Delete, Protect, administrator
8,485
edits
Changes
no edit summary
The town of Lembeek is situated less than 14 miles away from the center of Brussels in Flemish Brabant. Though the town’s name bears an uncanny orthographic resemblance to the Dutch word ''lambiek'' it is still only speculation that the name for the famous beer derived from this city’s name. Once part of the larger French kingdom and situated on one of the unofficial language borders within Belgium, the original French name for the small commune of Lembeek, Lembecq, is also reminiscent of ''lambic'' and has a similar appellative pattern as other towns in northeastern France/western Belgium coming down from the Picard dialect.
The suffix ''-bec[q]'', from an appellative standpoint derives from Old English and Old Norse and can either signify ‘''stream''’ or ‘''brook''’ or, with the addition of the [q], ''‘slope’'', ''‘incline’'', or ''‘hill.’'' Either is appropriately fitting for the town of Lembecq as it is situated on the Senne River as well as part of the surrounding valley. The town itself is rarely referred to today as Lembecq, as it was absorbed by the city of Hal (Dutch: Halle) over the years. The Dutch name, Lembeek, shows the similar suffix ''–beek'' meaning ''‘creek’'' or ''‘stream’'' and can bee be seen in a number of towns in the area (see chart above). The prefix for the town ''lem-'' can also be found in the Dutch word ''‘leemstreek’'' which is a large area of land over which loam soil (heavy in silt and sand) has been deposited. Dialect changes likely led to the shortening of ''leem–'' to ''lem–'' helping to name the town of Lembeek.
Formerly home to many small pubs and breweries, especially during the industrial revolution, the town of Lembeek/Lembecq is now home to one of the most prolific lambic breweries and blenders, [[Brouwerij Boon|Brouwerij Boon]], which is situated a stone’s throw away from the Senne river. Lembeek is now part of Flemish Brabant and is primarily Belgo-Dutch speaking, resulting in the majority of Boon’s lambics receiving Dutch names. Additionally, the older French spellings of this town include ''Linbecq'' and ''Lambecq'' and could have come from an older French language description of the town as the ''village d'alambic'' or ''town of alambic'' (stills).<ref name=GeuzeKriek>Jef Van den Steen, [[Books#Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer|Geuze & Kriek: The Secret of Lambic Beer]], 2012</ref>
[[File:FrenchFirstRepublic.png|thumb|France under The First Republic. The departement of Dyle, containing Brussels and much of the Pajottenland, can be seen in the Northeast corner in pink. Source: Wikipedia ]]
Just as with the term ''lambic'', there is still no general consensus on the etymological history of the word ''gueuze'' as it relates to beer. Gueuze is the French spelling whereas geuze is used in the Belgo-Dutch dialect. Present-day Lembecq was initially part of the French département of Dyle under The First Republic of France. Created in 1795, Dyle’s primary urban city was Brussels, solidifying its position as a French-speaking region until it was handed over to The the Netherlands in 1815 after the fall of Napoleon I. In the years between 1815 and 1830, when Belgium gained its political and territorial independence from The the Netherlands, the town remained a quasi French-speaking area of Flemish Brabant.
Guinard (1990) claims that it was in the town of Lembecq where the gueuze appellation was born. He writes that in 1870 “the mayor of Lembecq, who owned a brewery, hired an engineer by the name of Cayaerts. Together, they decided to apply the ''méthode Champenoise'' to referment lambic beer in a bottle.” It was initially called ''“lambic des gueux”'' as a nod to the mayor’s liberal political party.<ref name="Guinard">Jean-Xavier Guinard, [[Books#Classic Beer Styles: Lambic|Classic Beer Styles: Lambic]], 1990</ref> Acknowledging again the important role that beer has played among the peasantry, it is interesting to note that the word “''gueux''” can best be translated as the obscure French word for beggar or commoner and that the feminine form of the noun is ''gueuse.'' The feminine form of the word is used today as a derogatory word for a woman but bears no phonological difference to the word ''gueuze''. Should this story hold true, as further research is needed, then the linguistic home of gueuze is very closely tied to its geographical home of the Pajottenland.
Looking into the words ''gueux/gueuse'' (French) and ''geuze/geuzen'' (Dutch) the historical strand becomes clearer. While it is unclear which term came first (French of Dutch) or if they existed simultaneously, the plural Dutch word ''Geuzen'' historically identifies a group of Calvinist Dutch nobles who opposed the Spanish rule of the Netherlands between 1581 to 1714. It can also be used to refer to a subset of historical beggars, pirates, or privateers in Dutch.<ref name = GezueEnHumanisme> Hubert Van Heereweghen, [[Books#Geuze_en_Humanisme|Geuze en Humanisme]], 1955 (2010) </ref> As Spanish power waned in the early part of the 18th century, France repeatedly invaded the territory. French incursions into the area forged linguistic ties in Flemish Brabant, and the County of Hainaut (now part of present-day France and Belgium (where Hal/Halle/Lembecq) is located), and remain an integral part of lambic history today.
From a phonological standpoint there is very little variation in the words ''gueuze'' (French) and ''geuze'' (Dutch). The initial French masculine noun of ''geux'' receives the [se] after dropping the [x] in the feminine form resulting in a final ''/z/'' sound, which is how the French spell it today. The Dutch spelling varies slightly dropping the initial [u] while still retaining the final ''/z/'' sound in a slightly more emphasized and elongated manner. The plural forms of the word in both French and Dutch retain normal grammatical rules respective of their languages, thus transforming the name of the beer back into either a word meaning ‘beggars’ or ‘commoners’ for French or a group of malcontents in Dutch.
==The Language of Fruit==
Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of the language of lambic is the language of fruit. Fruit plays an integral part of flavoring lambics, but there is an interesting admixture of languages when it comes to naming these fruit lambics. The discerning lambic drinker will realize that they have rarely, if ever, seen a bottle of “''Lambic de Cerise'',” French for cherry lambic, in production anywhere. The breweries that generally use French terminology such as [[Brasserie Cantillon|Cantillon]] still refer to their cherry lambic by the specifically Flemish (not Dutch) word ''kriek'', which refers to the sour Morello cherry. The decision to use one term over the other generally does not fall along lambic/lambiek lines, at as kriek is almost universally used among lambic brewers and blenders. The single known exception to this universal cherry trend is a beer brewed by Cantillon named [[Cantillon_Kersengueuze|Kersengueuze]]. ''Kers'' (''kersen'', plural) is the Dutch word for cherry and Kersengueuze was an experimental beer that used sweet cherries instead of sour cherries for the majority of the fruit.
In terms of raspberries, another popular fruit for lambics, both the terms ''framboise'' (French) and ''framboos'' (''frambozen'', plural) (Dutch) are used. The decision to use one term over the other generally does fall along lambic/lambiek lines, with some exceptions. Cantillon, for example, uses framboise, whereas De Cam also uses a French/Dutch combination for their [[De_Cam_Geuzestekerij_Framboise_Lambiek|Framboise Lambiek.]]