WEBVTT

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I printed out some papers,
otherwise I'd forget all that I want to say.

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Good day, my name is Yorick

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and I'm from Haaltert,
that's a municipality in between Aalst and Ninove.

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Since the last generation our language
isn't taught to our children anymore,

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while most people here, 40 or older

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are still able to speak it.

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My old man and my mother have tried

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to raise me to speaking proper Flemish,

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but they only half succeeded

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because I can speak properly,

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but when I'm in my own neighbourhoud,
it switches to Haalterts by itself.

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I learned most of the language
by listening very carefully to my dad,

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and to the people in our street.

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On top of that I bought two books

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from the library, next to the church

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about the language of Greater Haaltert.

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Those books are written by Gilbert Redant,

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that's...

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the founding father
of the Haaltertish spelling.

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Without him there would have been
close to no documentation of Haalterts.

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God rest his soul.

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The Haaltertish language isn't being maintained
like Aalsters of Ninoofs

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because Haaltert is in fact
not bigger than a village

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and there's no carnival here either,

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whilst that's just such a cultural boost
for local languages,

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for local spoke.

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I'm doing my best to babble
as much Haalterts as I can

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to my family and friends,

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and I have written some songs in Haalterts

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to be accompanied
by accordion or hip hop music.

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Haalterts is a Little-Brabantic language

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or a dialect.

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It's actually Brabantic
with a lot of East-Flemish influences,

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causing multiple types of conjugation

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which stem from both regional languages.

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There is, for example:

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"È stontj gèjer"

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and "stontj" is a Brabantic past tense,
whilst there's also

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"Oë beldjegen èjer"

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and the conjugations which end with:

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"-egen", "-tjegen" or "-tegen"

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are from East-Flemish descent.

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In the Middle Ages
we spoke East-Flemish here,

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but because of the
territorial shifts of Brabantic, it changed.

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Haalterts is not just Flemish
with a differentiating pronunciation:

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we have a large vocabulary
that proper Flemish or Dutch doesn't have.

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For example:

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"Noste" = next

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"Pertang" = nevertheless

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"En Pantomiene" =
an occurrence that's almost impossible

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Ouvèjerdeg = stupid and thrasonical

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"Ne karrot'ntrekker" =
somebody who's pretending

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Gèjeloeëgen =
looking at something with longing

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"Ne pèjeremiejester" =
a veterinarian

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"Ne cinnemamaan" =
somebody who lies or speaks with great gestures

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"Drolleg" = nauseous

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"Nen bezz'ager" =
somebody who caries the money

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Besides vocabulary, thare's also
a couple of length and weight measurements

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which are still used here or at least
are still known to the people.

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For example:

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An "el".

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This is the distance
from your elbow to your hand

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and that's about...

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72 centimeter (28'3 inches).

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Then a "dagwand":

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that's the area an ox can plow in one day.

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That's...

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3300 m² / 3946.8 yrd²

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There's also a lot of folks
who use "pond" as a weight measurement.

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they've converted it
to half a kilo (1'1 pound),

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but it's actually closer
to 430 grams (0'9 pound).

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I'll give you some sayings in Haalterts:

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"È zal zoëne loeëp oël'n"
= Something he won't want to do

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"D' endj za' 'nt outjwoëz'n"
= we'll see in the end

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"Dad Ooz'n Iejer doër Zè goed eet'n instekt"
= something people say of a useless person

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"A va' krommen oës agen"
= pretend to not understand

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and lastly:

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"Steek et woër da ter giejen otto's roë'n"
= go play in traffic (kinda)

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And last but not least, I'd like to ask all people
who are still able to speak Haalterts from the bottom of my heart

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to teach your children
and grand-children Haalterts

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because it's just a rich
and beautiful language.

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And if you're not from Haaltert
or just...

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...or just are unable to speak Haalterts,

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to still do your best to learn some.

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You can take some from this video
or you could buy a book from Gilbert Redant, etc.

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Maybe the day will come that nobody
will be able to speak or understand Haalterts

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and I hope that this footage
could still give an idea

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about how it sounded

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and what the syntax and
conjugations were like.

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And last but not least:
three Haaltertish tongue twisters to practise:

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The first one is:

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"Wa riek ek ik ier?
Riek ek ik ier kak of kak ek ik ier?"

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The second one is:

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"D' esp angd on de ska,
es 't dij van a, kom pak s' a."

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And the third one is:

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"Droë ra oër'n in e penneke gekloesjt,
as ke ze lotj vaal'n, tij' zè ze gebloesjt."

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Allez, bye bye, take good care
and "the balls", eh!