Similarities Between German and Belgian Dutch (Flemish)

Can German and Flemish speakers understand each other? In this episode we showcase some of the similarities and test the degree of mutual intelligibility between German and Belgian Dutch (Flemish). Instead of a list of words and sentences, Nathalie (Flemish speaker) and Florian (German speaker) will each read short sentences and paragraphs in their respective languages to see how well they can understand one another.
Please follow and contact us on Instagram if you have any suggestions or if you speak a language that has not been featured before and would like to participate in a future video: / bahadoralast
Be sure to check out Florian's channel:
/ solarlingua
Flemish (Vlaams), also known as Flemish Dutch (Vlaams-Nederlands) or Belgian Dutch (Belgisch-Nederlands) is a Dutch dialect primarily spoken in the Flanders region of northern Belgium where it is native to. It is also sometimes referred to as Southern Dutch (Zuid-Nederlands).
The German language (Deutsch) is a West Germanic language with official status in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. In Luxembourg, Belgium and parts of Poland, German is a co-official language, and one of several national languages of Namibia. German has many similarities with West Germanic languages such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, and Yiddish. The German-speaking countries are ranked among the top in the world in terms of annual publication of new books, and a great amount of German literature, from medieval works to modern times, has been produced. Among many others, there are the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a literary genius who is considered to be like the German Shakespeare. Goethe is best known for his novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers), which was published when he was only 25. Other classics include Simplicius Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Hyperion by Friedrich Holderlin, The Devil’s Elixirs by ETA Hoffman, Debt and Credit by Gustav Freytag, Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke, and many others.
In more recent times, several German language authors have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. They are Theodor Mommsen, Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Paul Heyse, Gerhart Hauptmann, Carl Spitteler, Thomas Mann who is perhaps best known for Buddenbrooks and Death in Venice, Hermann Hesse, Nelly Sachs, Heinrich Böll, Elias Canetti, Günter Grass, Elfriede Jelinek, Herta Müller, and Peter Handke.

[@BahadorAlast]

Hope you enjoy this week's episode! Please follow and contact us on Instagram if you have any suggestions or if you speak a language that has not been featured before and would like to participate in a future video: instagram.com/BahadorAlast Be sure to check out Florian's channel: kzbin.info

[@jelenaivanovic4216]

That's great and interested you featured Flemish. I never thought you would do it. People don't really know it.

[@jelenaivanovic4216]

And also same about Belgium. If you ask the average person what language they speak in Belgium they won't know or if they are a little informed they will say French.

[@trollhunter9992]

In Dusseldorf and Cologne Mitteldeutsch is spoken, but in a number of different ways and shifting even more into Frankfurt and Berlin

[@johanbjorkstrom4957]

German with Swedish now

[@user-hs5um5hl9m]

Mayassisthtyoulraq07804545928😭😭😭

[@SixStringViolence]

To be honest - Flemish is way more pleasant to my ears than standard Dutch. Sounds way more melodic.

[@r.a.h7682]

Its sound feminin to dutch people

[@stephenvandulken6948]

I'm part Dutch and what little I know I speak with a harsh tone, which is apparently the South/ North Holland dialect -- I agree, the Flemish intonation is much more pleasant.

[@r.a.h7682]

@@babblingalong7689 stop being a little girl omg so harsh :( literally nobody takes flemish people serious because of their cute accent.

[@xx7943]

I am from the netherlands just from the borders next to belgium i go much times to belgium when a woman speaks the language its okey but a dutch woman dont marry a belgium men they sound like females when they speak to feminin

[@3762302]

Its also easier to understand for us Afrikaans speakers here in South Africa and Namibia :)

[@ZALMOXIS743]

I feel like whenever I hear a German mention Düsseldorf, they call it a small town, but it doesn’t really seem to be that.

[@sovaoriginal5377]

It has over 600.000 inhabitants so it is definitely not small

[@questionmark3219]

The literal translation of Düsseldorf is Düssel Village. Maybe it has something to do with that.

[@sovaoriginal5377]

@@questionmark3219 it does but I never connected the name of the city with the word “village” tbh., and it doesn’t change the fact that it’s quite a big city

[@frenkli9815]

This is interesting that you mentioned this because my uncle immigrated to Germany in the 90s as a guest worker, he said Düsseldorf was a town, but I see on the list of top german cities by population Dusseldorf is like 5th biggest city in Germany and it has around 900,000 people so that’s pretty big.

[@jx4219]

@@sovaoriginal5377 I guess it's a joke because their city has village in its name.

[@RaphaelGhunnter]

I'd love to a see a comparison among Dutch, Flemish and Afrikaans, because they all sound the same to me.

[@SuAva]

The channel 'History with Hilbert' did a comparison video between Dutch, Frisian and Afrikaans: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKncd6yFbMqWe6s No Flemish in there, but that's the exact same thing as Dutch, only it sounds softer (biggest giveaway is the hard G's versus the soft G's).

[@robinmangala3536]

@Gad Headhunter You’re right, I’m Belgian and I understand 100% Dutch as a Flemish speaking person

[@RaphaelGhunnter]

@Gad Headhunter It's just that whenever I talk to people from Belgium/Flanders they always make it a point to emphasize that what they speak is Flemish and not Dutch, so I imagined there would be some differences, even if you can still understand each other pretty well. It's not like people from Wallonia who just say they speak the Belgian variety of French (still French).

[@bjorns.9887]

@@RaphaelGhunnter Of course there are differences; for example; they say "bank" for "couch", while we say "zetel"; "bank" is a homonym; it both means "couch" and "bank (as in finances)", yet we have our own word for a couch in Flemish, namely "zetel", to kind of avoid this 'confusion'. We have plenty of words like this. Us Flemish speakers understand almost all of the 'unique' words the Dutch use, but this isn't true the other way around. Basically, Flemish people have a richer vocabulary, and this is why we are proud of our own 'language', even though it isn't really a different language at all, hence the parenthesis. Honestly I would say the Walloons and the French people from France have the same distinction; they say nonante instead of quatre-vingt-dix for example, to say "90".

[@robinmangala3536]

@Gad Headhunter Ik weet niet wat me bezielde toen ik die reactie schreef. Maar je hebt gelijk, zijn alleen die nationalistische malloten die claimen dat Vlaams een aparte taal is. Is gewoon een dialect van het Nederlands. Ook de verschillen heb je perfect uitgelegd.

[@Habbad90]

As a Luxembourgish speaker I had a easier time understanding both their dialects

[@SuAva]

I love Luxembourgish/Letzeburgish! People tend to forget there's another Germanic language brother among us

[@oguzhantekden2]

I edit videos with subtitles in 3 languages for the old tunes of nations on my main channel. You are also invited. :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/iqjSi5SZlsyZbcU

[@waltergro9102]

@@SuAva Prior to the standardization of Luxembourgish and its nomination to the national language of Luxembourg it was a West Central German dialect and was seen as a variety of Moselle Franconian, just with many French words.

