Gender in Dutch Grammar - Gender in South-Dutch

Gender in South-Dutch

In the South-Dutch (Flemish) colloquial speech, a difference is made between masculine and feminine words, unlike in Standard Dutch. Masculine words have different articles, possessives and demonstratives than feminine words):

• Indefinite article: (ee)ne(n) - versus the Standard Dutch een
• Definitive article: often remains de (like in Standard Dutch), but is sometimes den (unlike Standard Dutch)
• Possessives: mijne(n), jouwe(n)/je, zijne(n), hare(n), onze(n), uwe(n), hunne(n) - versus the Standard Dutch mijn, jouw/je, zijn, haar, ons, uw, hun (mine, your/your, his, her, our, your, their)
• Demonstratives: diene(n), deze(n) - versus the Standard Dutch die, deze

Example 1: (vrouw is feminine)

• South-Dutch: Hebt u mijn vrouw gezien?
• Standard-Dutch: Hebt u mijn vrouw gezien?
• English: Have you seen my wife?

versus: (auto and boom are masculine)

• South-Dutch: Ik heb mijnen auto onder diene boom geparkeerd.
• Standard-Dutch: Ik heb mijn auto onder die boom geparkeerd.
• English: I parked my car beneath that tree.

While Standard Dutch only has one indefinitive for its three genders ("een"), spoken South-Dutch has a much more complex set of articles:

• Masculine: ne(n), as in "ne man" (a man) and "nen avond" (an evening) - the ne(n) stems from the now archaic eenen. Nen is used when the word following it starts with a vowel or an -h.
• Feminine: een, as in "een vrouw" (a woman).
• Neuter: e(en), as in "e kind" (a child) and "een huis" (a house). Een is used when the word following it starts with a vowel or an -h.