Western Quarters
Posted on August 16, 2017 • 2 min read • 402 words
When some of our friends read this they will probably say: See, you just speak Frisian. Well, that’s not entirely true, but you can’t convince them of that. A good language or dialect also includes a national anthem. And also singers who are not afraid to sing in the dialect. But let’s start with the dialect.
The Westerkwartiers (Westerkertiers) is the Groningen dialect that most closely resembles Frisian and is spoken in the Westerkwartier.
Like Frisian, Westerkwartiers does not have verbs with reflexive pronouns, such as “washing”. In the Westerkwartiers these are called “hom wash”, while in the rest of Groningen “zuch wash” or “zok wash” is used. The word for “in” in this area is also “ien”, the same in pronunciation as the Frisian “yn”. The Westerkwartier is the transition area from Groningen to Frisian. Speakers of Hoogelandsters also call the Westerkwartiers Overdaips. This is because the Westerkwartier is located across (on the other side of) the Reitdiep . Conversely, speakers of Westerkwartiers also refer to speakers of Hogelandsters as Overdaipsen.
source: Wikipedia
So no, it’s not a speech impediment, it’s a serious dialect. And a dialect that connects two regions. I think we Westerkwartier residents can be proud of that.
National Anthem
We are so proud that we have our own national anthem. I have to admit that I didn’t know it existed until I started doing some research for this article. I don’t really know what to think about it yet either.
Anyway, here’s a performance of the national anthem. If you can’t understand it, you’re in luck. The text is below the video.
Diskaant Lauwers sees his own toal
Diskaant Reitdiep seeing its own story
No matter or power will ever take away the power
from one’s own meaning and seeing one’s own meaning
The greatest treasure here lies in the discant city
The greatest treasure lies here
in the Grunniger Westerkwartier
From sand and stone to dieken clay
from green grass to beets and whey
Young and old live from the Wadden Sea to the Wold
in your own way
in the Westerkwartier
The greatest treasure here lies in the discant city
The greatest treasure lies here
in the Grunniger Westerkwartier
Villager
But fortunately, in addition to a national anthem, we also have more music. One of them is fellow villager Piet Buist. About Groningen’s understament: He doesn’t sing badly. Proud of our fellow villager.
