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Language Love
Feb. 6th, 2008 11:26 pmWhat follows is partly the continuation of a discussion with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sister_luck on the nature of language change, and partly a comment on a recent post in French by frenchani.
My language doesn't have much of a reputation – be it good or bad. Dutch is spoken in only a very tiny part of the world: Flanders, the Netherlands and some Dutch territories overseas. Afrikaans as spoken in South-Africa has established itself as a separate language long before Dutch had its own grammar and spelling. There's still enough links between the two to be able to understand one another when talking slowly, but the two are as different as, say, Swedish and Danish.
Without reputation and that many native speakers, Dutch-speaking people don't seem to take much pride in their language. Internationaly you don't get by with it. We speak English, French, sometimes German. There's a boost of people studying Spanish or Italian (very helpful for the holidays). You won't easily find a Dutch-speaking person trying talk Dutch with the locals when abroad. Neither will you find foreigners trying to talk Dutch with the locals when visiting Bruges. Dutch is a language for a tiny region. Once we leave, we fall back on our knowledge of other languages – first and foremost English as the language of our daily television programs, but also French as the second language in Belgium compulsory taught at schools.
Dutch-speaking is so regionalised that some people take pride in speaking it imperfectly. For them the region comes first, and they proclaim (with pride!) that they don't talk Dutch, wouldn't know how to talk it, and prefer to call themselves and their language Flemish. Indeed their efforts for one form of unified Flemish aren't that new. When writing down the rules for the Dutch language there have been attempts to install Flemish as a language of its own – without much luck. Still it survives and thrives in spoken language, from where it finds its way into IM and text-speak.
The internet is the place where Flemish as a written language suddenly exists. I don't read any Dutch-speaking blogs because of their lack of love for the language. Most internet-speak isn't any different from what I hear from people's mouths: incorrect Dutch with a regional accent. The world wide web was from the start a written world. One would assume that it would be a place to show your love for language, but it became a place to show. Nothing more. Then I don't need to show in Dutch. The audience would be so much smaller than when writing in English.
Of course English won't be able to take away my mother tongue. Contrary to those that take pride in speaking Flemish, I take pride in trying to speak and write correct Dutch – especialy when working with the kids at school. There are parts of me that can only be expressed in that harsh and cruel language – even words that aren't harsh and cruel. But for me it isn't a language to use online. It's a language to hide those things that aren't meant for the public.
sister_luck on the nature of language change, and partly a comment on a recent post in French by frenchani.My language doesn't have much of a reputation – be it good or bad. Dutch is spoken in only a very tiny part of the world: Flanders, the Netherlands and some Dutch territories overseas. Afrikaans as spoken in South-Africa has established itself as a separate language long before Dutch had its own grammar and spelling. There's still enough links between the two to be able to understand one another when talking slowly, but the two are as different as, say, Swedish and Danish.
Without reputation and that many native speakers, Dutch-speaking people don't seem to take much pride in their language. Internationaly you don't get by with it. We speak English, French, sometimes German. There's a boost of people studying Spanish or Italian (very helpful for the holidays). You won't easily find a Dutch-speaking person trying talk Dutch with the locals when abroad. Neither will you find foreigners trying to talk Dutch with the locals when visiting Bruges. Dutch is a language for a tiny region. Once we leave, we fall back on our knowledge of other languages – first and foremost English as the language of our daily television programs, but also French as the second language in Belgium compulsory taught at schools.
Dutch-speaking is so regionalised that some people take pride in speaking it imperfectly. For them the region comes first, and they proclaim (with pride!) that they don't talk Dutch, wouldn't know how to talk it, and prefer to call themselves and their language Flemish. Indeed their efforts for one form of unified Flemish aren't that new. When writing down the rules for the Dutch language there have been attempts to install Flemish as a language of its own – without much luck. Still it survives and thrives in spoken language, from where it finds its way into IM and text-speak.
The internet is the place where Flemish as a written language suddenly exists. I don't read any Dutch-speaking blogs because of their lack of love for the language. Most internet-speak isn't any different from what I hear from people's mouths: incorrect Dutch with a regional accent. The world wide web was from the start a written world. One would assume that it would be a place to show your love for language, but it became a place to show. Nothing more. Then I don't need to show in Dutch. The audience would be so much smaller than when writing in English.
Of course English won't be able to take away my mother tongue. Contrary to those that take pride in speaking Flemish, I take pride in trying to speak and write correct Dutch – especialy when working with the kids at school. There are parts of me that can only be expressed in that harsh and cruel language – even words that aren't harsh and cruel. But for me it isn't a language to use online. It's a language to hide those things that aren't meant for the public.
