Language

I am sorry if this is a stupid question but what language is spoken in Brussels? Is it Flemish or French?

Please could someone let me know the basics such as hello, goodbye, please and thank you?

Thanks!

Jen

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Officially both - streetsigns in the 19 Brussels communes are in French and Dutch (in the Marolles, you will find them in Bruxellois also) and you have to be at least bilingual (FR/NL) just to be a shop assistant. In practice, 80% of Bruxellois are French-speakers, but there are Dutch-speaking neighbourhoods, streets where you are more likely to hear Turkish or Arabic, and areas that are more international. English is widely spoken. travelguides.lastminute.com/sisp/index.htm…

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I spent a lot of time in Brussels 10 - 15 years ago.

I just left after a week there.

It appears to me that there is a much higher percentage of Flemish-speakers in Brussles now than there was when I was last there - and I have the distinct impression that the Flemish-speakers would much rather speak English than French.

Were my impressions wacko?

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Your%26#39;e right. Most are bi-lingual but the Flemish speakers do not like to speak French and the French speakers do not like to speak Flemish. In Brussels e.g. in shops you often hear a conversation going on with each speaking their own language to the other.

Quite funny actually.

You won%26#39;t have any problem. Most also speak English.

Bethspoon.

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The name of the language is Dutch or Nederlands not Flemish. While most Dutch speakers know the French language the same is not true for the French speakers who do not know (or don%26#39;t want) to speak Nederlands.

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Disagree with you hikerLuxembourg. I am married to a Belgian man whose native tongue is Flemish and I have never heard him say he speaks Dutch or Nederlands. Nor does any of his family or friends, or any other Flemish person I have met in the 20 years I have going there.

They would always say they speak %26#39;Vlaams%26#39; (English equivalent is Flemish e.g. Great Flemish Painters).

Although in effect its the same language as Nederlands, Flemish has a dialect which is completely incomprehensible to those not from Belgium.

Good example is an English person would have no idea what I was saying if I spoke Scottish .

Agree with you re; the French speakers not wanting to speak Flemish but many of them understand the language perfectly, as a bi-lingual country, they learn it at school.

Bethspoon.

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I don%26#39;t want to argue if you call it -vlams- or - flemish- or -flammand- in sub-urban language, but otherwise the name is -Dutch- or -Nederlands-. And yes I agree with accents and dialects being difficult to understand, once in Spain on the bus a lady asked me for information in a incomprehensible language to me and when I asked her if she would speak english she was extremely annoyed being. She came from Wales.

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Found this web-site for Brussels.

brusselsinternational.be/wabxlint/splash.jsp

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Some Flemings may well call their language Flemish, but in both Belgian Federal law and that of Flanders, it is NEDERLANDS, and comes under the same language authority (like the Académie Française for French), the Nederlandse Taalunie which regulates grammar, spelling etc. All over Brussels you see signs for %26quot;Nederlandstalig Onderwijs%26quot; (Dutch-medium school). At the townhall of Flemish (meaning %26quot;in Flanders%26quot;) communes bordering on Brussels, like Tervuren, there is a sign on the desk insisting that they will only speak NEDERLANDS - even to foreigners who have come to enquire about Dutch classes! Nevertheless, TV dramas made in Belgium in Dutch/Flemish, shown on Dutch TV, are subtitled for the Dutch audience (even though they are not in one of the really local Flemish dialects like that of Kortrijk: it is as though the BBC had subtitled The Liver Birds or ITV, Taggart).

Naturally Dutch/Flemish-speakers prefer English to French, firstly because of the political (inter-community) situation in this country, secondly because English and Dutch are related Germanic languages and English is much easier for a Dutch-speaker to learn and thirdly because they find English more useful on the international stage. Unfortunately they don%26#39;t realise that being able to speak it is no guarantee of being able to write it, as you will see from many menus, etc. There is a display in the restaurant of the Marriot Hotel by the Bourse about archeological finds in the area, where there were once fishponds, referring to fish being %26quot;capturated and consumated%26quot;!

In addition, the use of English for shop-names, signs etc., apart from possibly being trendy, avoids having to use either BOTH Dutch and French, or choosing one or the other and thereby alienating the other community. This even affects the vocabulary of both languages, e.g. in Brussels we have %26quot;night shops%26quot; %26quot;self-wash%26quot; places (not for washing yourself, but clothes) and %26quot;shop n%26#39;go%26quot; (I have always wondered what the alternative is...!).

As for there being more Dutch-speakers in Brussels than before, this depends partly on area: there is a distinctly Dutch-speaking enclave around rue Dansaert and (perhaps not surprisingly) rue de Flandre, and between there and the Dutch-speaking theaters KVS (Royal Flemish Theatre, rue de Laeken) and Kaaitheater at Yser. %26quot;My%26quot; area around Mérode/Cinquantenaire, on the other hand, remains resolutely French-speaking but with an influx of Polish places (a shop, a café, a travel agency) since Poland%26#39;s accession to the EU, no doubt also liked to the fact that the Polish embassy is nearby. There are certainly more Flemish cultural centres: the Flemish community being richer than the French-speaking one.

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Excellent information, thank-you.

Found the %26#39;capturated and consumated%26#39; very funny.

I%26#39;m sure smallwren will be suitably impressed and surprised at the international and political debate generated, especially since we have all missed out her basic question which is (in Flemish).

Goede dag for hello, i.e. good day.

Goede dag also is usual for goodbye when parting.

Als tu blieft for please.

Dank uw for thank you.

Bethspoon.

P.S. If I said Dutch to my mother-in-law she would think I meant German.

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Very good explanation by Qaminari.

I would we doubting if if I had a Begian husband (Flemish) and never used the word %26quot;Dutch%26quot;. Dutch is the language in Flanders ..