My grandfather (92 years old) grew up a few km outside Leuven and speaks nearly exactly like this.
I am especially curious if West-Flemish people can understand this.
Isn’t Vlaams Brabants the closest to ‘Algemeen Nederlands’ there is? As a person from East Flanders who lived in Leuven I can say it’s really easy to understand.
I understand all of it (Limburg) but I do notice that the vocabulary that the speaker uses is influenced by Dutch a lot. The vowel system is distinctly southern Brabantian (ontronding, diphtongs etc) but I think this example is specifically easy to understand because of the word choice. Really interesting video, thanks for sharing 🙂
It takes ‘tuning in’ to it for a second, but then it’s not hard to understand.
My gf is from Leuven and i live 10km from it but you hardly find anyone that still speaks like this. But for me it’s verry easy to understand anyway.
As someone who grew up in Antwerp, mostly very easy to understand although I admit there were one or two words that explained themselves though context more than understanding.
Pretty well since I grew up with Brabantian dialects around me (Denderstreek). I can easily understand what words he’s saying but I don’t always know what every word means (I can tell from context I think).
Clearly Brabantian dialect. As Antwerp dialect is also Brabantian, and I’m used to older people speaking it, it was really easy to understand.
I assume it would be hardr for people who speak Flemish dialects.
My father speaks Leuvens, it is the devil’s tongue.
All my family speaks Leives so yeah easy. I have a strong Leuvens accent as well … sadly everyone in west flanders thinks i am from Antwerp.
Een vriend van vroeger (allez van een jaar geleden) noemde me ooit eens maske. En ik dacht dat hij masker wou typen. En dus ik vroeg waarom hij dacht dat ik iets voor carnaval was..
Of iemand zei tegen een andere dat hij met hem een pot wou gaan pakken. En ik vond dat zo raar: Waarom gaan ze nu seks hebben met een lesbische vrouw?
Het waren allemaal Leuvenaars btw.
Imo, dialect has two aspects.
First is vocabulary, second is pronounciation.
As a West-Flemish speaker, I noticed that almost anyone can understand all the different pronounciations after “tuning in” for a couple of seconds. I have no problem with understanding Antwerps, Limburgs, Leuvens, …
And neither do they have a problem understanding me.
It becomes a whole different story when dialect vocabulary is involved. This makes any dialect unintelligible towards the other dialects.
Even within West-Vlaanderen, words can be very regional.
13 comments
My grandfather (92 years old) grew up a few km outside Leuven and speaks nearly exactly like this.
I am especially curious if West-Flemish people can understand this.
Isn’t Vlaams Brabants the closest to ‘Algemeen Nederlands’ there is? As a person from East Flanders who lived in Leuven I can say it’s really easy to understand.
I understand all of it (Limburg) but I do notice that the vocabulary that the speaker uses is influenced by Dutch a lot. The vowel system is distinctly southern Brabantian (ontronding, diphtongs etc) but I think this example is specifically easy to understand because of the word choice. Really interesting video, thanks for sharing 🙂
It takes ‘tuning in’ to it for a second, but then it’s not hard to understand.
My gf is from Leuven and i live 10km from it but you hardly find anyone that still speaks like this. But for me it’s verry easy to understand anyway.
As someone who grew up in Antwerp, mostly very easy to understand although I admit there were one or two words that explained themselves though context more than understanding.
Pretty well since I grew up with Brabantian dialects around me (Denderstreek). I can easily understand what words he’s saying but I don’t always know what every word means (I can tell from context I think).
Clearly Brabantian dialect. As Antwerp dialect is also Brabantian, and I’m used to older people speaking it, it was really easy to understand.
I assume it would be hardr for people who speak Flemish dialects.
My father speaks Leuvens, it is the devil’s tongue.
All my family speaks Leives so yeah easy. I have a strong Leuvens accent as well … sadly everyone in west flanders thinks i am from Antwerp.
Een vriend van vroeger (allez van een jaar geleden) noemde me ooit eens maske. En ik dacht dat hij masker wou typen. En dus ik vroeg waarom hij dacht dat ik iets voor carnaval was..
Of iemand zei tegen een andere dat hij met hem een pot wou gaan pakken. En ik vond dat zo raar: Waarom gaan ze nu seks hebben met een lesbische vrouw?
Het waren allemaal Leuvenaars btw.
Imo, dialect has two aspects.
First is vocabulary, second is pronounciation.
As a West-Flemish speaker, I noticed that almost anyone can understand all the different pronounciations after “tuning in” for a couple of seconds. I have no problem with understanding Antwerps, Limburgs, Leuvens, …
And neither do they have a problem understanding me.
It becomes a whole different story when dialect vocabulary is involved. This makes any dialect unintelligible towards the other dialects.
Even within West-Vlaanderen, words can be very regional.
> Emelbeeste / Renne / Lochting / Ertefretter / Geirnoar
How many do you know?
It’s wild how the Leuven dialect has died out in younger generations. I’m from Leuven and none of my childhood frinds speak anything like this.