Dutch/Example 14

Stormvloeden en overstromingen in Nederland
Above are the years in which the Netherlands are known to have been hit by storms that resulted in breached dikes and major flood disasters or the great rivers of Rhine and Meuse overflowed. Some floods were worse than others; some changed the map of the country for good. The one in 1570 even played a role in the 80 year struggle that led to the independence of the Dutch Republic. It was a devastating one that killed some 20,000 people. Instead of helping, the king in Spain announced new taxation for his wars elsewhere and this led to a rebellion, first in the town of Brielle and then it spread.

Still in living memory is the one in februari 1953; it killed about 1800 people and devastated a major portion of the Southwest. The following documentary interviews two survivors in a place where the dikes were not restored until some 8 months later. After months of tides of salt water going in and out there was little left of buildings and nothing of trees or animals. But as the motto of the coat of arms of Zeeland, the province worst hit, says luctor et emergo: I wrestle and emerge: all was rebuilt.

Transcript
Study the following transcript and then watch the video of Klokhuis, children's program

Remarks
On the island of Schouwen-Duiveland where the interview took place people speak a regional language called Zeeuws that is not necessarily always intelligible for other Dutch speakers. Both Ineke and Jaap are speaking standard Dutch in the interview with only a hint of a Zeeuws accent. But of course, the above is still spoken language, not written standard Dutch and there are a few things you would not easily see in the written standard. E.g. sometimes the subject is highlighted by starting the sentence with it, followed by a demonstrative pronoun:


 * Het water, dat is gestegen tot tegen de balken.

In spoken Dutch this is not unusual. Occasionally there are words deemed 'dialect' by grammarians like "enigste" for "enige"  (lit.  "the onliest" instead of "the only"). The young lady doing the interview is from elsewhere, probably from the Randstand farther north. The song by Remko is pretty much accent free standard Dutch.

The Dutch language has a great many dialects (both regional and social). Pretty much everyone can speak standard Dutch fluently, but it is often still audible what region they are from.