{"id":1037,"date":"2011-01-16T19:35:55","date_gmt":"2011-01-16T19:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2014-07-18T14:47:45","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T14:47:45","slug":"hallo-mestreech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/hallo-mestreech\/","title":{"rendered":"Hallo, Mestreech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I think I\u2019ve mentioned this before, but I don\u2019t live in one of Holland\u2019s four big cities \u2013 Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Den Haag \u2013 grouped together like a big happy family up North. Instead, I live in Limburg. This little southland of outliers has its own distinctive culture \u2013 and, in many cases, its <em>eigen taal<\/em>. Right now I live in Maastricht, a city intent on reminding you of its authentic culture, and hearing Mestreechs \u2013 the dialect spoken here \u2013 in restaurants, bars and stores, is a daily treat.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to say exactly what Mestreechs is like. It has elements of German \u2013 you hear \u201cmich\u201d and \u201cdiech\u201d sprinkled throughout sentences \u2013 and it has a different rhythm and <em>uitspraak<\/em> than Dutch: it\u2019s almost irritatingly lilting and sing-songy, and the <em>g<\/em>\u2019s are much softer than their phlegmy Northern counterparts, which can be a blessing.<\/p>\n<p>Any interest in Mestreechs is, no question, an exercise in double obscurity, considering Dutch\u2019s already marginal place in the international lexicon. But it\u2019s kind of amazing to think about how regional dialects \u2013 here and throughout the world \u2013 hang on for dear life in what we are constantly told is an over-connected, global milieu.<\/p>\n<p>To get an idea of what it sounds and looks like, check out the <a href=\"http:\/\/li.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mestreech\">Wikipedia page for Maastricht<\/a>, filed under its <em>Mestreechse naom<\/em> and written in dialect \u2013 then compare it to <a href=\"http:\/\/nl.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Maastricht\">the Dutch version<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"295\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2011\/01\/Netherlands_map-295x350.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2011\/01\/Netherlands_map-295x350.png 295w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2011\/01\/Netherlands_map-768x910.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2011\/01\/Netherlands_map.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 295px) 100vw, 295px\" \/><p>I think I\u2019ve mentioned this before, but I don\u2019t live in one of Holland\u2019s four big cities \u2013 Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam and Den Haag \u2013 grouped together like a big happy family up North. Instead, I live in Limburg. This little southland of outliers has its own distinctive culture \u2013 and, in many cases, its&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/hallo-mestreech\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":1038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3590],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dutch-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2765,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions\/2765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}