'u' vowels are shortened, and where the final 'uh's are very brief,  Both are just slightly longer than a monosyllable. (Note: The penulitmate-word elongation only occurs before one or two syllable nouns.) .           To summarize, 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 after a preposition ending in a consonant, and 6. 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.)           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. .           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. .           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).  .           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.          .        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. .         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 was 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' accent mark. .          The letter 'à' is only used in French loan words such as in 'à propos'. .          In the words 'wèreld'-(world) and 'kèrel'-(guy), , the 'è' indicates the pronunciation shifts from an 'ay' to an 'eh' sound. .          In the article èèn- ('a'-after a prepostion and before an adjective) the double accents indicate the word is accelerated and slurred together with the preceding preposition.  Although 'èè' still represents a strong 'aay' sound, it is pronounced as quickly as a short 'e'- 'eh' would be. 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. .           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).  .          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 dipthong, such as in 'nieuw'-(new). .           The words 'òf '-(if) and' 'òp-(up) are written with an 'ò' which indicates an 'uh' sound similar to the English 'up'- except that it is pure vowel sound. The 'òf/òp' spellings are retained if the words are part of multisyllable words.. (Notes: The words 'of' (or) and 'op'(upon) remain 'of/op' are pronounced 'oof/oop'.  Unlike 'ù', the pronunciation of 'o' doesn't shift if it is followed by a doubled consonant.            A stand-alone 'ù' in the middle of a word indicates the 'ù' has sound as in  'pudding' (as opposed to the normal 'u' sound of 'pool').  An example is 'uitgepùt' (exhausted).  Doubling the consonant after an 'u' indicates the same 'ù' sound. .            An '-ù' at the end of a word has almost the same sound as an 'ù' in the middle of a word, however, during speech, it is usually hyphenated to to almost the 'uh' sound similar to the English schwa sound of 'the'.  It only occurs in the new word 'dù;-(you-singular-informal-terminal-word-subject). .            An 'ù' preceeded by an 'œ'- 'œù...' and followed by a consonant, indicates the 'œù' is pronounced as asingle-syllable dipthong 'uu-uh', and is joined to the following consonant-  It occurs in the pronoun (from Linburgish) 'œùr'-(your-plural-informal- emphatic or initial word), which is pronounced as 'uu-uhr', and is spoken as fast at the English word 'your'. .            The letter combination '-où-', which usually occurs in French loan words like 'goùverneur'-(governor) has a long, and slightly emphasized, 'uu' sound.  It is also used in the new word ' de/het oùre' ('yours'-plural informal, which is pronounced 'uur-uh'. .             The letter 'æ̀' is used in the new word 'dæ̀r' (it- subject- emphatic and initial word). It indicates a pronounciation like 'deer', except that the strong 'ee' sound is shortened so that the word is pronounced as quickly as 'der' would be.         3. Forward accent marks over vowels are used like they are in Standard Dutch to decrease ambiguity between homonymns (words that are spelled or sound alike but mean different things), and/or to indicate emphasis.  However, the use of forward accents is expanded to include: 'díe' ('that one(s)'-female or plural common-gender article plus initial-word female or common-gender subject pronoun}, dít/dát'/déze ('this/that /these initial-word-subjects). .           Note: 'déze' is one of the rare exceptions to the rule that all subject and object pronouns are monosyllables.  This exception is o.k. because déze is used slightly emphatically, and as a result, can take a bit longer to be pronounced without impeding sentence flow.  'deze', without an accent, is used as the initial-word-object pronoun for feminine and plural nouns.Note: 'déze'is used as both a subject and object pronoun. .           Forward accent marks are also used over 'é's in French loan words to indicate strong 'ay' pronunciations.  This use is extended to works like 'hé'-(hey) and 'oké'. .            Finally, the word 'bízonders'-(especially) is written with an 'í' to indicate it is pronounced 'bee-zonders', except that the '-ee'' sound is quite short. The Vingboom seriers of world maps from the mid 1600's includes the first detailed map of Manhattan. This sample of a key from one of the maps includes several of the "new" features of California Dutch. The famous Vingboom map of t' Eyland (the island) Manhattan in 1630.         4. Apostrophes indicating speedy contractions, or 'phantom vowels', and which may indicate a shift of the sound of an adjacent consonant.  A simple straight, slightly wedge-shaped apostrophe is used in California Dutch, as opposed to the fancy "Number 9' style of apostrophe usually used in English. The spacing before and after the apostrophes is critical and is explained at the end of this section.   ,           The "new" pronoun ' d'r ' (which is used to mean 'her' in some dialects in Holland) is repurposed as both the post-verb-object and the reflexive forms of 'you-plural-informal'. It is pronounced like 'dir', except faster. .            The new article 'd'n' (the- used as the post-verb form in normal-order sentences) is pronounced like 'din', except faster. .             The new pronound ' 'ge ' is a post-verb subject form of 'you-plural-informal' when it follows either a compound or reflexive verb that ends in '-t'.  The apostrophe indicates the '-t' blends with the 'g' to create a 'ge+juh' sound. .              The new pronound ' 'de ' is the post-verb-subject form of  'you-singualr-informal' and is used following non-split verbs, except if it is the last word in a sentence, in which case it is expanded to 'dù'. ' 'de ' is pronounced  like 'deuh, as opposed to 'duh'. As with ' 'ge ', the 'd' is slurred together with the final 't' of the preceding verb.        Two new post-verb pronouns ' 've ' (we- and pronunced like an accelerated 'wuh') and  ' 'se '  (they- and pronounced like an accelerated 'zuh') are used following a multisyllable-verbs that are either part of a multi-verb construction or are parts of a seperable verbs.  For example: 'Dat wilden.'se niet doen' (They didn't want to do that.) .         The neuter, and pre-adjective/adverb-common gender, form of 'ours' is 'on's' (pronounced 'onz').  The initial-word form is ' Ons' '-which is pronounced as a single-syllable 'Ons-uh', where the '-uh' sound is barely heard.  (Possesive forms made from names like ' Hans ', where the final 's' of the name has an 'ss' sound, are written ' Hans' ' and pronounced the same way.) .         Apostrophes are used before additional terminal 's'es to indicate the 's'-es have uncharateristic 'z' sounds.  (The apostrophy doesn't indicate possessiveness, but frequently ends up being used in possessive nous to indicate terminal 'z' pronunciations.)  The ' 's ' spelling isn't needed in many multisyllable words ending is s'es pronounced like z's because the final syllables have distinct letter combinations that indicate a 'ze' pronounciation; for example '-ens', '-ons', '-ers', etc. .         Note: In expressions like ' 's nachts '-(at night), the ' 's ' retains an  's' sound. Also, the inter-word space before the ' 's ' isn't condensed.                  An essential detail about the spacing of ' d'r', 'd'n', 've ' ,' 'se ', ' 'ge ', ' 'de '. ' on's ', etc. is that the space between the apostrophies and following letters should be decreased by about 50%, or 1½ points.  When a letter precedes an apostrophe, the space between the two should be increased by about a third of a point.  .               In addition to the compression/ expansion of space around apostrophes within words, the space before a word that begins with an apostrophe is slightly condensed. The space between an apostrophe and a preceding word is only 3/4th as wide as the normal space on the back side of the word.            The best way to get the compressed inter-word spacing correctly compressed is to pretend that the apostrophy doesn't exist, and then to compress the space as much as possible until just before it looks 'scrunched'. .            The slightly massaged spacing around apostrophes is essential to maintaining visual sentence flow.  It also helps indicates the relative speeds at which words need to be pronounced. .             Note: There is no change to the pre-word spacing of the contractions 's-(at) and 't-(the) of Standard Ducth.  However, the pre-word spacing of ' 'n ', which only follows 'zo' is condensed. .             When an apostrophe occurs at the end of a word, the space between the apostrophy and the final letter is condensed, however the space between the apostrophe and the following word is normal. The borough of Harlem in Manhattan was named after Haerlem in Holland (now Haarlem).           5. A circomflex ' ^ ' over a vowel is used to indicate that a abnormal j-type sound is assigned to either the vowel or to a letter adjacent to the vowel.  It is nicknamed the 'jazzy j' diacritical mark. .            The circomflex most frequently occurs in vowels adjacent to the  'g's' of French loan words and indicates the 'g's' acutally are 'dzj' sounds, such as 'gênant' (bothersome- pronounced 'dzjénant'). The circomflex normally is placed on the vowel following a 'g', however, if the 'g' is the second to last letter in a word, the accent is placed over the preceding vowel, as in 'horlôge'-(watch).  In the case of words like 'sergeant', use of the circomflex enables a simpler spelling- 'sergânt'. .            The 'j-type' circomflex is also used in three new pronouns; 1, 'gîj' (you-plural-informal-preverb-subject), pronounced like 'gh+yiy', except as a monosyllable, 2. 'jîj' (you-singular-informal-emphatic)- pronoucned like 'hu-yiy', but as a mono-syllable, and 3. 'dîr' (you-plural-informal pre-verb and ultimate word after a vowel)- pronounced like a single syllable 'dih-yir', where the 'juh' sound is barely perceptible. .             A circomflex over a vowel adjacent to a 'j'  is used in (usually) English loan words to indicate an abnormal/complex 'dj' sound, such as in: 'jâm', jûry, jôb, etc.