Re: Oooooo! I hates that varmint! Attn: Dutch speakers

 --- Christophe wrote:

> En riponse ` Irina Rempt <irina@...>:
     ^^^^^^^^^

What conlang may this be? Narbonósc?

> I see. Well, at least in the present for all verbs but 'zijn' (what
> about 'hebben'?), the 'jij' and 'gij' forms are identical, so it's no wonder
> I hadn't heard a difference ;))) .
Yes. In the present tense "jij" inherited its verbal forms from "gij", but in
some cases the first person's form has some influence here.  "Jij bent" appears
to be "ben" from the first person singular, with "-t" from "gij".
Strange enough, in the past tense it doesn't work like that; "jij" takes some
common singular form instead, presumably again under the influence of the first
person.
To make it more complicated, in cases when "jij" comes after the verb, "-t"
falls off, with as a result a form that is always the same as the first person.
This is never the case with "gij".

> > > Don't worry too much about 'gij'. You won't be expected to use it,
> > > just to recognise it if it appears.
> >
> > Unless you're in Flanders and on first-name terms with people who have
> > it in their dialect, no.
>
> Well, it will be mostly a matter of changing the first letter of the personal
> pronoun, so that shouldn't be much of a problem. Also, IIRC Flemish speakers
> understand you very well when you use ABN (the "standard" Dutch of the
> Netherlands). They don't really expect foreigners to speak in their own
> dialects. At least that's what a Belgian colleague I had when I worked at
> Philips told me, in 1999.
True. It's completely accepted from both sides, that in a Dutch-Flemish
conversation everyone uses his own speech. I doubt whether your Flemish
conversation partner would appreciate it if you started to imitate his dialect;
he might easily get the feeling that you are trying to make a fool of him. And
in many cases he would even be right: for Dutch ears Flemish sounds sympathetic
but funny, and a Dutch person trying to imitate it usually sounds ridiculous.

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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