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I initially started writing half an encyclopedia here, but I scrapped that. Some random bits: - There's rather limited contact between the linguistic communiti
by markvdb 5y ago
I initially started writing half an encyclopedia here, but I scrapped that. Some random bits:
- There's rather limited contact between the linguistic communities of Belgium.
- Knowledge of nl is generally extremely limited in Wallonia. I have a feeling it's improving a bit, even if nl is not obligatory in education there.
- Knowledge of fr is clearly worsening with the youngest generation in Flanders, even if fr is obligatory in education there.
- Mixed nl/fr work environments used to be fr.
- Friends from outside Belgium often tell me they notice absurd humor as a common trait.
- Lots of interesting things to say about language community history too. Long story short, the language border hardly moved the last few hundred years, except for Brussels turning majority nl-> fr in the last ~100 years [0].
- Did you know Belgium has large ar, ber, de (official language!), it, ku, ln and tr communities too?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francization_of_Brussels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francization_of_Brussels
P.S. If you like Poelvoorde, watch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brand_New_Testament https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brand_New_Testament .
- smnrchrds 5y agoThank you for this information. What are ber, ln, and ku?
- anticensor 5y agober: Berber ln: Bantu Lingala ku: Kurdish
- ghaff 5y agoIn a prior life (i.e. 25 years or so ago), I was in Brussels for a work event where there were various speeches. The way it worked is that you either spoke English or you spoke alternating French/Flemish.
- glandium 5y ago20 years or so ago, I went to the movies in Brussels. A movie in English with subtitles. Both in French and Flemish at the same time, and in many cases the subtitles were taking close to half the height, it was ridiculous.
- vanderZwan 5y ago> Friends from outside Belgium often tell me they notice absurd humor as a common trait. Explains why you had some of the best surrealists back in the day
- azalemeth 5y agoI have a very good friend from Flanders. His partner is from wallonia. He told me that the word 'poopen' is nl slang in one community for 'to have sex with' and 'to defecate' in the other. This caused much hilarity.
- markvdb 5y ago"Poepen" is nl_nl for "to defecate", and nl_be for "to have sexual intercourse".
- tomc1985 5y agoThat reminds me of "chingar" in Spanish... Mexico/Argentina it means to have sex with, in Chile it means to change
- mjgs 5y agoI’ve noticed a lot of “oddities” between languages of neighbouring countries. I theorise that neighbouring countries, especially those that fought a lot in the past evolve these odd language-language meaning issues. Some folks just start using a word from the neighbour country’s language, but use it in their language with a totally different meaning, often chosen to be hilariously different. Then if it turns into a sort of meme, eventually it ends up in the language.
- Bayart 5y agoSave for a few adjustments, the linguistic border in that region has been basically fixed since the 8th c. Unsurprisingly enough, a lot of the work of the dynamics of the Romance-Germanic linguistic border comes from Belgium.