giro & another question

[Bert]

Hi there!

I use woorden.org to find out the correct pronunciation of words but unfortunately they do not indicate the pronunciation of 'giro' (or any other words starting with giro, eg. giromaat). Do you (esp. in Noord-Brabant) say the first letter of 'giromaat' the same way as the first letter of 'geld'? Or like the French say the first letter of 'Jean'? Or the way the Australian say 'Shiraz'?

'Wat spreken die Nederlanders toch een raar taaltje.' This sentence is from a Dutch grammar book (PONS Grammatik Niederländisch kurz und bündig). I feel there should also be an 'is' in this sentence: 'Wat spreken die Nederlanders is toch een raar taaltje.' Am I right? Additionally, 'de [the] Nederlanders' would be better than 'die [those] Nederlanders', I think. I know you are happy to leave 'gaan' out of sentences if you use the modal verb 'moeten', eg. in ’Ik sta vroeg op, want ik moet naar mijn werk.' I do not suppose that 'zijn' can also be left out... But who knows.

Bert

[Quetzal]

No, "giro" is simply like "geld" (except when you're talking about the Giro, the Italian cycling race).

As for the sentence, no, it's correct as it is, but I can see why you'd think otherwise.

What you are thinking of would be "Wat die Nederlanders spreken is toch een raar taaltje". That is a correct sentence: "that which those Dutchmen speak is a weird language". But the original sentence means something else, and "spreken" is the only verb you need. The problem for you is in the special use of "wat". The sentence basically means the same as "Die Nederlanders spreken een raar taaltje", only with more emphasis, which is added through that "wat". It exists in English, too, but in a different word order: "What a weird language those Dutchmen speak".

As for "de" and "die", both are possible in this context, I would accept both.

[Bert]

Bedankt.
A further question for you if you don't mind. When I was in Eindhoven, I heard a meisje saying 'euro' as if it were 'uro'. Is she special with her pronunciation or this is normal in the southern part of the country? (I only spent a day in Eindhoven and I didn't buy anything because my hosts were surprisingly generous, there was no 'tweede koekje' sort of problem so I couldn't hear the word 'euro' from anyone else).

[Quetzal]

Hm. It sounds strangeto me, but then such descriptions may be deceptive - what you describe as sounding like "uro" may sound very different to me.

In the south of the Netherlands, people will speak with Limburgian accents, which can indeed differ somewhat from what you'd hear in Amsterdam. I don't think they say "uro", but who knows.

[Joke]

I know people who say uropa instead of europa, so maybe they say uro too.
I've also heard uiro quite often, especially by old people.

Joke