Belgian German and German German
Hello, everyone!
Portuguese guy speaking here :) I am new to Duolingo and so far, I am having a great time. Since I am fascinated about Belgium, I would love to learn all its three official languages (Dutch, French and German). I am already learning Dutch and French. Next, it will be German.
I just wanted to ask - especially to German-speaking Belgians from the Eupen-Sankt Vith region - what are the main differences between the German spoken in Belgium and its "standard" counterpart from Germany (in case there are any. I do know that the region only became part of Belgium with Versailles). It would be interesting to hear ideas on the issue by natives themselves.
Thank you, everyone, and be happy! :)
14 Comments
I think you can choose any of them because belgian german and german german aren't really different. However, in my opinion, i choosd german german ( because I want to live in Germany <3
Thank you, SuperQ.123. I just asked as a matter of pure curiosity. I know indeed that NL-NL and NL-BE (also Vlaams) do have some differences, as it is the case of FR-FR and FR-BE (and I confess that I prefer to say "nonante" instead of "quatre-vingt-dix"). I wondered if it was the same with German. Meanwhile, I wish you very good luck in chasing your dream :) Hugs.
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They have their own regional dialect but should understand standard German.
I don't really know about the differences, but I have two friends who are German-speaking Belgians and we understand each other just fine, without any problems or words me or they don't understand. I met both just after they left Belgium to study in Germany.
Hello everybody! There is no real difference between german German and belgian German. As there are just about 75.000 people speaking german in Belgium as first language, this community is somehow too small to develop a different branch of the german language. Additionally, the corresponding region in Belgium is located at the border to Germany, and due to this, there is a lot of interaction with german people and so the continuous development of the German language there is mostly similar to the one in Germany. Anyway, there are some small specialities: Due to the wallonian influence in the education, in official institution, in laws ... there are some french expressions and strange translation in the belgian German, that are sometimes funny. If somebody is interested, I will post some examples... ;) Best regards, Domi!
By all means, Domi, please give some examples of Gallicisms in Belgian German. It would be interesting to see whether they are used in Swiss German as well.
Hi Michael. There is one german newspaper in Belgium, one german-speaking public radio station with a substantial news website and some additional private websites, where you can find such expressions in written form. One recent example in these news: The "code de déontologie", well known in french-speaking countries, is translated there as "Deontologiekodex". This is funny, because no german-speaking person without the legal background will understand this word, as the german "Deonologie" is rather a philosophical discipline. "Ethikkodex" would be a reasonable german notion, but this is not used in official german legislation, so it does not really get the meaning. One may think, that this shows a different perception of such ethical rules: Germans obey "Gesetze und Vorschriften", whereas Belgian/French people think about the ethical background ("déontologie..."). I am intersted, what you think about it as a Swiss person, because Switzerland faces the same contrasts in languages. Best regards, Domi
Thanks for this, Domi, and for your other comments. I am actually Canadian, not Swiss, so I am not certain about Swiss usages.
One well-known Gallicism in Swiss German, however, is the word Spital for "Hospital", which in Standard High German of course is Krankenhaus. Which word is used in German-speaking Belgium?
Hello again, one example of daily life: Ask in german for a "bic"! In Germany/Austria nobody will understand this, but in german-speaking Belgium (maybe partially in Switzerland) everybody knows, that this is a ball pen. The french company BIC has become a synonym for such a ball pen in several languages, but not in the common german of Germany. Regards, Domi.
One more funny notion: "Eine Farde" is used in belgian German for the french "une farde", probably in order to circumvent a certain ambiguity of the german terms "Ordner" or "Mappe".
