Saturday, December 22, 2012

Accents of Flemish stereotypes

Actually each city has its own dialect in Flanders and it's pretty easy for a Flemish to tell which part of Flanders someone else comes from. Also, each city has its own stereotype... Here's a small list of them...

The biggest city in Flanders is Antwerp. That's where you'll find all the concerts, shops and spectaculars. It is also the place where Bart de Wever, the most famous anti-Walloon politician is mayor. As a consequence, the Antwerpenaars are generally perceived by the rest of Flanders as arrogant and too proud of themselves and their city. 

Vision of the country as an Antwerpenaar

Another part of Belgium which is full of foreign tourists is West Flanders, known for its windy beaches (Oostende, De Panne, etc.) on the North Sea. It is also the closest place to France (actually there's a small part of France called Flanders and which used to speak West-Flemish). In general, this place is considered to get so many rich people from France or England that its people become rich themselves (note that the "wealthy French tourists" and people will make an effort to speak French to them, by contrast with the "poor Walloons"). West Flanders is also known for its accent, in which all Gs sound exactly like Hs. As a consequence, a lot of Flemish people find it hard to understand them. An example is Alex Agnew, from Antwerp, who likes to make fun of them in his sketches.


Agnew comparing the West-Flemish to potatoes (in Dutch)

The third stereotype is about people from Belgian Limburg (not to be confused with Maastricht in the Netherlands). They are often seen as the poor part of Flanders, with people who don't actually master Dutch but still speak their dialect (Limburgs), which sounds pretty much like German... Also, slowliness is typical of this dialect, in which one word has a different meaning if it's pronounced slowlier!

I would be really grateful to any Flemish who could provide me with more stereotypes on the different cities in Flanders, but those were the ones I heard the most, as most of my Flemish friends are from those places.

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