CHAT: Subtitles (was: Re: Proto-Romance)

En réponse à Joe :


>Of course, 'thou' still exists in English(as 'tha') in the North.  I was
>under the impression that 'gij' was mostly found in Flemish.
Indeed, but dialects don't care about political border, and there is a 
continuity of dialects between Flemish and Dutch. My boyfriend comes from 
the South of Brabant (at a few kilometers from the border) and his dialect 
is very close to Flemish dialects.
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En réponse à Barry Garcia :


>I've noticed a slight trend among some shows in the US to subtitle people
>who have very strong regional US accents, such as a thick southern twang.
>I've always been able to understand any US accent i've heard, but
>apparently the people who run these shows feel a need to subtitle the
>people speaking on them.
I also have normally no problem understanding Dutch people that according 
to TV people need to be subtitled (apart maybe from people speaking a very 
thick Gronings or Limburgs), but I am a foreigner and interested in 
languages at that :) . But I can understand that a Brabanter who didn't 
travel and live all around the Netherlands (like my friend did) would have 
difficulties understanding a Rotterdamer speaking his dialect. The 
differences are quite big :) .
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En réponse à Dirk Elzinga :


>It's been my impression that subtitles are used where the sound quality
>isn't great *and* the regional accent is rather pronounced.
>
>I do remember being amused that the Dutch subtitled Belgians. I'm sure
>the Belgians return the favor.
Indeed. I saw once "Baantjer" (a Dutch police series) subtitled on Belgian 
TV,  while all the actors spoke a very good approximation of ABN! (Algemeen 
Beschaafd Nederlands, the closest thing to a standard Dutch) I found that 
really strange :) .
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En réponse à Thomas Leigh :


>I discovered this recently, and found it highly amusing. We get
>a Dutch-language channel (BVN) on the satellite TV, which I like
>to watch even though I don't understand anything, just because I
>love the sound of Dutch (the language has always felt very
>"comfortable" to me, like I *ought* to understand it even though
>I don't!).
Hehe, I agree that Dutch is quite pleasing to hear. Speaking it is a nice 
experience too :)) .

>  Anyway, there's this Belgian cop drama they show -- I
>forget the name, "Flikken" or something, maybe -- and it's all
>subtitled. Which is hilarious, because like 95% of it or more is
>absolutely identical.
Hehe, I saw that too :)) . But still, seeing Baantjer, a Dutch program, 
subtitled in Dutch (meaning that the subtitles were 99% identical to the 
spoken words ;))) ) on Belgian TV was over the top ;))) .

>  The occasional different word or
>expression, but that's it. It would be like taking a show from
>the UK on PBS and subtitling it into "American". I absolutely
>adore the Belgian accent though. Gorgeous.
The funny part with Belgians is that Walloonians (French-speaking Belgians) 
have the same kind of accent when they speak French! ;))

>That cop show is probably my favorite show they have. Apart from
>that it's mostly language-oriented game shows (like "Lingo" and
>"Tien Voor Taal" -- the latter is great because it pits Dutchmen
>and Belgians against each other!)
And it's great to learn the language! I used to watch it each week to 
improve my Dutch. Today I watch mostly "Get the Picture" (which despite its 
English title is a Dutch game ;)) ). "Herexamen" is also a good one. Do you 
receive it?

>  and choral singing shows
>("Nederland Zingt" -- aaaigh!)
Ouch! ;)))

Do you get any soap? (Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden comes to mind. In this 
soap they speak quite slowly and simply, so much that a method for teaching 
Dutch to foreigners has been developped based on this soap! ;)) )

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang. 

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