[@tylersmith3139]

@@waltergro9102 It still is classified as such. It's WW2 that caused a large shift in Luxembourgers not wanted to be seen as speaking a dialect of German since the Nazis had Anschluss on Luxembourg as they did Austria. There are many different German dialects and culture nuances, but the Nazis ignored that for their Anschluss and getting more land and power so different German speaking countries had to overemphasize their non-Germanness to disprove what the Nazis. Luxembourg has its own distinct dialect of German which isn't standard German, it's own history as well non-German influences such as the French language being spoken there as well.

[@bromisovalum8417]

When I'm in the Ardennes or Luxemburg, as a native Flemish speaker, I always like coming across Luxembourgish street and place names, it feels closer to home.

[@PauloVictor-vu2bt]

It's like Portuguese and Spanish of the Germanic languages

[@Raven-qj8xk]

Yes! Great analogy!👍

[@ronnyvanturnhout1419]

Yeah, but the differences are smaller (especially with the dialect he speaks)

[@mithridatesi9981]

No

[@keptins]

Not really. More like spanish and an obscure italian dialect.

[@hannofranz7973]

Whether you pick Italian and Spanish or Portuguese and Spanish, the comparison between German and Dutch are similar. The closer the local dialects or language, the easier it is obviously to understand.

[@SolarLingua]

Thanks for having us, it was super fun and interesting! 👍

[@BahadorAlast]

Thank you for being a part of it!

[@NakulGanapathy]

As an English speaker who’s learning German I got a lot of these correct because sometimes when it’s not similar to German it’s very similar to English and vice versa

[@chartreux1532]

+Big Bean As a German, well actually as a Bavarian (since our Dialect is almost considered it's own Language & the Rest of Germany has a hard Time understanding us in Bavarian) i've been going down the KZbin Rabbithole of Americans learning German (including a lot about People in New York learning German) i'm always glad to see that there are People in the USA learning German. The USA is full of People with German Roots, you already notice that quickly as a German if you just check the Names of Random Americans on any US News Channels, even if they are German Descendants from pre-1914 and their Name has been "anglicised" you notice it. So seeing any Americans, even without German Heritage learning German is great and i hope it gets more popular. Now regarding your Comment, As a Native German Speaker what i found especially about Dutch is that reading Dutch in written Word is very easy to understand as German, listening to it is a whole different Story. However "Flämisch" (Flemish) is also rather easy to understand as German, at least from my Neck of the Woods. English itself has tons of Examples of Words where you can tell "Ah this word is of Germanic Origin" and "Ah this word is of latin Origin". Some random examples from the top of my head: Swine = Schwein (German) Beef = Boeuf (French) Prost & Cheers from the Berchtesgadener Land in the Bavarian Alps

[@NakulGanapathy]

@@chartreux1532 yeah actually I’m of South Indian origin and I’m an American citizen so sometimes I notice words in English that came from my dads language of Tamil. English loves borrowing words from everywhere. And also yeah it is great to see many of my classmates in school learning German. I’m in 12th grade right now but I’ll try to continue learning in college and in the future. Most people pick Spanish as their foreign language which makes sense here but my dads really close friend was German so that sparked my interest when I visited him in Berlin. But yeah I love languages I speak my two native languages of Tamil and Telugu and I’m learning German in school and now I’m learning French on Duolingo. Prost

[@alves6465]

@@chartreux1532 There are 5 million german descendants in Brazil, as well, but most of them speak pomeranian, a germanic dialect derived from Plattdeutsch.

[@iler859]

So glad to have found this channel. Thanks to all participants for making these videos

[@marthsmask5798]

I am German and I have to say that I can understand Flemish much better that dutch.

[@marthsmask5798]

@@human7491 No not really.

[@RusNad]

@@marthsmask5798 How so? Flemish is not considered a separate language from Dutch by anyone. Yes, regional dialects in Flanders differ from the standard just like in the Netherlands. Otherwise it's more like the difference between an Englishman and American speaking English or a German and Austrian speaking German

[@marthsmask5798]

@@RusNad Oh this comment was about dutch and flemish? I thought it was about German and Flemish. Sorry 😞. Of course Flemish and dutch are the sane language, but Flemish is still easier to understand for me than high dutch.

[@CarspotHH]

Wieso ?

[@marthsmask5798]

@@CarspotHH Weil sie eher dazu neigen die Endungen auszusprechen und die Progressive Assimilation im Flämischen allgemein nicht so stark ausgeprägt ist wie im Hochniederländischen. Dadurch sind sich die Wörter ähnlicher, da auch im Hochdeutschen Assimilation nur sehr bedingt stattfindet.

[@jelenaivanovic4216]

I am happy you did this because if you ask an average person outside Europe what language they speak in Belgium, they will probably not know, and if they are a bit informed on languages they will most likely say French not knowing that French is not even spoken by 40% of the Belgian population as a native language.

[@myownsite]

Heh, according to my sis they speak Belgian.

[@alexeiabrikosov360]

@@myownsite I thought so too

[@jandron94]

But French is/was spoken as a 1st OR 2nd language by maybe 80% of Belgians. That was the lingua franca of Belgium. And when the Anglo-Saxons (ie Hollywood) represented Belgians in movies they always had them speak French (or English with a French accent) because the French stereotype is much more "global" and "trendy" than the Flemish/Dutch one. Nowadays English tends more and more to be the lingua franca of the whole Europe/World and not just Belgium.

[@brianlewis5692]

@@jandron94 the French representation is not due to any stereotype about mis-perceptions about french being trendy or global...it's because Americans simply do not know better. They don't know anything of the Flemish language in the north due to ignorance (I know, I live among my less evolved people :\ ) I withcall one movie (I think it was 'Hostel') where the setting was in the Netherlands, but the people there were all speaking German, and High German at that. It was so frustrating and embarrassing ! I just shook my head :\

[@jandron94]

@@brianlewis5692 I don't think it's pure ignorance, more like they don't want to complexify too much their movie context with "weird totally unknown" languages. Also finding an extra talking French is not that difficult in the US, talking Flemish is probably way more difficult. For a US (and Worldwide) general basice audience : in Europe there are some Brits, French, Italians, Germans, maybe some Spaniards somewhere South and finally some sort of Russians the further you go in the East. More than that it's too complex. To be honest probably a third of the French population think that Belgians only speak French or maybe also some sort of German language... Knowing that Flemish is a Dutch dialect probably less than 25% of the French population is aware of that. Flemish and Dutch cultures and languages are so underexposed in general... they do not exist in the French popular and even common media... The only cultural bit that is vaguely known is the painting (15th to 17th) ... it's kind of sad.

[@SilverSkySE]

Actually in Dutch you have a phrase ‘je bakt er niks van’ ‘you can’t bake anything out of it. And it means ‘you are very bad at something’. Which is kinda similar.

[@Melvorgazh]

Dialects are the TRUE core of a Language!! Never loose them! The standard main language is good for documents and official stuffs but the true richness of a langue doesn’t go without its tranditional dialects 😼 Very interesting video.

[@naamashang5107]

Thanks for yet another fascinating video. I just have to say that these two guests sounds so lovely, they are so friendly and sweet. All your guests are nice, but these two really were special. Thank you

[@alexj9603]

I grew up close to Cologne. When I heard Florian's dialect, I thought: It's close to my home dialect, but with a lot more influences from Dutch. So I thought it would be rather easy for him too understand Flemish, and I was surprised that he still had to struggle quite a bit. But I have to agree with him: Written Flemish is much easier to understand for me than the spoken language. I'm a bit familiar with the standard Dutch pronunciation, but Flemish was quite different at some points.

