History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 305

and the teaching of Langue et Culture flamande in several secondary schools (the
collèges of Grande-Synthe, Steenvoorde, Hondschoote, Wormhout, Bourbourg and
Cassel). But this early success didn’t last for long and five years later this kind of
instruction had almost disappeared. On the other hand the teaching of Dutch as a
foreign language and ‘the language of the neighbours’ was gradually introduced and
is now officially sustained by an agreement between the national school authorities
and the ‘Nederlandse Taalunie’ (the intergovernmental Dutch-Belgian organisation
that promotes the common interests in the Dutch language). This is the case, for
example in the ‘ bilingual instruction’ in the schools of the border towns Wervicq-Sud
and Bailleul (Belle) (see Halink, 1991; Van Hemel & Halink, 1992).
This kind of language teaching, however, is mainly inspired by economic motivation
and is not intended to cope with possible regionalist claims. This situation has led to a
smouldering conflict between the supporters of the local Flemish and those who
support the teaching of Standard Dutch. The first ones have tried to prove that the
Flemish dialect had already grown into a language apart from Dutch from the
16thcentury on (Sansen, 1988), which is false, whereas the teaching of Dutch as a
modern language has hardly succeeded in making the link with the local linguistic
heritage.
Characteristics of the Flemish dialect in France
The Flemish dialect spoken in French Flanders structurally belongs to the West
Flemish dialect group. Most dialect maps do not show a break along the state border.
On the contrary, most isoglosses cross the state border and only a few follow its
course (see Ryckeboer, 1977,Maps 1 and 2). Apparently the actual state border,
dating back to 1713, does not correspond to any old dividing line in human
communication, otherwise it would have caused an important bundle of isoglosses.
Only the political separation of the last 300 years has caused this border to become a
secondary dialect boundary.
However, although the French Flemish dialect does not differ essentially from the
other West Flemish dialects, it has at least two idiosyncratic features:
(1) as a result of its peripheral position in the Dutch-speaking area and also because
of its national and cultural separation it contains some typically western or coastal
elements often called inguaeonisms and it has conserved many archaic elements
which have disappeared elsewhere. This goldmine of archaism results from the fact
that it has not participated in evolutions that have taken place in the Belgian Flemish
dialects under the influence of Brabantic varieties or of the Dutch Standard language;
(2) through this long separation from other Dutch dialects and the Dutch standard
language, it has also developed local innovations. The most characteristic ones are
due to its long contact with the neighbouring Picard dialect or Standard French.
Many of the so-called inguaeonisms or some particular Middle Dutch phonological,
morphologicalor lexical features that survive in French Flanders are only to be found in
the utmost western part of that area. Examples of inguaeonismare e.g. the
delabialisation of short u to [i] in brigge for Dutch brug (bridge) or the pronunciation
[wei] for Dutch weg (compare English away).

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