English should be Brussels' official language.

This might sound like any other blogger spouting off about Belgium and its old, intricate and sometimes confusing linguistic issues and so can easily be dismissed. Who am I to make a difference, right? I'm just some blogger bloke.

The thing is, I didn't say this: "English should be Brussels' official language". Flemish Minister for Education Pascal Smet did. In this article he says it would help Brussels to be further perceived as an international city and (although he doesn't say this in the article) might smooth over some of the linguistic tensions in this multilingual capital.

It seems Mr Smet is echoing German President Joachim Gauck's comments when he suggested English should be the EU's official language. Although there are many obstacles to this idea, not only because it is undemocratic, it's clear to me Gauck is suggesting a more streamlined communications process in the workings of the EU.

But on a personal and completely egocentric level alone…please don't make it more difficult for me to learn Dutch Mr Smet. It's hard enough as it is! I can't find a Dutch speaker willing to speak to me in Dutch in Brussels anyway! This would make it even worse… Let's keep Brussels multi-cultural and mutli-lingual. It's one of the things that makes it a special place.

Vive la différence!

Fyra explained

…in Dutch:
http://www.taalblad.be/e-zine/focus/fyra-flitstrein-wordt-floptrein/1017.html
Niet zo lang geleden was het zeer eenvoudig om met de trein van Brussel naar Amsterdam te reizen. Je stapte op de IC-trein (intercitytrein) in Brussel en een kleine drie uur later was je in Amsterdam.

…in English:
"The Dutch and Belgian governments last week stopped the service of the new high-speed Fyra train linking Brussels and Amsterdam, which has been plagued with problems since its launch last month. "
http://www.flanderstoday.eu/content/fyra-problems-see-service-withdrawn

Wedding Vocabulary in Dutch

Het Huwelijk - the wedding
het teken = het symbool
de naast familie - the close family
voor de wet - in the eye's of the law
bruidsboeket - bride's bouquet
toestemming - approval
aanvarden - to accept
de sieraden = de juwelen
de oorringen - earrings
de armband - bracelet
de ketting - necklace
een kring - a circle
de voorbereidingen - the preparations
de bruiloft = het huwelijksfeest
versierd - decorated

Old English used GE- Prefix for past tense

I was watching a history show about England when the presenter held up a beautiful object which he said belonged to King Alfred. The proof was in the inscription which read,

"Alfred mec heht gewyrcan"

This means Alfred had me (ordered me to be) made.

Instantly my curiosity was piqued by the word "gewyrcan' or made. After some research my suspicions that this verb was similar to other Germanic words for to work or to make were confirmed.


English: worked or made
Old English: gewyrcan
Dutch: gewerkt
German: gewerk is used in the term of a craft or a guild.

The next question I asked myself was how far this ge- prefix survived into English, as obviously we don't use it to form the past tense today.

There's a good article about it here : http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/22700/why-doesnt-english-use-the-prefix-ge

…which show that Old English did use a ge- prefix which turned into y-, i- or ȝe- in Middle English and then was lost altogether.

Or was it?

The same article claims that the vestiges of this prefiix exist in the following words: alike, aware, handiwork.

Double check on the online etymology dictionary…

handiwork  late 12c., from O.E. handgeweorc, from hand (n.) + geweorc, collective form of weorc "work" (see work). O.E. ge- regularly reduces to i- in Middle English, and the word probably came to be felt as handy + work.

Photograph courtesy of Kotomicreations.

Gooien : to throw

This is intriguing for me as a Northerner. When I was told how this curious-looking word was pronounced and what it meant I couldn't help but see a link with Geordie. Gooien is pronounced as "Hoyen" (hear it here) which is very similar to the word used in the North East for throw: "hoy". Although Geordie differs from Standard English mostly in it's accent there are some old words that exist with deep roots into Nordic languages and this might be one of them.

Gooien : to throw (or hoy in the North East).

Reference: http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/GeordieDictionary.html (Scroll down to 'hoy')