[@smallwisdom8819]

I was also surprised that he struggle sometimes, but yes he didn't have transcripts which helped me a lot. But I really wonder that he had trouble to understand gek (like in: "wir sind jeck") . That is almost used in standard german around carnival so often.

[@janosch1097]

When you know the German Lautverschiebungen going between the dialects and low-languages is quite easy. Often you just have to change one letter/sound.

[@ronnyvanturnhout1419]

Indeed, historically Dutch and German were one group of dialects of the same language. Then you had the hochdeutsche Klangveränderung, which was the base of modern German. Dutch pretty much remained similar with platduuts (lower German). Right now we are seeing another change, but in Dutch then. Official Flemish remains more true to the origin, where Dutch from The Netherlands is experiencing its own change in sounds (hard g, even differences in grammar as well).

[@Leo-uu8du]

@@ronnyvanturnhout1419 At least Standard German doesn't have all the new shifted consonants, like Alemannic and Bavarian have. This makes it a little bit closer to Dutch.

[@forestmanzpedia]

German / Dutch g > ch (pronounced, but written as "g" same in German) t > d s/ß > t s > z pf > p b > v There is more. Same applies vice versa, but not always. Note that Low German (depending on the location of the speaker) still have those sounds, those retained in Dutch.

[@tibodeclercq2131]

I'm also a Flemish speaker! It's very nice you did this!

[@elizaa.367]

Dang, Flemish sounds super interesting! I would love to cover some song in Flemish in the nearest future (I sang in Dutch , which is similar but still😊). Great work Nathalie and Florian😊 Liebe Grüße nach Düsseldorf 😊

[@ronnyvanturnhout1419]

Thanks. Flemish is more traditional than Dutch... 'sauberer' if you will. But it has some sounds which are pretty difficult as it seems. Wish you good luck with it! I'm actually keen to hear it... :)

[@oliveranderson7264]

If you've sung in Dutch, then singing in Flemish should be easier since a lot of the difficult sounds in Dutch (the hard throaty "g", diphtongs like ee, ...) are pronounced differently

[@elizaa.367]

@@oliveranderson7264 actually this hard throaty ''g'' was my favourite part in singing :D

[@Frahamen]

There is not one Flemish dialect. "Flemish" refers to either a group of dialects, either stricktly West Flemish and East Flemish doamects or any Dutch dialect spoken in Belgium. It also mean any register sowhere bewteen one of those dialect or standard Dutch.

[@yossifelder6775]

WOW!!! I speak Yiddish and I understand almost every single word from both languages❤️

[@panchovan617]

I wish they would do an episode of Yiddish! I speak German and quite ok in Dutch, and the few Yiddish videos I could find are also somewhat understandable

[@Larrypint]

​@@Claude_van_Kloten has Yiddish even a real grammar?

[@Claude_van_Kloten]

@@Larrypint Yiddish has economized its grammar, syntax and case system like many modern Germanic languages or dialects, see Danish, English, or High Alemannic.

[@gamercatsz5441]

I’speak dutch as a belgian, and I loved the yiddish words I heared on TV shows ever since I was a kid. What is the relationship,between dutch and yiddish?

[@johaquila]

That's no wonder. Those are the three major continental West Germanic languages. These three are considerably closer to each other than to English, the only major non-continental West Germanic language, let alone to the North Germanic languages. The Yiddish spoken in Germany and the Low Countries was once just a sociolect of the local dialect/language, similar to how Jews in New York tend to speak a slightly different English than the remainder of the population. Yiddish gradually became a separate language because before Jewish emancipation Jews wrote German in Hebrew letters (and then this practice never really stopped), and because far enough in the East, Jews were practically the only German speakers.But EBut English still he

[@DunkelblauerMB]

This was a very interesting video and actually quite funny too... I'm smack dab in the middle of you both from the Dutch province Limburg. So I do obviously also speak the regional dialect (Plat) and being in this language transition zone from west to east I have no problems with understanding both dialects. Even tho I do speak German but when visiting Germany then for the fun of it I do rather speak Plat from Dusseldorf to Düren to Köhle to Aachen. And it is always well received and it seems the people kinda feel more related and open up in a different way. If I do try to speak German (Hochdeutsch) then I obviously still have a recognizable Dutch accent and then I'm often asked are you from Holland? The same goes for the Belgium/Limburg part where I can make conversations in my regional Limburgs dialect. But for the Kempen region which is a tad further op North-West, the dialect are still understandable for me but start to change more significantly towards Dutch Brabants. I guess I would sound more like a German to them if I would speak my regional dialect. It's indeed a pity that the preservation of dialects is not encouraged and dialects are about to die out, it definitively pulls cultures apart and makes them feel unrelated and different from each other. We also already lost the scripture of our dialect and we have to learn it verbally in daily life picking it up from the elders who still speak it. I'm not sure if this table still can be turned... I think it's senseless destruction of a beautiful relation and historically significant cultural heritage of which we should be proud.

[@hrishihumon7139]

You are helping language or dialect lovers to have insights sitting on an armchair! Great respect You know in Hindi, Bahador means "courageous"... is it same in Persian too?

[@BahadorAlast]

Thank you. Yes, it has the same meaning in Persian:)

[@robinmangala3536]

I’m Flemish and I’ve been waiting for this video like forever 😭

[@ronnyvanturnhout1419]

Just for bringing Nathalie, who speaks Flemish, on the channel: two thumbs up! Dutch (NL) and Flemish differ a lot. You even hear it in her pronunciation in English... And I must say she speaks 'official' Flemish pretty well. Well done Nathalie and Florian, and fun to see, especially because I speak Flemish and German pretty fluently. (Flemish best, since I'm from Antwerp)

[@joesmith4894]

Has Antwerp also been brutally harmed by Francization like Brussels?

[@im0rtalpunk]

@@joesmith4894 no

[@joesmith4894]

@@im0rtalpunk That's good news

[@joesmith4894]

@@im0rtalpunk I believe Antwerp has a large Orthodox Jewish community

[@im0rtalpunk]

@@joesmith4894 true, about 20.000 and most of them speak Yiddish

[@noamto]

"A small town called Düsseldorf" with 600,000 inhabitants :D

[@fjellyo3261]

Well for China and India it's small but not for Europe^^.

[@kenninast]

In Belgium and some southern parts of the Netherlands, when one becomes really angry and threatens to threaten someone, one shouts "ik sla op uw ". Bakkes is a cognate of the German "Backe", just like "bakkebaarden" is also referring to an old word for cheeks. Also there is "kinnebak" which is also related. Weeën is actually an old Dutch word for pain too. There are several extant words that still refer to it. Weeklagen. Weemoed. Heimwee. There are old sayings that some might still know. Ach en wee! Wee je gebeente! The latter is famously used on a regular basis in the comic books of "De Rode Ridder" (the Red Knight.) Obviously it comes from the same origin as the German word, though. I love being native at German AND Dutch when watching this video! :D

[@WobblyCube]

12:34 We have a saying with the same meaning, just one word is different: "etwas nicht gebacken kriegen" (not to get something baked) -> "Ergens niets van bakken" (something not "of" baking). Usually it's used in sentences as "Ik bak er niets van" (I bake nothing of it), "Zij bakken er niets van" (they bake nothing of it), etc.

