Talk:West Flemish
Question: Is West Flemish just another Dutch dialect, distinct from Flemish, or is it a separate language? -- SJK
Doesn't this page need disambiguation? - Olivier
As a former inhabitant of Zeeuwsch Vlaanderen I can declare that this page is total bunk. Jcwf
Please correct it! I don't know where the data about Zeeuwsch Vlaanderen came from. — Toby 07:27 Dec 1, 2002 (UTC)
There is no such thing as a Flemish language, only a myriad of dialect, each of which is older than the only standard language we have :DUTCH Jcwf
I agree. There is no such language as "Flemish", any more than there is a language called "American" or "Quebecois". This article should be deleted. soulpatch
Thank you
Flemish is Dutch, West Flemish is different; I think that the titles clarify this now. I'm following Ethnologue in saying that West Flemish is distinct from Dutch; if that's wrong, then this article can still exist as an article about a specific dialect, now with minimal changes. I also don't know if it's spoken in Zeeuwsch-Vlaanderen; Ethnologue says yes, but not exclusively. It may be that West Flemish is distinct from Dutch in France but not in the Netherlands; that sort of thing can happen with languages. -- Toby 00:07 Feb 6, 2003 (UTC)
'There is no such language as "Flemish"'... It would be as true and fair to say there was no such language as Dutch, bearing in mind that literary tradition goes back further in Flemish dialects than in Dutch ones (e.g. "Til Eulenspiel" or "Til Eulenspiegel"). The fact of the matter is that the language is distinct, not so much in its content as in its attachments to a body of speakers, who can and do distinguish themselves. Approve or not, there is such a thing as the Vlaams Blok. Claiming Flemish does not exist is like the early persecution of people who claimed to speak Afrikaans rather than Dutch. This attitude is strongly reminiscent of claims I have heard that 'There is no such place as Belgium'. PML.
I fully agree. As a fleming, I take great offence in the statement 'there is no such thing as Flemish'. I'm speaking it every day, as are 6 million other Flemings. The fact that there are dialects even among the flemish-speaking populace is of no influence on the fact that Flemish *is* distinctly different from the Dutch spoken in the Netherlands. This sort of statements reflect the old orangenesk-nationalistic tendency of the Netherlands, together with some former misguided elitist flemings in the years between 1930 and 1980 (afraid that Flemish would not be a viable language on it's one) to superimpose their 'correct' Dutch. When in school, I still had to learn that Dutch, which was called "Algemeen beschaafd Nederlands" or "Genral Civilized Dutch"...as if Flemish was somehow 'less civilised'. Luckily, times have changed, and in a change of mentality, more and more Flemings realise that the old doctrine was foolish and even on all educational levels oàne now accepts that Flemish has a right of its own.
Maybe it's still called Dutch officially, but Flemings speak Flemish, period.