LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE

I have friends in Kanne, Riemst. I am having difficulty in discovering exactly what language people speak there. Flemish - is it a language of its' own, or is it Dutch or something else completely? I have scoured Language Shops but none in Victoria, Australia., can help me.

It is definately not dutch - it is a language on its own and although it sounds like dutch it is actually closer to Afrikaans , a language spoken in South Africa by the majority of South Africans.

[imported_m_roy]

I'm afraid that's not exactly true. Flemish is very similar to Dutch. They may have some different spellings for certain terms, or colloquialisms, but they are probably closer to one another than British English and American English. Afrikaans, on the other hand, has a grammar and spelling system that is much more divergent from Dutch (Flemish).

[This message has been edited by m.roy (edited 27 April 2000).]

[Sleepy]

Flemish is indeed dutch but a dialect. It is more beautiful than dutch (but that just can't be difficult).

[wipala]

Dear Jacqui, Dutch is one of the 425 living Indo-European languages. It's forms part of the Low Continental West-Indo-European branch, together with Low German, Low Saxon and Platdiesch. Afrikaans is a language that recently split from Dutch. Flemish is NOT a independent language.
You can find Dutchspeakers all over the world, the most significant groups live in The Netherlands and Belgium. Check out : http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/lookup?DUT

I have to oppose the messages from Chrish and Sleepy. Flemish is not such language as Afrikaans, nor is it a dialect. Consider Flemish as the regional variety on Dutch in Belgium. They share vocabulary, they share grammar, they share spelling. The only difference is the pronunciation. Clearly there have been some different influences from other languages, but these are considered as impurities. Galliscisms, Germanisms, Belgiscisms ... in correctly spoken Dutch, let it be in Holland or in Flanders, they will be banned. So once more, DUTCH=FLEMISH=DUTCH, the difference is just politics :-(

[huberstravelsite_com]

Hello
Many years have begotten new names.

Do the Dutch deep down inside know they are
german. Do they know the true blood line
Not the crown who ruled

The celts were all over europe and they kept bumping into the tuetonics.
and the tuetonics pushed down into europe
and gaul So all of the boarders of today
put them out of your mind and to the many tribes...and there where many.
To a Dutchman today...Does he accept
Karl the great as their historic King?
Karl spoke german there was no netherlands
that was the Franks.
Gauls Romans Franks Goths Saxons vandals
and the rest. there was no france belgium
or germany....just alot of tribes and each
took theie turn from 50 BC fighting the Roman
or fighting each other.