[@frogmanant]

Thank-you so much, this has been delightful. I am English speaking South African with pretty good Afrikaans. My Afrikaans enabled me to follow almost everything Flemish & most of the German & a lot of the dialect once I worked out the pronunciation.. I was reading the scripts & could follow what was happening, but the speech was too fast for me. Subscribed.

[@cw4karlschulte661]

So sad to see dialects lost. My heritage is alte Friesiche von Emden und Nordeney (father) and Lansmal from Stavangerfjord (mother). Both fading. Now mom is first generation American. Her grandfather. Retired Norwegian sea captain, his daughter, her husband, sea captain, my mom, uncle and aunt all lived in our house overlooking sea in NJ. Many Norwegian relatives around, Sons of Norway club, all kept older Norwegian alive. But when some returned for visit, city Normans barely understood them after 60 years away. My dad was 4th generation in Texas (German/Fries cowboy),but grew up with Fries in home, Hoch deutsch in church and school, Spanish on ranch. English was taught as foreign language. There were many German towns where German, Alsatian, and Frisian were primary , Spanish secondary and English last. When my dad went to Germany, he was told by mid-30's folks that he sounded like their great grandfathers when be spoke German. Most of his inherited books had no umlauts. But his Frisian on islands sounded normal. 50 years later. I visited relatives in Emden but most folks below 25 no longer could speak it. German had taken over. There are efforts to revive various dialects but not going well. I belonged to a group on net called lowland languages. So many dialects many mutually intelligible, a wonderful heritage but lost in a sea of hoch deutsch. Sad.

[@JHorsti]

Grüße aus Emden! :)

[@franzdeassi13]

Did you guys know - a large number of dutch as well as flemish people moved over to what is today Eastgermany about 800 year’s ago. A bunch of place names such as Heida, Fläming and others still bear witness to this.

[@SR-jx8yu]

Would be great to have a video with Dutch/Flemish and Afrikaans

[@sameash3153]

49:03 but we do have both shriek and screech, from the same root :) also in English, to cry can mean both to mourn and to yell. If it's "he cried 'that's not fair!'", that is, used before a quotation, the meaning is yell

[@ratzundruebe]

Wow Ich mag das Format. das ist super cool. Das bringt uns alle näher zusammen.

[@dadu4270]

I’m from Aachen (Germany, tri-border region) and understand everything what the Belgian lady says.

[@tibodeclercq2131]

That's close to Eupen, a main German town in our far-east

[@lani6647]

Vast / Fast (25:45) means stuck or attached in English as well. To make fast is to stick or secure something. Such as The window is fastened. Of course, “bleibt stecken” is obviously cognate to the English “Stuck”.

[@svenrichtmann6792]

German had this too. Feststecken, or, ich stecke fest. To be totally stuck. Sometimes you get a mental block because you thought you understood it, but didn’t.

[@LeeWright337W]

I know a little bit of German, and a little bit of Dutch. So hearing these intermediary dialects was very interesting! Now I want to learn more about these dialects.

[@angellopez735]

I'm from Mexico and KZbin brought me here. It was fun and entertaining, and quite interesting to watch. I speak German and lived in NL for 6 months so I could decipher some flemish words, but I do believe it's easier for Dutch/Flemish speakers to understand German than the other way around. The Dutch pronunciation is not as literal and straightforward as in German

[@musiccfreakk1996Be]

Aaah, it’s nice to see a video like this! (I’m Flemish myself). There is Flemish Dutch, Dutch (Netherlands) German and Afrikaans which all sound very similar!!

[@SuAva]

@Gad Headhunter Afrikaans evolved as a seperate language but not a completely different language, same grammar and 95% shared vocabulary (same goes for Flemish, also ~5% different vocabulary from standard Dutch). So German is really the odd one out there.

[@musiccfreakk1996Be]

@Gad Headhunter well duh, never claimed Flemish Dutch is it’s own language. I just said all these are very similar one more Than the other with the thought that it is very cool to understand a language without learning it. The basic language we learn in school is Dutch, same as in the Netherlands, that’s the same. But the overall sound is very different and there are differences in words and sayings. The thing with Dutch is…. The dialects in both countries are so much embedded in the people hardly anyone speak the pure form I think!!! Also. In the past the Netherlands and Belgium were one country (de oude Nederlanden) and later split in the two current countries, which is why we share the same language.

[@SuAva]

@Gad Headhunter You added on Hermine and I added on you. Out of the tongues she mentioned all are at least 95% Dutch except for German, which is why I called it the odd one out. And yeah, 95% of Afrikaans >vocabulary< is Dutch.

[@MarceloRodrigues1]

Dat was echt cool.

[@gheorghitaalsunculitei9146]

Am I deaf or he just called Dusseldorf a small town?

[@polipolimaui]

I was thinking he meant that as a joke, but I couldn't really tell.

[@samspear8772]

@@polipolimaui That's German humor

[@polipolimaui]

@@samspear8772 Haha I wanted to say that's probably German humor at the end of my comment. But I thought I won't go there, as a Dutchman I will leave German's and humor alone, that's such a stereotypical thing to reference(would be jokingly of course) I won't go there 😉 The humorless way of telling a joke and no one laughing. German's actually do have a good sense of humor, contrary to popular belief. But I thought I won't go there 😉

[@yoshikatsumi]

@@polipolimaui compared to cologne or berlin, düsseldorf is pretty small.

[@polipolimaui]

@@yoshikatsumi True. Köln has about one million inhabitants and Berlin 3,5 million. But still, about 500.000-600.000 inhabitants isn't exactly a small town though. Always think it's impressive how many people live in the Ruhrgebiet.

[@adpop750]

Translating everything to English in order to communicate with each other was harder for them than understanding each others native languages

[@55jhjhjkjk]

This was great to watch! (as a Flemish (Kempisch) speaker) :-) . Nathalie, is this the sound of Turnhout? :-)

[@josephinateaches955]

Hi there! 😊 No, it is the dialect of Geel.

[@EasyDutch]

Nice video! 😍 Vlaams is zo leuk!

[@TheMichaelK]

Nice video. And hah. When I clicked onto it I thought like "Super. Two people from regions with quiet closely related dialects and now they will speak in the more distanced standard languages". But the dialects were used. Nice surprise.

[@jeroenbakker52]

I love this! It is so revealing about our languages... (Nederlander hier)

[@JBarry94]

23:33 There is this term in the northern dialect of Germany. Buten un binnen what means outside and inside. This is very similar to buiten

[@benrossouw6404]

I just came across this vid and LOVED it! As a South African Afrikaans speaker, I can (at a rudimentary level) understand you both LOL! SO interesting. Better mind our language and not be rude thinking you cannot understand us when we visit there HAHA!

[@smallwisdom8819]

I'm from Duisburg, I feel at home listening to his and partly her dialect. Strangely enough, when written it's easier to understand the flamish scrips than the Duesseldorf script, but when spoken it's the opposite.

