The entry for ‘goesting’ in Van Dale, Groot woordenboek van de Nederlandse Taal, 2022
Goesting
A Standard Language for Flanders
Someone with ‘goesting in een croque-monsieur’? It must be a Fleming. Officially Dutch-speaking Belgians share their language with the population of the Netherlands. Yet Flemings recognise Dutch people infallibly (and vice-versa), because their colloquial speech differs. A Dutchman, for example, would be more inclined to have ‘trek in een tosti’.
The authoritative Van Dale dictionary defines ‘goesting’ as ‘desire, appetite, fancy, liking’. You can use it in expressions like ‘ieder zijn goesting’ (each to his own taste) or ‘een broek vol goesting’ (feeling like sex). Van Dale also knows that ‘goesting’ is an informal word that only occurs in Belgian Dutch, the variant of Dutch used in Flanders and coloured by the vicinity of French.
The differences between Netherlandic Dutch and Belgian Dutch illustrate the fact that state borders influence language use. At the same time the impact of politics and policy is limited. Some (mostly older) Flemings remain strongly attached to their dialect. Today most young people express themselves in a colloquial variety that combines features of dialect and Standard Dutch. And then there are the newcomers who bring their own words and expressions with them and so give colour to the local language.
Wikimedia Commons
The writer, philologist and flamingant Jan Frans Willems (1793-1846)was a great advocate of linguistic unity between the Netherlands and Dutch-language speaking Belgium.
A Standard Language for Flanders
Standard Dutch originated from the 16th century on in the present-day Netherlands. Printers, officials and jurists argued at the time for uniform language rules. Particularly the Dutch of the rich bourgeoisie provided the raw material for a model language that was to spread throughout the country as standard. Language standardisation was the work of human beings: scholars determined rules and decided which words and sentence constructions would henceforth be correct. They laid down that knowledge in dictionaries and grammars.
When in the 19th century the Flemish movement came to the defence of the Dutch speakers in Belgium, a discussion soon ensued over the standard language. Should Flemings develop their own version or take their standard from the Netherlands? The second vision won the day – a ‘Standard Flemish’ would according to most linguists and cultural flamingants enjoy little prestige. It would not be able to compete with French, which functioned as the official language of Belgium. Those cultural flamingants also hoped that a unified language would promote a cultural and political rapprochement with the Netherlands.
Despite the sometimes heated discussions on correct language many Flemings continued to do their ‘goesting’ regularly. Looked in this way, it may not be a total coincidence that in 2004 ‘goesting’ was voted by Radio 1 listeners the nicest word in Dutch.
Focal points
Amsterdam, National Archives
The later Belgian prime minister Wilfried Martens (1936-2013) joined an ABN group. In his memoirs he still remembered the day when he solemnly relinquished the use of his dialect.
The ABN Offensive
The Flemish movement saw Standard Dutch as an important instrument in the ‘elevation’ of the Fleming. Until far into the 20th century, for that matter, one spoke of ‘Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands’ (ABN, literally, ‘General Civilised Dutch’). Speaking and writing properly was a sign of culture and distinction.
Particularly after the Second World War Flemish newspapers, (school)books, radio and television promoted the use of ABN. A well-known programme was Hier spreekt men Nederlands (Dutch Spoken Here), which was broadcast from 1962 to 1972 just before the BRT news. In it the presenter Joos Florquin explained to viewers that one shouldn’t say ‘goesting’ but ‘trek’ or ‘zin’, and not ‘solden’ but ‘koopjes’ (bargains).
In the same period language-conscious pupils set up so-called ‘ABN-clubs’, clubs which always spoke ‘beschaafd’ and encouraged the use of the standard language at school.
Since 1980 the Taalunie (Dutch Language Union) has promoted the interests of Dutch – a language which by the way is also spoken in Suriname and the Caribbean. Today the Dutch Language Union puts the Dutch, Belgian and Surinamese varieties of Dutch, despite their mutual differences, on an equal footing.
The rather stiff way of dealing with language in Flanders gradually became more relaxed. Today our standard language is called simply ‘Algemeen Nederlands’ (AN, General Dutch). Calling other language variants uncivilised, is something we no longer consider very nice.
Antwerp, Uitgeverij Vrijdag
Drarrie in de nacht (Buddy in the Night, 2014), the second novel by the author and theatre-maker Fikry El Azzouzi, portrays a number of young street rebels in a small provincial town in East-Flanders. A year after the appearance of the novel the word ‘drarrie’ and the variant ‘drerrie’ were added to the three-volume Van Dale dictionary.
Ewa drerrie
Besides Standard Dutch, Flemish, Brabant and Limburg dialects are spoken in Flanders. Yet fewer and fewer children are growing up with those dialects. At school with children of their own age they mainly speak ‘inter-language’, or informal spoken language. That inter-language varies from area to area, but has supra-regional similarities and is strongly influenced by the dialects spoken around the Antwerp-Brussels axis.
At first linguists thought that the inter-language was a step in the transition from the old dialects to the desired standard language. That turned out not to be the case. Meanwhile the inter-language is to be heard more and more often on the radio, on television, in films… The fact that Van Dale once rejected a word like ‘goesting’ as ‘regional’ but now accepts it as Belgian Dutch, also illustrates the increased tolerance for the spoken language in Flanders.
The standard language, the dialects and the inter-language all belong to the family of Dutch and sharp boundaries are not always easy to draw. Come to that, a lot more besides Dutch can be heard in the streets of Flanders. In 2021 almost 30% of children born in Flanders did not speak Dutch at home. The most common foreign languages at the moment are French, Arabic and Turkish, and those languages also renew the Flemish spoken language. In 2020 young Flemings voted for ‘ewa drerrie’ as child word of the year – a Moroccan-Arabic greeting meaning ‘hey, buddy’.
Discover more on this topic
Hier spreekt men Nederlands
Bron: VRT archief – 16 apr 1966
Non-fiction
Atlas van het dialect in Vlaanderen
Lannoo, 2022.
De vele gezichten van het Nederlands in Vlaanderen
Acco, 2018.
Wie zegt wat waar? Regionale taal in Nederland en Vlaanderen
Genootschap Onze Taal, 2021.
Atlas van de Nederlandse taal: editie Vlaanderen
Lannoo, 2018.
Taalwetten maken en vinden
Sterck & De Vreese, 2021.
Het verhaal van het Vlaams:de geschiedenis van het Nederlands in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden
Standaard, 2003.
Waarom Vlaanderen Nederlands spreekt
Davidsfonds, 2001.
Strijden om taal: de Belgische taalkwestie in historisch perspectief
Pelckmans, 2010.