Eggys or Eryen?

William Caxton who is credited as setting up the first printing presses in England also helped edit and translate many works. One story he wrote illustrates some of the difficulties he had with the various English dialects of the time. It is the tale of two merchants who knock upon a door and ask to buy eggs…

"And one of theym named Sheffelde, a mercer, cam in to an hows and axed for mete and specyally he axyd after eggys, and the goode wyf answerde that she could speke no Frenshe. And the marchaunt was angry, for he also coude speke no Frenshe, but wolde have hadde egges; and she understode hym not. And thenne at laste a-nother sayd that he wolde have eyren. Then the good wyf sayd that she understod hym wel. Loo, what sholde a man in thyse dayes now wryte, egges, or eyren? Certaynly it is hard to playse every man, by-cause of dyversite and chaunge of langage." (Ref)

The confusion comes form the fact that 'Sheffield' was using a Northern dialect (influenced by Old Norse) which gave the word 'eggys'. Eryen which is very similar to modern Dutch 'eieren' was in fact influenced by the Southern Old English dialect. Interestingly Caxton decided to furthermore use the word 'egges'. (Ref p.87 The Story of English, Piercy, London 2012).

The etymology of shit

At a friend's house I come across an interesting looking book called 'The Etymologicon' by Mark Forsyth.
I pick it up and sit in the terrace with it over a cuppa while my pal sleeps off last night's excesses. As I flick through the pages I'm immediately interested by the chapter concerning shit and fuck. Of course! I'm a boy and this behaviour seems to be de rigeur for boys who pick up books on language. "where's the naughty stuff?". I digress.
I was happily reading the etymology of the word shit when I stumble across an etymology for a Dutch word (scheiden, to separate). How so? From shit to separate?
Let's see...
Scitan (Old English for to shit)
Skit (proto-Germanic)
Skhei (proto Indo European for to separate)...which looks amazingly like the Dutch Scheiden: to separate!

Skhei also begat the word schism.
And of course shit and scheisse.
Charming, I know.

Belgian language problems

'Twee' in Flemish accents...

English is second spoken language in Brussels

The following article from Flanders Today highlighted something that I have suspected for a long time: English is everywhere in Brussels. Maybe not EVERYWHERE, but I do know some non-Belgians who live here without knowing any French or Dutch (or German which is the third official language in Belgium).

In fact the figures used in the article show French spoken by 88% of respondents, English by nearly 30% and Dutch by 23%.

The results from the VUB team (note their website is only available in Dutch and English) which carried out the inquiry show also that Dutch knowledge is increasing. Something to which I, as a resident of Brussels and a Dutch language student, can attest. I hear Dutch a lot more in the streets and trams than when I first lived here nearly 20 years ago and I find the Dutch language education in Brussels extensive. There are lots of opportunities to learn Dutch and get better at it: not only subsidised Dutch lessons but Dutch language local libraries (such as Kontakt) and conversation tables organised in Dutch.

The sad truth of it though is that these initiatives need to be in place (regardless of any political motivation) because Flemings simply don't like speaking Dutch to non-native Dutch speakers. One Fleming conceded that this was because they didn't want to give the 'power' of the conversation away; that they prefer to understand everything and keep the 'advantage'. Another Fleming friend maintains that he speaks English rather than Dutch (to me!) because Flemish people like to help others, which I can well understand but it doesn't help me learn Dutch!

I was at a dinner party with Flemings and said, in Dutch, "It's a struggle to speak Dutch here in Brussels as Flemings speak to me in English", to which the guy, completely unfazed, replied in English…

It's a good job I'm tenacious! I still try to speak Dutch in shops and in street encounters but my goal of being fluent in Dutch within a year came and went. I am conversant with a strong intermediate level but this is thanks mainly to my own hard work and lessons rather than encounters with native Dutch speakers.

Verantwoordelijk

I've written before about how easy it is to pick up bits of Dutch vocab in Brussels due to the bilingual nature of public signage. Of course it helps if you speak French fairly well but now and then you can find something resembling English owing to our Norman heritage! Here we can deduce the Dutch word for 'Responsible' (in French Responsable) = 'Verantwoordelijk'. I suppose Old English would have been more like 'Answerable' based on the Dutch...

Goeiedag! Flemish accents

Cute video illustrating regional variation of accent in Flanders.


See also this post for a little bit more on saying Good Day in Flemish...