First of all, thank you readers for your comments… haha, as you noticed my English isn’t exactly flawless, but I will try to keep the mistakes at a minimum!
The one big problem I seem to be having writing the blog, is to come up with potentially interesting stories… because I’m native Dutch, I find it hard to calculate what would interest you, what you would like to have explained in further detail, what you might be having difficulties with. So any suggestion would be really welcome!
What I did find kind of funny, was a conversation I had with someone the other day… it was about accents and dialects. Because I was raised in a small village pretty up north (not Frysian up north) I do speak with a slight accent. It’s not as pronounced as other people from Urk, at least those who do not speak Dutch on a regular base) but it’s there…
Now, someone was really curious about my voice, whether I speak ‘flat’ or not, if the accent was very audible or not. And you know, it was the first time I actually had to stop and wonder about my voice. I know I’ve touched the subject earlier… but … do you know what your voice sounds like? Do you know if you have a certain accent and if it’s a strong accent or not?
It was the first time I wondered about how other people perceive my voice, because really, it’s not something you think about everyday right?
I do remember that when I was a receptionist at an accountancy office, people sometimes told me I had a nice phone voice, but they also asked me where I was from, because they could hear the accent…
Now, I wonder… if you have had the pleasure to speak with different Dutch people… did you notice accents, difference in speech, were they difficult to understand and are there accents you liked or disliked? Just something to think about because, no matter where you are from, no person talks the same!
Comments:
John Holley:
Hi, I have friends in a small village in southern Netherlands. They always remind me it’s not ‘Holland’, as the English say, because ‘Holland’ is a district in Netherlands! They live in the village of Sint-Oedenrode, in the district of Nord Brabant, between Eindhoven and s’Hertogenbosch. The accent there is quite different from other friends I have in Amsterdam. Of course, both of them SAY theirs is ‘proper’ Dutch! I learned most of my Dutch from the Brabantse people, and when I first went to Amsterdam, my friends there said I had learned some strange words, and had a funny accent!. But I can understand and be understood in either place, which is good!
Thanks for the blog. I don’t get enough opportunity to practice my Dutch. It’s interesting and fun.
Mathieu:
Accents are fun. Though I am not a native Dutch speaker, I have cobbled together enough regional inflections to at least confuse the other person.
I’d love to say that I have ABN at the core, but unfortunately it is much more Westland/Haagland influenced than I’d like to admit (the Delfts “ooo” is prevalent in my speech, for example, and Haagse Harry doesn’t sound too ridiculous to me).
But the funny bits come when people try to guess where I’m from … because I learned Dutch after German, I have certain inflections that make people ask “Are you from the east of the country?” … or the other fun one: usually any word with a strong “r” is a giveaway for native English speakers (especially Amerrrricans). Yet the Leids accent essentially has the American English “r”, so many people ask if I’m from Leiden!
Yet the one that always amazes me: any time I go to Amsterdam, I simply cannot help sliding into the Amsterdams accent. The same happens in English when I go to the UK, or to the south of the US, but I simply cannot prevent it from happening … on the one hand, it feels cool in the mouth (fits the place), on the other hand, it can make you sound like a pretentious twat.