[@mihanich]

In the dialects they often tend to complicate the spelling to make it look more "different" from standard German. Like when they write "odda" or "midd" but it's pronounced the same way as "oder" and "mit" lol

[@chartreux1532]

This Video was a great Find! Also if you ever need someone who speaks proper Bavarian Dialects from the Alps as well as Standard German, Pure Rural & Norma Hessian (Other half of the Family is from the "Sinntal" Region of Hessen where you get the most extreme "Hessisch") and fluent English and French, i find these Video Ideas of two People speaking to eachother & Compare really useful and a fantastic Idea! And i just started to try to learn "Flämisch" because unlike "Holländisch" (Dutch) Flemish in my Opinion as a Polyglot and Bavarian is much easier to pronounce than Dutch because of the lack of the "CHHHHHHH" Sounds in almost everything. What i noticed is that finding even just a Website translating from any Language to "Flemish Dutch" is impossible or i don't use the right Words to search for it. Prost & Cheers from the Berchtesgadener Land in the Bavarian Alps

[@taiqidong9841]

You're quite right. from the early seventies on we had 'urlaub' in Bavaria for ten years or so. It was in West Allgau, I still dream about is sometimes. I remember my father used to warn me not to speak out too loud in my Belgian Brabantian (Dutch) dialect because the people would understand me if I said something inappropriate (I was a kid then). That's because we did understand Bavarian pretty well when thinking out of our dialect. And off course we did learn "Bube", "a bissle" and "miesele" as a plus :-) I really miss Friedl shouting out 'herr Gott sacrament' (sounded like arrgottsacrrrament!!!), every time something went wrong in her Gaststube ;-)

[@cedric9806]

I grew up in the south-west of germany in a region called Pfalz and I always had some classmates who could only talk in dialect. And they would be discouraged to speak their dialect in favor of Hochdeutsch (standard german) I understand that they must know how to speak Hochdeutsch but they shouldn't be told that they can't speak it at all at school... that's the reason dialects die out. I can understand the dialect without much problem but I can't really speak it, which I find sad.

[@j.stephanjohnson4342]

That quote the girl chose at 17:20 hits deep wow. I like the fact they choose nice things to translate and not some empty content. Groetjes uit Vlaanderen.

[@mccardrixx5289]

Finally,you did that vid I wanted to see for such a long time! Tbh I changed my opinion about German and Dutch,cuz they're actually quite different indeed I swear! German sounds way harsher and underwent many great shifts in the past,unlike Dutch for example! German is much more developed and has 3 umlauts,harsh 'z' sound,'pf','tz' as well as the 'ß'... I still like Dutch/Flemish,cuz it sounds so funny to me! Every language is just cool and interesting 😀

[@henningbartels6245]

I disagree, Flemish sounds soft, but Dutch with the harsh "g" sounds harsher than German .

[@mccardrixx5289]

@@henningbartels6245 Noo! German has way more harsh sounds,such as many glottal stops,deep throat sounds as well as a harsh 'z' sound! German pronunciation is also quite different

[@henningbartels6245]

@@mccardrixx5289 I have no idea how a "Z" could be harsh at all?! But anyhow you have to consider there are many regional accents in German. So, like for me Dutch seems harsher than Flemish - this could apply for certain German variations as well. I could imagine Swiss German, Carinthian or Bavarian sounds harsher than a Saxonian or Mecklenburg accent.

[@mccardrixx5289]

@@henningbartels6245 Definitely! But do you how the 'Bavarian dialect' or 'Swabian dialect' soundslike?? Dialects and accents from the south are really harsh and coarse/rough/severe! The 'z' is s 'tset' with much intonation,which is only present in German! German has a lot of 'pf' 'tz' 'rr' and even more! Example: 'selbstverständlich'=5 consonants consecutively :oO Dutch only has 'aa' 'ee' 'oo',okay??? The German R is a guttural sound,produced in the back of the throat,unlike in Dutch! Our 'ch' plus 'R' definitely sounds much harsher than Dutch! It's everywhere in Germany too! Those sounds can be pronounced quite aggressively! Also,we've got the 3 umlauts! German is totally different

[@taylordubyna5386]

Along with scream and cry, English also has shriek and screech that are similar to German schreien, shriek probably being the closest.

[@hoathanatos6179]

In my dialect of Low German: "Äwajistre meddach ha wie doa Doasch jäten, dee noch haulw reiw wia." "Dialekjt es waut, waut dee kjliene Kjinja vondach nijch mea lieren. Entwäda ham dee Elren daut an nijch trajchtlieren, ooda dee kjriechen daut eefach nijch jebakt. Doaromshaulwen kaus' dü vondach kjikjen, daut de Dialekjt es ütjestoawen." "Medriesija, haft jie jünt äajent Läwen oppjebüt, büten dee Schienwoapasch. Jie settet fast enne vestekjenja Routine von daut dachdäalijcht Läwen. Onn woofäl dit jün verekjt moakt, säakjt jie doa doch Schult nenn. Täajen dän Stroom, Golwen, Striernen, onn Jefeelen. Met Schwierichkjeit vejeitet jie woo onschaftijch jie sent. De Leem wuarüt jie sent jeformt, es nü vedrieecht onn vehoadet. Jie saulen Austronoom, Musikaunt, Altruist, Dichta ooda Mensch mea woaren, waut eenst kunnte haben." "Kaspar, dee wia kjoanijch , een dikja Junk onn küjelrunt. Hee haudt Backen root onn fresch; De Suppe att hee wool bie Desch. Doch eemol finj hee aun too schrieen: Ekj ät kjeene Suppe! Nä! Ekj ät miene Suppe nijch!! Nä, miene Suppe ät ekj nijch!"

[@mahakalabhairava9950]

I don't understand as Flemish.

[@alexanderklassen5207]

Kommt dem Plautdietsch, welches die Russlanddeutschen in Russland gesprochen haben und was bis heute noch in den menonitischen Kolonien Mittel- und Südamerikas gesprochen wird, sehr nahe, auch wenn's nicht ganz zu 100% damit übereinstimmt. Wo wird denn diese Variante des Niederdeutschen gesprochen?

[@hoathanatos6179]

@@alexanderklassen5207 Et es een Variant vonn Plautdietsch. Miene Familie kjemt üt Kanada onn haft siet 160 Joaren jewont hia.

[@hoathanatos6179]

@@alexanderklassen5207 See kommen aunfenkjlich üt Nuadpolen.

[@alexanderklassen5207]

@@hoathanatos6179 Ah, okay, dankscheein foa de Antwoot. Dann äs dot kloar. Ätj weeit dot nech jewäss, ober wann de Information stämmt, deei ätj mol jelese ha, dann sänd de Plautdietsche, deei än Russlond jeleevt habe, earscht üt de Jejend bi Hollond nu Ostpreußen jetrocke. Do haft sech ihre Sprook än bässtje jewondelt än dann sind deei wieda nu Ukraine än dann nu Russlond jetrocke. So konn mon dot verstoone, dot desse Sprook sich nu jüne jleicht.

