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What’s with this “Wren” thing?
The oldest extant version of the fable
we
are presenting here appeared in 1913 in the first volume of a two-volume anthology
of Low
Saxon folktales (Plattdeutsche
Volksmärchen “Low German Folktales”)
collected by Wilhelm Wisser (1843–1935). Read
more ...
Flemish
Flemish art has enjoyed world fame for centuries, such as
this painting
of a 16th-century Flemish street festival
(“The Battle between Carnival and Lent”)
by Pieter Brueghel
the Elder
(ca. 1525~30–1569).
Language information: Flemish is by many considered a separate language (i.e., not a part of Dutch),
mostly for what amounts to political reasons. This group is subdivided into
Eastern
Flemish
and Western
Flemish.
Eastern Flemish varieties are used in most of the Belgian province of Eastern
Flanders
and also in parts
of the Netherlands’ province of Zeeland-Flanders. The boundaries and characteristics of this group
are not very clearly defined, mostly due to a complex mixture of Flemish substrates,
Brabantish superstrates and Standard Dutch, French, German and Spanish influences.
The West Flemish varieties, on the other hand, are fairly clearly defined and
are less influenced, except by French, and this has been the basis of claims
of separate language status. It is used mostly in Western Flanders and in French
Flanders, being severely endangered in the latter.
Like Low Saxon, Western Flemish and some neighboring varieties of Zeeland are phonologically
rather conservative in that the have not participated in certain shifts from
long
vowels
to diphthongs.
Flemish exerted
some influence on Scots and Scottish English and also on some English dialects of Northern England, due to Flemish textile workers having immigrated
to Lowlands Scotland and Northern England, many of them via Wales. An apparent
example of a Flemish borrowing in Scots is tae keek ‘to take a peek’; cf. Flemish kiek’n (['ki:kŋ], Dutch kijken ['kaı:ke], Low Saxon kieken ['khi:kŋ]) ‘to (take a) look’. [Click
here to read more.]
Genealogy: Indo-European > Germanic > Western > Low German > Low Franconian > Southern
Historical Lowlands language contacts: English, Frisian, Limburgish, Scots
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