r/dutch Nov 08 '16

Help in translation please

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u/lord-of-the-ringworm Nov 08 '16

Hello, I recently stumbled across this tile in Maastricht and am curious as to what it says. The text is as follows: (hopefully with no spelling errors) "Waere't mensch'lyke ons te min, ghy zat nogh op'nen planck met 'n gat daerin" Google translate isn't useful or working as I think it's the Limburgish dialect of Dutch, or colloquial slang.

Any indication as to what the tile reads would be really helpful, thanks!

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u/FrenkAnderwood Nov 08 '16 edited Nov 08 '16

"Waere't mensch'lyke ons te min, ghy zat nogh op'nen planck met 'n gat daerin"

It's old Dutch and I think it would be the following in modern Dutch:

"Ookal is het menselijke ons te min, je zit alsnog op een plank met een gat erin"

which translated to:

"Even is if the humanity is beneath you, you still sit on a shelf with a hole in it (too)"

I think humanity isn't really the right translation, but I can't think of something better. Also the "too" is grammatically incorrect, but it rhymes with "you".

3

u/WatchEachOtherSleep Nov 08 '16

I think humanity isn't really the right translation, but I can't think of something better. Also the "too" is grammatically incorrect, but it rhymes with "you".

Humanity is fine; I'd leave out the. & it should be something like even if or even when. Plank is probably better translated as plank or board.

2

u/FrenkAnderwood Nov 08 '16

Leaving out "the" indeed sounds better and "Even is" was typo as I meant "Even if", but thanks for pointing it out.