At 21:38 10-2-2003 -0500, Jon Gabriel wrote:
They do. The northern half speaks Dutch, the southern half speaks French. There is also a small patch of land at Belgium's eastern border where people speak German (no, that patch of land is NOT called "Germany" <GRIN> ). People in the civil service are required by law to speak both Dutch and French, but Sonja's observations in Brussels indicate that few actually do speak both languages.> >I know perhaps 3 to 5 words and that's it. Have friends who lived in > >Antwerp and Rotterdam for the last couple of years. Before that, a > >year in Belgium. > > Er, Jon? Antwerp *is* in Belgium... :-) > > And the jury is still out on the question of what they speak in > Antwerp qualifies as Dutch. :-)Man, I musta been tired this afternoon. They lived a couple of yrs in Rotterdam and a year in Antwerp. First child was born in Antwerp. As I understand it, they also speak French in Belgium?
Depends on where you go in The Netherlands. In the south fries are called "friet" which is pronounced as "freet". In the northern part of the country they don't call it "friet" but "patat", which sounds something like "pah-taht" (both "a"-s are pronounced as the "a" in "what").Their son (now two a half has picked up a smattering of French, English, Dutch and Spanish. (His dad's from Argentina.) Unless fries (Fritte) are also pronounced "freet" in Dutch. :)
The distinction between "north" and "south" in The Netherlands is easy to see on the map. There are three rivers running east to west through the country (Rijn, Maas and Waal, all three fairly close together). Everything below them is the glorious "south", everything above them is the despicable "north" (guess in which part I live <GRIN> ). People who live somewhere between may decide for themselves if they want to be "southerners" or "northerners".
That concludes today's geography lesson. You may be quizzed on this later.
Jeroen "Speaker of Foreign Tongues" van Baardwijk
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