The Dutch language is arguably one of the hardest languages to learn to pronounce properly. For me it's relatively easy as Estonian is also a language with many diphtongs (compound-vowels) and overall weirdness.
The Dutch g/ch I find no harder to pronounce than the French r. Just takes a little practice to get it in with other non-vowels though... Like in the words "Schiphol", "Groningen", "groot", "glimlach" (awesome word for "smile", by the way, it sounds anything but that) and so on.
The double a like in "maar", "Maastricht" (also a wonderful g/ch word) and "kaas" was a little bit more difficult. It sounds like a cross between a (like the British-English "vast") and ae (like the English "bat"). A truly strange sound. Sounds like a crying baby but quieter.
What I have serious problems with, though, is the grammar, especially in the sense of word order in sentences. I've only learned German for half a year and only because I had to and the English grammar is no help at all. Dutch is like a crossover between English and German- it has German grammar and English vocabulary. I never have any idea which words belong together in a sentence and when trying to speak I always sound so awkward to myself, coming up with sentences that in English might sound like "flower see must you to". And the Dutch are usually so busy complimenting me on my pronounciation that I have no idea if what I've just said makes actual sense or not... It is getting better now though. I think, anyway.
There are several Dutch words that do not exist in other languages. Such as "beleg". That means everything and anything you can think of that goes on bread. "Gezellig" means something more than nice, it means a nice time and place, often with other people. "Knus" means a space that's tightly packed with things and/or people but is still gezellig.
Another funny Dutch word is "lekker". Now, that is a very common germanic/scandinavian word that literally means tasty. But the Dutch use it in combination with the most bizarre things. For example "lekker knus" and "lekker feestje" and late at night you can hear the half-naked ladies in the tv commercials promise a "lekkere ereksie"...
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5 comments:
Tere!
Olen hollandlane, aga keda tõesti huvitavad Eesti :)
Nice to read your blogs about life in the Netherlands and especially this one about the language.
Funny to read the words you mention, because I read something about our language and almost the same words were mentioned (lekker, gezellig, beleg enz.) :D
Aga eesti keel on ka nii raske ;)
What on earth got you interested in Estonia?
Tere! I promise, there will be more language posts since now I'm trying to learn how to be not only able to speak but also able to write. That's much harder...
What on earth :D:D
Haha.
Well, last summer I worked in Estonia two weeks, met some great people and a month ago I went back to Estonia for the second time :)
And that was definitely not the last time.
And the language is intersting, even if it's so difficult.
By the way, funny 'terras' picture that you chose here above.
On exactly that 'terras' I've drunk a lot of drinks :D
Ah yes, the Estonian Summer- three months of crappy ski weather during which it doesn't get dark. I miss it.
I love trying to explain to foreigners the joys of an agglutinative language that has no sexes and no future tense. They get so confused :) But then, I still get confused using "het" and "de" correctly in Dutch... so hello kettle, I'm pot!
Tere õhtust!
Agglutinative language, yes great..
That there are no sexes is fun for me, because I don't have to learn that, it's just don't use them. Anyway, I can imagine that it's hard to learn in Dutch if you're not used to it.
But the most damned thing in Estonian language is the partitive case, I guess. What the hell, it seems to have more exceptions than just rules.
And the õ, how nice ;) 'hauaööõudused' wauw! Impossible to pronounce.
Siiski, eesti keel on huvitav.
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