West Flemish ( West-Vlams or West-Vloams or Vlaemsch (in French Flanders ), Dutch : West-Vlaams , French: flamand occidental ) is a collection of Low Franconian varieties spoken in western Belgium and the neighbouring areas of France and the Netherlands.
10-708: Mont-Saint-Éloi ( French pronunciation: [mɔ̃ sɛ̃.t‿elwa] ; West Flemish : Sint-Elooisberg ) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France . Mont-Saint-Éloi is situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Arras, at the junction of the D341 and the D49 roads, on the banks of the river Scarpe . The monastery was founded in the 7th century by Vindicianus , bishop of Arras and devotee of Saint Eligius . The bishop
20-588: A further 50,000 in the neighbouring Dutch coastal district of Zeelandic Flanders (200,000 if including the closely related dialects of Zeelandic ) and 10-20,000 in the northern part of the French department of Nord . Some of the main cities where West Flemish is widely spoken are Bruges , Dunkirk , Kortrijk , Ostend , Roeselare and Ypres . West Flemish is listed as a "vulnerable" language in UNESCO 's online Red Book of Endangered Languages . West Flemish has
30-647: A long ie ( [i] ). Like for the ui , the long o ( [o] ) can be replaced by an [ø] ( eu ) for some words but a [uo] for others. That often causes similarities to ranchers English. Here are some examples showing the sound shifts that are part of the vocabulary: Plural forms in Standard Dutch most often add -en , but West Flemish usually uses -s , like the Low Saxon dialects and even more prominently in English in which -en has become very rare. Under
40-891: A phonology that differs significantly from that of Standard Dutch, being similar to Afrikaans in the case of long E, O and A. Also where Standard Dutch has sch , in some parts of West Flanders, West-Flemish, like Afrikaans, has sk . However, the best known traits are the replacement of Standard Dutch (pre-)velar fricatives g and ch in Dutch ( /x, ɣ/ ) with glottal h [h, ɦ] ,. The following differences are listed by their Dutch spelling, as some different letters have merged their sounds in Standard Dutch but remained separate sounds in West Flemish. Pronunciations can also differ slightly from region to region. The absence of /x/ and /ɣ/ in West Flemish makes pronouncing them very difficult for native speakers. That often causes hypercorrection of
50-461: A short u ( [ɐ] ), a phenomenon also occurring in Russian and some other Slavic languages , called akanye . That happens spontaneously to some words, but other words keep their original short o sounds. Similarly, the short a ( [ɑ] ) can turn into a short o ( [ɔ] ) in some words spontaneously. The diphthong ui ( /œy/ ) does not exist in West Flemish and is replaced by a long u ( [y] ) or
60-404: Is pronounced only if the next word begins with a vowel sound. Another feature of West Flemish is the conjugation of ja and nee ("yes" and "no") to the subject of the sentence. That is somewhat related to the double subject, but even when the rest of the sentence is not pronounced, ja and nee are generally used with the first part of the double subject. This conjugation can be negated with
70-535: The /h/ sounds to a /x/ or /ɣ/ . Standard Dutch also has many words with an -en ( /ən/ ) suffix (mostly plural forms of verbs and nouns). While Standard Dutch and most dialects do not pronounce the final n , West Flemish typically drops the e and pronounces the n inside the base word. For base words already ending with n , the final n sound is often lengthened to clarify the suffix. That makes many words become similar to those of English: beaten , listen etc. The short o ( [ɔ] ) can also be pronounced as
80-417: The influence of Standard Dutch, -s is being used by fewer people, and younger speakers tend to use -en . The verbs zijn ("to be") and hebben ("to have") are also conjugated differently. West Flemish often has a double subject. Standard Dutch has an indefinite article that does not depend on gender, unlike in West Flemish. However, a gender-independent article is increasingly used. Like in English, n
90-612: The old abbey. During the Revolution, the monks left and the abbey was converted into a quarry and pillaged for the stone. What remained of the towers and facade serving as a military observation point during the First World War. In 1915 heavy shelling damaged the towers. It is a protected monument. West Flemish language West Flemish is spoken by about a million people in the Belgian province of West Flanders , and
100-579: Was buried in the nearby Bois d'Ecoives, but his relics were subsequently removed to the Abbey Church of St. Joseph, which was enlarged in the 11th century. The abbey adopted the Rule of Saint Augustine , and was the motherhouse of St. Botolph's Priory in Colchester . The medieval buildings were demolished in 1750 to make way for a church and convent, necessitated by the aging and shallow foundations of
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