[@519djw6]

I've watched about 12 minutes of this. However, it's rather confusing, because the standard languages are shown in the first subtitles, but below them are the dialect versions--which is what they are *speaking.* Question: Can both sides see the subtitles for the standard versions of their respective languages? (This would, of course, make it much easier.)

[@josephinateaches955]

No it is without text.

[@marcovtjev]

I'm from border town Roermond in the very south of the Netherlands, and speak my local dialect. This video has one person roughly 50-100km to the west of there (Belgische Kempen), the other maybe slightly further to the east (Duesseldorf). The differences are quite striking between all three.

[@fintonmainz7845]

The German man was really speaking a "foreign language". High German is obviously his first language. It must be impossible to nowadays to find someone who really speaks that dialect as their "native language"

[@markv9016]

@@fintonmainz7845in the bigger cities along the Rhein and Ruhr it’s indeed the case that nobody is able to speak the local dialect anymore. However, the closer west you come to the Dutch border the more people you’ll find that are able to still speak the dialect. In my tiny German home town only about a few km from the Dutch border away more than half of the population is still able to at least hold a conversation in our dialect. There is almost no language barrier between us and the bordering Dutch Limburgers.

[@forestmanzpedia]

Dutch and Belgians: "Dit is een winkel." Germans: "Hä?!? Das ist ein Winkel?!?"

[@corpi8784]

Buiten in netherlands/flemish has a cognate in buten which means outside in plattdeutsch/ low german

[@Mirko_Doggen]

The Flemish in the video is only spoken in the north east of Brlgium. West-Flemish is completly different when it comes to pronuciation.

[@Alainke]

"half raa" is 'medium rare' in English, but it is the dialect of the Kempen region, more specific the southern Kempen region of Flanders

[@hoathanatos6179]

I speak a dialect of Low German from the former Kingdom of Prussia (now Northern Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia) and I understood the Flemish much easier than Florian. He couldn't even recognize a lot of close cognates between Dutch and Low German that are much closer than High German.

[@HotelPapa100]

Yeah, I was surprised he didn't recognize 'buiten', but I guess Platt != Platt.

[@svenrichtmann6792]

Interesting to hear that this dialect is still alive in that region.

[@whukriede]

@@HotelPapa100 "buten" /u:/ in Low German, like in "buten en binnen" (outside and inside); Dutch pronunciation of "buiten" is much different from hers.

[@amjan]

Wait, where do you speak that dialect? Does it exist among people in Northern Poland?

[@hoathanatos6179]

@@amjan No, after WWII the German speaking population there was forced to flee into Germany or they ended up in the Soviet Union and most migrated to Russia and Ukraine to live with their fellow speakers who had migrated under the Russian Empire after Catherine the Great opened the doors to her fellow Prussians to move into her Empire to modernize it and to settle Siberia.

[@ansosboy8687]

Can you do Austroasiatic vs Austronesian languages?

[@PipeBockhodt81]

Kempen, Belgium is about 2 hours from where much of the family on my Dad's side (except him) is from.

[@corinna007]

This one is really interesting for me, because my family speaks Mennonite Low German. I'd love to see a video comparing my family's language to Standard German or Dutch. (I'd volunteer but unfortunately I don't really speak it that well yet. 😅)

[@jaskatpon1]

Are you from Canada? Cause I heard a bit about Mennonite community and they are usually settled in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan if I’m not mistaken. It’s good that your family still speak the language cause it’s a dying language in Canada unfortunately.

[@corinna007]

@@jaskatpon1 yes, I am. My family came to BC (there are a lot of Mennonites here too) from Saskatchewan and we still live here, except one aunt uncle and some cousins who moved to Manitoba. Most of my relatives can still speak Plautdietsch, but unfortunately my parents and everyone else only really spoke English to me (not sure why), and trying to learn it now as an adult is really hard.

[@jaskatpon1]

@@corinna007 What exactly is the difference between Mennonites and Hutterites? Do Mennonites have any connections with Amish people in the USA? Sorry for so many questions, it’s just that am curious. You can still learn plautdietsch via Hochdeutsch (Standard German) by enrolling yourself in a German school. There are many institutes and even individuals teaching German either in-person or online across Canada. Once you learn German it becomes easier to grasp and learn plaitdietsch.

[@corinna007]

@@jaskatpon1 Questions are fine. :) I'm not sure what all the differences are, but according to my dad, Hutterites are a lot more communal than Mennonites (like, they all share a big central kitchen, the farm equipment, etc), and they mostly speak High (Standard) German instead of Low German, like we do. I don't know much about the Amish as of yet, but I think they also speak a slightly different language. And our Low German seems to be a mix of German and Dutch, with some English thrown in, and it only became a written language relatively recently, so finding ways to study it is a challenge. And everyone in my family is so used to speaking to me in English that it just happens.

[@HotelPapa100]

@@corinna007 Are you sure that "High German" in the case of the Hutterites means Standard German? In linguistics "Hochdeutsch" can also mean a dialect of the south (of the upper country, as opposed to the low landscapes close to the sea). Pennsylvania Dutch is definitely one of these upper German dialects. ETA: Did some reading up on the Hutterites. Apparently their dialect is Bavarian/Austrian influenced. Quite a difference form Low German.

[@AllanLimosin]

You should compare Bavarian with an Low German dialect, Dutch of Standard German

[@prankster1590]

Where is the dutch text from? The one with Fellow traveller and the shine throwers.

[@josephinateaches955]

It is from a movie called 'Dzien Swira' or 'Day of the Wacko' in English! It is a reworked version (and translation) of the original text (which was in Polish). The part where it was mentioned, was cut out.

[@Elendrria]

Cool Video. I would love video with arabic and german :). I like your videos very much!

[@historicastafiilyy1588]

There is questions I wanted to ask u Bahador but I forgotten : Do you speak arabic or at least do you have some basis ? in Iran is arabic recognized as an official language and taught in schools ?

[@BahadorAlast]

I don't speak Arabic, but I do have a good understanding of it, and can pick up a fair bit from many conversations. That's from my own personal interest, it has nothing to do with living in Iran. In Iran, Arabic is not an official language, and most people never learn it even though the government has made Arabic a mandatory course in high schools where basic Arabic is taught as part of the curriculum. So Iranians attending public secondary schools will have a basic understanding of it, but most will not pursue it further.

[@historicastafiilyy1588]

@@BahadorAlast That's quite good :)) I know in Iran, Khuzistan region is full of Arabs chia so I thought it was co official maybe there or used in local administration

[@Artanis0000]

May I ask where Nathalie's paragraph came from? If it was mentioned, I missed it, but the paragraph is beautiful!

[@josephinateaches955]

It is a shorter version of the ending of a movie called "Day of the wacko" (Dzien Swira) which I subtitled for my master's thesis.

[@Artanis0000]

@@josephinateaches955 thank you, I'll look it up!

[@tott598]

Love hearing these German dialects and our Kempish one aswell ofcourse :) From Haspengauw :)

[@svenbartram2695]

Any chance of doing this exercise with a West Fleming and their dialect? I'd like to see how the balance between German and English compares when at the closest part to England and furthest from Germany.

[@hannofranz7973]

It also makes a difference if you see it written or get it said.

