# .....ketje



## catford158

Hi there,
I would really appreciate your help regarding the following. So here's the thing -I've been translating a text that was originally written in French by a Belgian author, therefore it is "spiced up" with some Dutch/Flemish words I don't have the tiniest clue about. The author glues the suffix -ketje onto several French words, it's obviously some kind of a word play but I haven't had any luck deciphering it.

Thank you in advance.


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## eno2

As a suffix to French words? Ketje? You should give some examples.
Ketje: Brussels slang.


> < BE; informeel Brusselse straatjongen ....bij uitbreiding Brusselaar>(DVD)


What is straatjongen in English? Street boy?
So it's a Brussels street boy and by extension anyone from Brussels.

(I don't find translation for 'Brusselaar')

Famous 'ketje': Toots Thielemans.
Jean -Claude Van Damme (muscles from Brussels)


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## catford158

Yes, sorry, should've done that in the first place.
These are two examples from a dialogue between one character who is Francophone and the other one who speaks Flemish and amuses himself by transforming the French words;

machiavélique (Machiavellian) and civile (civil) become machiavéliquetje and civileketje

I'll translate one bit in English here:
French guy: Luckily those Machiavellian plans have never left its drawers. (upon which the Flemish guy takes it a step further smugly saying - You mean machiavéliquetje ? 

At first it struck me as a word play but now I'm a bit puzzled by how exactly "street boy" fits in there.


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## eno2

A few words ending on ketje, all diminutives.


> kerstpak*ketje*
> boe*ketje*
> eti*ketje*
> pak*ketje*


Woorden die eindigen op ketje

As for ketje itself, there's only one in the dictonary, that's a Brussels streetboy.

As a game of words, it's a fail.


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## Hans Molenslag

@catford158: Why don't you simply give us some examples in the original French? That would make the puns a bit easier to understand.


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## catford158

I hope this helps a bit:

1) La « guégerre civileke », comme on l’appelait au camping, et Bart allait parfois jusqu’à compléter : « civileketje ». 

2) Mais grâce à un chat, ces plans machiavéliques étaient restés dans les tiroirs. «Machiavéliquetje », s’amusait Bart.


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## Hans Molenslag

_guégerre civileke_
This is the Dutch diminutive ending -ke(n), pronounced /kə/, which also occurs in _Manneken Pis_, the name of the iconic statue in Brussels. On a linguistic side note, this ending is typically used in southern Dutch dialects only, i.e. in Belgium and the southern parts of the Netherlands.

_civileketje_
This looks like the previous word _civileke_ with an extra Dutch diminutive -tje, /tjə/, probably for added comic effect.

You could also parse the word as _civile_ + the Dutch noun _ketje_, /kεtjə/, which is slang for a typical Brussels street kid, or more generally, any inhabitant of Brussels. Given the context, I'd say this second interpretation is less plausible, but I'm honestly not quite sure.

_machiavéliquetje_
Again, this is the Dutch diminutive ending -tje.

I'm not a native speaker, but I suppose mixing French with Dutch word endings must sound funny to French speaking Belgians.


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## catford158

Wow! This helps enormously!!! Thanks to both of you for sparing some of your time to help me get a handle on this, I really appreciate.


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## Red Arrow

The Brabantian youth is using the word "ketje" without having the slightest clue that it comes from Brussels.
The meaning changed from 'child' to 'childish person'.

"Ketje! Please stop it! You're getting on my nerves!"


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## eno2




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## Peterdg

I agree with the analysis of Hans.

I was born in Brussels an I spent the best part of my youth there, so I know the Brussels dialect (I don't speak it myself, but I know it passively). It's a mixture of French and Dutch and (almost) everything is possible. It is quite common to apply Dutch diminutive endings to French words (e.g. mademoiselleke, fistonneke and many others). And with "civileketje", they do it two times. This is not common usage, but the native Brussels dialect speakers (there are not that many left, unfortunately) sometimes play with the language to give it a funny turn.


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## eno2

Another Marollenketje ( a word  I just coined ): 
Daniël Van Avermaet TV host & filmmaker and a few other things such as owner  of restaurant  "Au Stekerlapatte"(stekelbaars) in the popular neighbourhood of the Marollen, the always threatened breeding place of ketjes.


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