On Flemish television channels, we hear diphthongs pronounced less and less. THE ijthe ui and the au Are they threatened with extinction? “The people of Flemish Brabant no longer pronounce them — so others imitate them — to seem as cool as them. »
However, television news presenters struggle to pronounce diphthongs correctly. In many other programs, however, it seems that the matter has been abandoned. This is in any case the case of Sven De Leijer, room attendant turned TV presenter, who pronounces “ just » the title of his show « I’m telling you literally correct said (Ed: I just told you) ». We often heard his colleague Tom Waes explain that with his new partner, he had finally (finally) found peace.
As for Jeroen Meus — a Flemish Cyril Lignac — he loves preparing his delicious tartares (pour sauce). Finally, when talk show host James Cooke recommends you watch his new show, he says this keèèken (and not to look). The younger generation does not escape this novelty: the elf Keelin from the children’s show The night watch likes to offer his guests a glass of fruit juice (pour fruit juice)and in the Flemish version of the animated adventures of the rabbits Simon or Bing, the existence of the diphthong seems completely unknown.
This transformation of a diphthong — which is pronounced by moving the jaw — into a monophthong is called monophthongization. As Karlien Franco, a linguist at KU Leuven, explains, this recent phenomenon of monophthongization has its source in “ intermediate language » Brabant, this intermediate language, located between standard Dutch and the dialect, spoken in this case roughly in the province of Antwerp and in Flemish Brabant. However, Dutch-speaking media channels are precisely established in these two provinces, and this variant of Flanders Dutch is more easily admitted there in fiction and humor television programs. This is why this monophthongization reaches our ears so often.
And it’s contagious. Even the Flemings who, at home, speak a correct language and pronounce the diphthong, tend to become monophonic when speaking to Brabancons. Karlien Franco laughs: “Originally, I am from Limburg. But living and working in Flemish Brabant, I myself succumb to this practice. This is what we call accommodation: adapting your language to your interlocutor, to show that you appreciate them.”
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Various studies show that in Flanders, the Brabant language is generally perceived as dynamic and cool, which is explained in particular by the socio-economic prestige of this central region. “When you come from the depths of a remote province and you speak to someone from Brabant,” adds Karlien Franco, “it is common for you to forget your diphthongs, just to appear as cool as him “.
This phenomenon of adaptation slips into everyday colloquial speech, this “ intermediate language », or intermediate language, which nearly 80% of our northern neighbors use on a daily basis. Thus, many Flemish people say thou or ge instead of iseven if it is not usual in their own dialect. However, it is not proven that the same is true for the monophthongization of diphthongs.
Intermediate language
“It’s not not encore proven,” estimates Anne-Sophie Ghyselen, linguist at Ghent University. “The measurement of this phenomenon figures prominently in our research program. We are indeed convinced that diphthongs ij, ui et or disappear well from the intermediate language which, in fact, itself seems to standardize and create its own stable core – including the monophthongization of ij, ui et or could perfectly fit in.”
If this monophthongization spreads so easily, it is not only because of the “coolness” of the Brabançons, but also, very often, because these diphthongs specific to standard Dutch are absent from the vernacular of a good part of the population. In West Flanders, for example, we will more easily say “ tied » that « time ».
So here is a seed that falls on fertile soil. Let’s not forget that the diphthong has not existed since the dawn of time: in Middle Dutch, we said well mien and not mineet house rather than house. Over the course of history, these phonemes have become diphthongs, and in all probability this happened simultaneously in Holland and – oh irony – in Brabant.
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In the 1930s, the diphthong found its way into standard Belgian Dutch through the language — considered prestigious — of the Dutch elites. “We have to believe that this pronunciation must have been authoritative in the 1930s,” explains Anne-Sophie Ghyselen. “At the time, Mien Huus probably had a somewhat rustic sound, and the Flemings insisted on speaking like ‘posh’ people. The diphthongs of the standard language were therefore modeled on the usual pronunciation in the Netherlands.
But every language evolves. While in Flanders people are returning to the monophthong, their neighbors in the Netherlands are increasingly emphasizing the diphthong. “It’s also exaggerated,” we sometimes hear.
“In the Netherlands, we can now hear blah bay mow, or even way instead of a lot of, et bauëm rather than boom. A drift that distances us from each other,” comments Anne-Sophie Ghyselen. “It is true that the diphthong is a particularly unstable sound, susceptible to strong variations, changing by nature.”
Standard language
Could it be that Flanders will one day abandon the diphthong? Anne-Sophie Ghyselen does not believe it, “if only because written language has a conservative effect”.
This is also the opinion of Geertje Slangen, language advisor at the VRT. She notes in fact that people who join the public channel practice monophthongization more than before. “It is more and more often a point of attention on which we must work, but it is also an easy problem to resolve quickly, and that these people hold on to to correct. Young people attach great importance to mastering the diphthong and standard Dutch in general: it is something that still has value in their eyes. And you can also see this in Jeroen Meus and Tom Waes: when they express themselves off camera, they never fail to make an effort — which I can only be happy about. »
Not that a regional sound is forever banished from our polished language. “In the Netherlands or the United Kingdom, this is not a problem either,” says Geertje Slangen. “But I would find it a shame if the diphthong disappeared. In my eyes, monophthongization does not make the language more beautiful, it only makes it more sloppy. This harms the content. »
Conclusion: we must recognize a certain value in the diphthong. But the corresponding language could well be called “ABT” tomorrow – for General Civilized Interlanguage. We will have to wait for what sociological studies say to know if this is actually the case.
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