What Does Dutch Sound Like To You?

**The Lawspeaker** · 11-30-2019, 12:08 PM

Like this is from Limburg - from the Deep South and it sounds nothing like Geert Wilders.

Also Limburg:

This man I know personally (he is my old music teacher) and he was born in Helden-Beringe but lives in the Roermond area.

Closer to Venlo (Tegelen (Netherlands) and in Kaldenkirch (a couple of miles across the border in Germany).

Maastricht:

**Nurzat** · 11-30-2019, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by Rico33

It sounds like me. Because I speak Dutch. Flemish to be precise.

good to hear there's some natives left in Belgium. are you full Belgian and how common is it for Belgians to be full Belgian with no immigrant parents or grandparents, including European (Italian for example, I know you have a lot)

**The Lawspeaker** · 11-30-2019, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by Crimean

Like the rumble of rusty water pipes

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There is a more popular description - when a drunken English sailor tries to speak German

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In fact, for my ear, the Dutch sounds like a strange hybrid of English and German, but nothing is understandable.

Are Dutch and Frisian mutually intelligible?
How does Russian sound to the Dutch ear? Do you distinguish different Slavic languages by ear?

Well.. Dutch and Frisian are sort of mutually intelligible but more to a Northern listener than to a Southerner. I, for one, am used to hearing it but the speaker has to speak more slowly. I can also read it.

Russian ? Well.. we can sort of recognise it but we can only tell the difference between Polish and Russian. The rest ? Not so much.

**♥ Lily ♥** · 11-30-2019, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by The Lawspeaker

Working on it. But there is also a real difference between areas in the South. I remember there being a Asterix comic book that was translated in the various Limburic dialects with the Gauls speaking one dialect, the Romans another, some other villages yet another. And I could only read a couple. Some group spoke Kerkradens (Kirchroas) and I couldn't read a single word as it was completely on the other side of Limburg (with only 50 kms between us). Brabants also has nothing in common with Limburgs and dialects differ strongly from place to place, from generation to generation and social group to social group.

Thank you. Which Dutch accent would be considered as the RP accent?

**~~Rico33~~** · 11-30-2019, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by Nurzat

good to hear there's some natives left in Belgium. are you full Belgian and how common is it for Belgians to be full Belgian with no immigrant parents or grandparents, including European (Italian for example, I know you have a lot)

I think some areas have indeed some Italian descend people.

**The Lawspeaker** · 11-30-2019, 12:18 PM

O.K Brabant: this Breda girl is trying to speak the dialect of Den Bosch - which are very different dialects but down South we can easily understand each other.

I have to admit - this guy speaks perfect dialect. His dialect fits in Tilburg:

In this comedy sketch, these comedians are exaggerating the dialect from the Meuse Valley near Oss (and deliberately behave like absolute trash as part of the sketch as the area is known in Brabant for being sketchy) and Den Bosch (and general North-East Brabant) - the comedians themselves are both from the area and from further South - Eindhoven. The "cop" (not a Brabander but from Amsterdam speaks formal Dutch and this is, perhaps, why the reaction is what it is: there is a long history of locals despising Holland police officers).

Oss:

2:10
0:26
0:36
0:39
1:03
1:06 The actor speaks standard official Dutch - her response is in mild dialect.
1:31 More.

For some very clear examples.

**♥ Lily ♥** · 11-30-2019, 12:24 PM

I think Dutch sounds like a purer Germanic language than English (because modern English is mixed with French and Latin,) so when people hear West Germanic languages such as Dutch, it gives us a feeling of our Germanic ancestors and the Anglo Saxon, Jute, and Frisian languages that our ancestors spoke, which were pure Germanic languages.