This is a debate that has caused a lot of ink to flow, and in which the public, politicians and the media alike take part: the use of standard Dutch and popular Dutch on the VRT’s radio and television channels. The Flemish public radio-television was challenged on the use of tussentaal by some of its presenters and the mention of a modification of its Linguistic Charter.
In the north of the country, several kinds of Dutch are used to express themselves in conversations. On the one hand, there is the patois, which is, however, on the way to extinction. There is of course generalized Dutch, which is the standard Dutch that one learns at school, and that one hears for example in the media or in the courts.
And then there’s what’s called the ‘Intermediate language‘, the intermediate language, which as its name suggests, lies between the two other languages: patois and generalized Dutch. That Dutchman everyone speaks it. There are also several tussentalen depending on the region. That of Antwerp will therefore not really be the same as that of West Flanders, but overall, everyone understands each other, despite these differences. One of the best-known examples of tussentaal was pronounced by the Flemish minister-president himself, during a parliamentary debate at the start of his mandate: “You Can’t Determine That”. And Jan Jambon had spoken in standard Dutch, he would have said “you’re not going to decide that” (it is not you who will determine it).
This popular language is used by all Flemings. We will therefore often hear “wa doedegij ?” instead of “what are you doing” to say “what are you doing” ; “see something” instead of “do you see something” to say “do you see something” ; or “wa is dees”instead of “what is that” to say “what is that”.
