In Belgium there's a radio segment where every lunch they create a new word, most of them are for situations or feelings that are quite specific. Of course it's just a little bit of messing around, it's not like there's 5 new Flemmish words to memorize every week.

[–] KrokanteBamischijf@feddit.nl 2 points 7 months ago

From a Dutch perspective, there's always 5 new Flemmish words to memorize. You'd think we speak the same language, but we really don't.

In some ways, Flemmish is more Dutch than the language anyone from the Netherlands speaks. Which seems especially true when it comes to loan-words from French, which some of you seem to avoid at all costs.

All of this leads to interesting situations where any conversation with our southern neighbours has a risk of needing a mental double take to make sure we derived the right meaning from your fancy words.

One example of how crazy things can get is the word for roundabout. The Dutch will generally refer such traffic control measures as rotonde, which is a French bastardization. The Flemmish, in turn, sometimes refer to them as rondpunt. ...which the French seem to have adopted when they say rond-point.

The French definition of rotonde is actually from architecture. Where it is used for dome-shaped constructions, and is originally derived from the Latin rotondus, which just means "round". Conclusion: Dutch is a weird language.