To be fair, the production crew of the show, which is set in Kortrijk, did make an effort to get it right. The actors, most of them not native to the region, studied the dialect for months and were schooled by a dialect coach. To no avail. Pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary: They do it all wrong, according to the natives.
West Vlams, as they say, or West Vlaams in standardised Dutch, may very well be Flanders’ most peculiar dialect. To the untrained ear, it is utterly incomprehensible and – as I know from experience and to the delight of my West Flemish friends – very difficult to imitate. I’ve said before that it sounds like something from The Lord of the Rings.
Poor Flanders Today reader Anna Levenstein, who wrote to ask for some tips about West Flemish phrases “so that I can communicate with my in-laws”. But I’m not sure I can be of much help. I often don’t have a clue myself. All I know is that they say jongen, boy, for meisje, girl, and that they use a lot of words of French origin.
But I wouldn’t presume to think that when months of intensive training don’t produce anything that even remotely satisfies the natives, this column could. I might have to agree with Anna’s husband, who “seems to think that it’s impossible to learn”.
Newspaper De Standaard created an online test – fun! – aptly called Wuk dadde?, which I believe means something like Wat is dat?, What’s that? (West-Flemish readers: correct me if I’m wrong!) There are 10 audio fragments, and the testee is asked to pick the correct translation. One fragment has me in doubt between een mooie vrouw, a beautiful woman, and een boterham met confituur, a sandwich with jam.
I did worse than I thought I would: four out of 10. “'t I noh nie hjil dadde,” it tells me when I’m done. Het is nog niet heel goed, I’m pretty sure it means: It’s not very good yet.
Send your questions and quips to philip.ebels@
ackroyd.be
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