Reinhild Vandekerckhove

Belgian Dutch versus Netherlandic Dutch : New patterns of divergence? On pronouns of address and diminutives

Abstract The linguistic climate in northern Belgium (Flanders) has been changing in recent years. A new corpus of spoken Dutch meets the need for data reflecting actual and present-day language use in this part of the Dutch language area. The ‘Spoken Dutch Corpus’ allows us to uncover and analyse the present state of colloquial Belgian Dutch and the changes which mark this condition. This paper discusses the realization of two morphosyntactic variables, the variants of which are markers of Belgian Dutch versus Netherlandic Dutch. In spite of more than half a century of official language policy promoting convergence with northern Netherlandic Dutch, the results reveal a growing divergence from the northern norm: the younger generations show a greater preference for the endogenous, Brabantic, variants than the older generations. The northern Dutch variants have not been integrated in colloquial Belgian Dutch. Apparently they are still considered to be a ‘Hollandic import’.

Dialect loss and dialect vitality in Flanders

Abstract Dialect loss is a relatively new but by now quite general phenomenon in Flanders (i.e., Dutch-speaking Belgium). Although the processes of dialect change and dialect loss have proceeded with great regional differences in speed and intensity in the past decades, there is a general tendency toward replacing primary dialect features of a relatively local scope by secondary dialect features that have a wider distribution and/or bear stronger resemblance to the standard Dutch equivalents. Some urban dialects, especially the dialect of the city of Antwerp, play a prominent role in this process. The implication is that the old local dialects have not made way for a generalized use of (Belgian) Standard Dutch. Present-day Flanders is evolving toward a new diglossia: Standard Dutch was and still is reserved for formal domains, but for the younger generations in many regions the dominant variety for informal colloquial speech is no longer the local dialect but a “regiolectal” variety. Every region has its own regiolect but the so-called tussentaal (literally ‘language in between’) of the Brabant–Antwerp dialect region is clearly dominating the linguistic scene in present-day Flanders.

Dialects in western Europe: a balanced picture of language death, innovation and change

This thematic issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language addresses the question of whether dialects in western Europe are dying. Can dialects still be a medium of communication in our industrialized and increasingly urbanized societies? Is there a place for dialects in a globalizing world? And what kind of dialect do we speak right now and shall we be speaking in the near future? In what way do our present day dialects di¤er from the dialects of the — in some cases very recent — past? The cases presented in this issue do not cover every country of western Europe, but we hope that both the geographical spread of the selected countries and regions and the diversity they represent with respect to their linguistic, political, and socioeconomic past and present shed light on the similarities and di¤erences in the sociolinguistic evolution of dialect use across this part of the continent. As far as dialect vitality is concerned, the first country that is presented in the volume, Norway, constitutes a very special case. In ‘‘Dialects in Norway: catching up with the rest of Europe?,’’ Unn Røyneland explains what makes the Norwegian language situation quite unique, even today: the positive attitudes that are generally held toward dialects, the ease and openness with which nonstandard dialects are used both in formal/public and in informal/private domains, and the huge amount of dialect diversity. All of these factors are related to the lack of a strong national spoken standard and to some extent also to the bewildering variation across the written standards. The omnipresence of dialect use in Norwegian society shows that dialects have not become functionally devalued at all. But Norway appears to be catching up with the rest of Europe to some extent with respect to structural changes a¤ecting its dialects. The predominant tendency is one of regional leveling. Displaying regional a‰liation and identity has become more important than displaying a strictly local a‰liation. Urban dialects appear to play a prominent role in these processes: they determine both horizontal and vertical leveling