[@HotelPapa100]

I find this especially true with Dutch/Flemish as a German speaker. Many sounds are quite foreign, but the writing looks familiar.

[@pesvids6673]

I’m Dutch and didn’t know Flemish was so different. Her dialect is so different. I speak with Belgian people all the time and never heard someone speak like that!!

[@mahakalabhairava9950]

Weird. Because that's what I imagine is the most common typical way. Outside of Antwerp especially.

[@WobblyCube]

When speaking to Dutch people we speak a more standard Belgian Dutch, versus our local dialects. You kind off do it unconsiously, just as when you are talking to a fellow Belgian from a totally different region (and thus dialect). To make yourself as understandable as possible. :)

[@r.v.b.4153]

There are great differences between Dutch dialects. You can use this map to listen to dialects around the Netherlands: www.meertens.knaw.nl/ndb/gmaps.php?t=nl The Belgian one has more examples from Belgium, but it somehow doesn't seem to work for me right now: www.dialectloket.be/geluid/stemmen-uit-het-verleden/kaart/

[@r.v.b.4153]

@@WobblyCube I think most Belgian youngsters don't really know pure dialect anymore, and use "Tussentaal" amongst one another

[@WobblyCube]

@@r.v.b.4153 It indeed feel like it's dying out, although it depends on the region as well. When I was back in the city is was almost entirely "tussentaal", but here in the rural areas a lot more dialect is spoken.

[@Anonymous-sb9rr]

2:56 As a Dutch speaker with a hollandic dialect, which is close to standard Dutch, this sentence was very easy to understand. Except for the word noon, it just sounded like someone speaking quickly with a bit of an accent, swallowing a couple letters. But written down it looks totally different, much harder to understand. Which is odd, because with foreign languages I always find it easier to understand written text than spoken words.

[@amyloriley]

That's the problem with dialects. Dialects were never meant to be written, or like, nobody did write it down. Dialects are just spoken. So when you want to translate the spoken dialect words to writing, you'll get all kinds of accents and weird letters that jumble up your sentence just to get close to your speech; but never exactly there. Like, translating the Dutch language as if it were a dialect to Dutch: "Sprék jei Nédërlahns?" - "Spreek jij Nederlands?" - "Do you talk Dutch?" Think of all the ways you say an A in Dutch. Antwerpen. Afrika. Amerika. Three different first letter A pronunciations, and a fourth different last letter A, five if Amerika and Afrika have different last letter pronunciations. When writing down dialects, you suddenly want to make sure you're using the right A in your pronunciation; creating all kinds of accents for them to diffrentuate them and jumbling up everything. It's par for the course, I'm afraid.

[@Anonymous-sb9rr]

@@amyloriley I'm hearing only 2 A's in Antwerpen, Afrika, Amerika.

[@amyloriley]

@@Anonymous-sb9rr What the hell? I hear five. Ahntwerpen. Aafrika. Æmerika. (Last A of Amerika is pitched higher than Last A of Afrika in my speech.)

[@zt1788]

As a non-native German speaker, it blew my mind how much of her I understood without any effort.

[@Ama94947]

Wow the standard dutch is more similar to german then the belgian dialect!

[@TMTFT]

I'm intrigued by the dialect she speaks, like a merging of Dutch and Celtic, never seen or heard of it before.

[@5566letslearnEnglish]

Greetings from Azerbaijan... impressive video..both languages sound cool..

[@KatekyoKen]

You should do german flemish and afrikaans!

[@WolfgangSourdeau]

There is one with Charlize Theron and a presenter from the VRT : kzbin.info/www/bejne/imnHdqlqmrSfabs

[@michielpetitjean6891]

Nice video. Btw, in Flemish we also say: "hij bakt er niets van" :)

[@KulturanCov]

Love how he said from a small town in Germany called Düsseldorf (600.000 people living there) :D made it sound like a folksy little backwater village.

[@Larrypint]

3:00 german native here, the moment I can read the Standard flämisch text , is the moment I understand most of it but by listening only it's relatively hard to understand and the dialect is slightly harder. Aber man hört die gemeinsamen Wurzeln und die die Melodik erinnert mich ans Niederdeutsche .

[@lenefee2414]

Am I the only one seeing similarities between Dutch/Flemish and Swedish/Scandinavian?? As an fluent German speaker and almost fluent Swedish speaker it was somehow very easy to understand all of the dialects… makes me want to learn Dutch!

[@odivbanadura5953]

Greetings from New York! That was a great experience for me! As a foreign language Enthusiast and polyglot i loved it! Starting at middle school, I have learned and practiced German back in Turkey, but I have never been to Germany! Although after years ,I am more exposed to English ,Spanish French in Us, I was able to understand all the German words and the context to the end., I got first and second example sentences in Flemish, it just made sense. however, the last longt text was challenging.standart Dutch was easier for me to make sense (i guess).lhave to admit the fact that standard scripts were helpful especially in Flemish ..Thank you for sharing

[@chartreux1532]

+Odiv Banadura As a German, well actually as a Bavarian (since our Dialect is almost considered it's own Language & the Rest of Germany has a hard Time understanding us in Bavarian) i've been going down the KZbin Rabbithole of Americans learning German (including a lot about People in New York learning German) i'm always glad to see that there are People in the USA learning German, though from your Comment it seems you're originally from Turkey? If yes, then you are probably aware of the Turkish Community in German and the rather funny (and for others annoying) Dialect that has formed over the past 50 years of a specific Way Turkish People who have grown up in Germany speak German which is quite unique. It's basically speaking German but with a heavy Turkish Accent and often Turkish Words mixed in. So f.e. in a German Supermarket if you see a Turkish-German Family shopping with Kids, you'd very often hear "Anne! Kann ich das haben? Anne!" ("Anne" being turkish for "Mutter" engl: Mother) of course. This also influenced German Grammar, so a lot of Turks who were born here but spoke Turkish at Home would say stuff like: Turkish German says: "Gehst du heute Frankfurt?!" - literal translation: "Go you today Frankfurt?" Proper Translation: "You go today Frankfurt?" German says:" Gehst du heute NACH Frankfurt?" - literal translation: "Go you today to Frankfur?" Proper Translation: "You're going to Frankfurt today?" It's pretty interesting and also a major part in the German Stand-Up Comedy Scene, especially among Turkish-German Comedians Most famous Turkish-German Stand Up Comedian would be "Kaya Yanar" He has a Comedy-Character called "Hakan" who speaks pure "Kanakdeutsch" (now called Kiezdeutsch) most Turks speak and sound like. KZbin for "Hakan Sanitäter - Kaya Yanar" in which he is a Bouncer at German Clubs (A stereotypical Job where you either have muscle-packed badass Turkish Germans or muscle-packed Badass Biker Germans" Another famous Turkish-German Stand-Up Comedian who usually includes both Turkish and then the German Translation into her Comedy Bits is "Jilet Ayse" (a Character created by Turkish-German "Idil Baydar" For a great example with both Turkish and then German Translation + Cultural Quirks between the two youtube for: "Comedy Central Presents: Jilet Ayse | S04E02 | Comedy Central Deutschland" Prost & Cheers from the Berchtesgadener Land in the Bavarian Alps

[@hassanalast6670]

Good to know

[@mrmiskeen8284]

I understand everything flemish without any trouble, I'm german and come from Kleve/ Kleef, we speak kleverländisch, it's very similar to the Dutch Limburg dialect

[@petervanhulle7459]

My (and others) Kempisch dialect is off course much richer than standard Flemish. Het is heel plezant en interessant dat het eindelijk ook eens serieus bestudeerd wordt, samen met een Duits dialect. It shows how close we we were without realising it. I think Flemings could mingle with German and English people, in their dialect, but it took some effort. Dialecten zijn immens rijk. Dialects are immensively rich.

