“Neuh, ‘k wit da nie neej.” Sometimes I catch myself responding with a clear Brabantian accent on campus. Often when I’m already a bit absent-minded.
The fact that I haven’t lived in Amsterdam for six years shows in many ways. From my time in Romania, I picked up ‘pa pa’ as my standard farewell and ‘vai’ (with that wonderfully long áááj sound) as an exclamation of surprise, disapproval, or disbelief. Back in the Netherlands, I ended up living in Brabant, and since I communicate daily with Brabanders, it’s increasingly clear month by month that I’m really no longer an Amsterdammer.
Standard student language
For many Dutch UvA students, it’s the same story – they’re not originally from Amsterdam, and their “real home” lies in Brabant, Twente, Groningen, or Limburg. Yet you can hardly hear it in their accents. This raises the question: is this standard student language really the holy grail?
Personally, I happily use expressions from my current region. This means that typically Brabantian phrases like “da is”, “da’s zund”, or – props to anyone who remembers this legendary Dutch meme video – “ma da was nie” sometimes come out of my mouth with full conviction.
I also notice I do this more often in Amsterdam than in Brabant itself. Perhaps it’s precisely because being there brings out the Amsterdam part of me more prominently. Although I have to admit that little of that remains when I’m drinking wine with five Brabanders until two o’clock (often starting from two) in the city.