The Dialect Office is like a scrapbook. The clippings are not always glued neatly, but the result is cozy and quirky. Language history lessons and fragments of interviews with dialect speakers alternate. Countless new expressions come along, but there is something recognizable for everyone. Like for me the life lessons from the Achterhoek, or the Drents of Daniël Lohues and my mother. There also appears to be an overlap between dialects. Language helps you express your identity, says Prof. Sortkill when he discusses the Smibanese from the Bijlmer. Frisian has an expression for this: ‘jin ferbrekke’, which means ‘break yourself’ and refers to having to switch from your mother tongue to another language.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of May 27, 2023.