[@wikia11c14]

Was that comment about Dusseldorf at the beginning a joke? I mean, a 600k people city is not a small city in my book. :D

[@zui4516]

Please let‘s do a comparison between flamish, luxembourgish and swiss german. I‘ll glady take part as a swiss native person

[@seroujghazarian6343]

For some reason, when I was reading the sentences, I got a basic idea

[@prousa90]

'small town called Düsseldorf, in the vicinity of Cologne' that was so hard to listen to.

[@svenrichtmann6792]

It’s something a Kölner might say. 😉

[@vivekshah4364]

Which language should I learn ? Dutch or French? I am planning to study master ( marketing) in Belgium. Can you suggest me which language should I learn? My field is management

[@shadowsir]

French is usually the better choice. Most Flemish people are fluent in English, most Walloon people are not.

[@switt5923]

The German verb "schreien" can include crying as a meaning but it then describes crying with screaming from the felt pain at the same time. It is then a very intense word in our language for crying.

[@jandron94]

Like crying origanally does mean in French : to shout.

[@olypav4593]

I was in Austria last week and I, as a Fleming, could almost understand everything they said. So weird.

[@musiccfreakk1996Be]

Yeah I studied in Austria for a while. It’s pretty easy to get the concept of the message in German, and to communicate I got away with making Flemish words sound a bit more German more often than I would have anticipated lol

[@olypav4593]

@@musiccfreakk1996Be haha yes but the thing was, they didn’t understand anything I said. They said it was like Chinese to them…

[@linajurgensen4698]

@@musiccfreakk1996Be to be fair, Austrians have different dialects than Germans.

[@musiccfreakk1996Be]

@@linajurgensen4698 yeah I get it. I think I can compare with Flemish Dutch and Netherlands Dutch, both Dutch yet still different

[@themmamoshpit4484]

Great video! Can’t help but to mention how gorgeous this woman is too, wow. Greetings from Montréal!

[@gongboom]

If she only spoke her local "Kempen" dialect and were to meet a person who only spoke the Antwerp dialect they would probably have a hard time communicating with each other. Because up until fairly recently education in Dutch was frowned upon by the ruling elite, over the centuries people living in the flemish regions have developed their own, oftentimes mutually unintelligible dialects. Tragically, for a long time French was considered to be the language of the cultured Flemish bourgeoisie. Their own Flemish dialects were looked down upon as the language of uncivilized peasants. That's how Brussels became francophone. I think that in many respects standard Flemish is an artificial language not spoken at home by the majority of Flemish people. I get the impression that they mostly speak their local dialect at home, although this appears to be changing rapidly. As a Papiamento speaking Caribbean man who's second language is Dutch I find the official Flemish language identical to Dutch with only differing accents. Not unlike the difference between Australian and American. The different dialects however are an other matter. But the same applies for the dialects in the Netherlands which are often unintelligible to me. I sometimes watch both Dutch and Flemish tv here in the Caribbean. The Dutch are anglicizing their language more and more to the point where I sometimes suspect they are slowly losing knowledge of proper Dutch words and phrases. The Flemish are purists who love and appear to take great pride in their language. I can appreciate that. Esthetically, Flemish is gentler on the ear than Holland Dutch. What I love about the cultures in both Dutch speaking regions of Europe is that they are fascinating and vibrant.

[@Serenoj69]

I agree. Andmay be the two cultures are vibrant but I would also say that the cultures between the two countries are very different. It is a bit like the border between northern and southern Europa is the one between NL and BE

[@michaelweniger9928]

Buiten has nothing to do with german? Maybe thats correct for High-German but in Low-German (aka Plattdeutsch) we got "Buten" for outside and "Binnen" for inside. My Grandpa used to say "if you speak low-german you could also speak every other language"

[@davidkasquare]

As a Swedish speaker, I get a lot of the Flemish words. For instance “je zit vast” is “du sitter fast”.

[@rayray5768]

Du sitzt fest also in German, the guy just didn't get it. I think it would be better if they were able to see the script for some words at least.

[@ronkrijbolder437]

As a dutch person i am smiling right now. I was lucky that in my school educatian attention was given to old Dutch/ Diets and remebering the lessons............ i can say there are so many simelarities.................. in so called dialects in low german languages and in this case also in low german en low saxon (nederduits en nedersaxisch). Fur ein Person aus Ostniederlande wäre es wascheinlich möglich was 9:31 gesagt wird zu folgen. Likewise would someone from the south of the Netherlands be able to follow the Flemish dialect. I have to say though that in the Netherlands there is a bit of a difference because people take pride in their dialects and local languages specialy in culture. Apart from Fyrisian Low Geman and Low Saxon have become to be regognized languages and people that speak these languages are aware of the fact that across the border people speak local languages that are similar. Although i am from the west of the Netherlands i like the local languages from the east north and south of the Netherland but that also goes for local languages in neighbouring countries like Germany and Belgium And due to the Saxon origins of these languages you can not forget the link with old English

[@EthemD]

Being fluent in both Dutch and German (from same 'small' town as Florian 😂), it was a lot of fun watching this! Really enjoyed the Düsseldorfer Platt, I rarely hear it 'hüttzedachs'. I really liked the dialect section and sentence choices! And as Florian and Natalie said, it is a dialect continuum here, and the Niederrhein (Lower Rhine) dialects get closest to Dutch close to the border around the city of Aachen, I believe. Another fun fact is that all Belgian and Dutch schools offer German classes, while only some German ones offer Dutch, so it can get a bit tricky to learn Dutch/Flemish in Germany. Vielen Dank & dankuwel aan jullie tweeën ('u' because of Flemish)! Kudos Bahador 👏

[@josephinateaches955]

İn Flanders you can often choose between Spanish or German (depending on the school and the field of study) and in Wallonia students can choose between German/Dutch or English (or so İ've heard). PS Graag gedaan :).

[@hannofranz7973]

Duitsland is de groote boer van België en Nederland en de mensen adapteeren zich aan duits. De meesten duitsen maken zich niet de moete nederlands te leren. Ik hoop men kan mijn nederlands begrijpen ook met mijne fouten

[@EthemD]

Ja, dat klopt. Volgens mij, doen dat ook vele andere buurlanden - Polen, Hongarije, Tsjechië... vanwegen hun zaken met Duitsland, en hun culturele invloedssfeer. Zou dan natuurlijk erg moeilijk zijn om op alle middelbare scholen in Duitsland elke andere taal te leren.

[@janvanaardt3773]

I was in Flanders and only spoke Afrikaans to the locals and we understood each other welll