The soft G is not yet threatened with extinction. This is the conclusion of Kristel Doreleijers from Tilburg University after a study. However, there are some shifts to be discovered in our Brabant dialect. The young people come up with their ‘own’ Brabant or adopt it from, for example, ‘Undercover’ or ‘New Kids’.
For the time being, we do not have to worry that Brabant will no longer be spoken. Because the youth love the Brabant dialect. That is one of the conclusions from the research of linguist Kristel Doreleijers.
“Young people are proud of Brabant and speaking with a Brabant dialect creates solidarity,” says Doreleijers. Although they do not feel responsible for keeping the dialect alive, they are doing so in the meantime. They even intensify it with friends or acquaintances, so that they feel connected to each other.”
“Young people mainly look at what sounds good.”
“When they have to give a presentation in class, they speak correct Dutch, but during the break they effortlessly switch to Brabant,” Doreleijers gives as an example.
Yet young people often no longer learn the Brabant dialect from home. Parents are afraid that a dialect will create a negative image. That is why many young people nowadays learn the dialect through social media, films such as ‘New Kids’ and TV series such as ‘Undercover’.
Jip Kraak is a big hit on TikTok. In his videos he speaks Brabant, but the Tilburg citizen is irritated by the language used in ‘Undercover’. “Actress Elise Schaap’s Brabant actually sounds more like Limburgish. You can clearly hear that she is not really from Brabant.”
“Brabants should feel warm and familiar.”
Young people therefore do not adopt the ‘real’ Brabant from such a series. They speak a different kind of Brabant than the older people. Researcher Doreleijers: “The youth look at what sounds good, while the elderly really stick to the language rules of the dialect. In original Brabant, for example, a distinction is made between articles for masculine and feminine nouns. With a woman you say un and with a man unne. But the youth use every word nowadays unne.” Unne woman, that is.
If you want to preserve the original Brabant dialect, there should be rules, according to Jip, but he has to admit: “I also speak Brabant by feeling. It must feel warm and familiar to me.”
“Brabant can coexist well with English.”
That is also the reason why the youth are in favor unne chooses. “They want to show that they come from Brabant and they are proud of that. That’s why they thicken everything a little more. As long as it sounds Brabant, that’s more the starting point.”
According to Doreleijers, this development is not harmful at all. “Because the world is becoming more and more international, everyone thought that English would take over everything. But a local language like Brabant can coexist perfectly with that.”