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Dutch language

A West Germanic language spoken by millions across Europe, the Americas, and beyond.

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Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million first-language and 5 million second-language speakers, making it the third most spoken Germanic language.[1] The BBC guide notes that Dutch is a national language in the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, and the Dutch Antilles.[2] In Europe, Dutch serves as the first language for the vast majority of inhabitants in the Netherlands and in Flanders, which constitutes 60% of Belgium's population, while in South America it is the first language for most people in Suriname.[3][4]

Key facts and history

Old Dutch naturally evolved into Middle Dutch around 1150, a period that marks a time of profuse Dutch writing.[5] In 1637, the Statenvertaling, the first major Bible translation into Dutch, was created to be understood across the new republic.[6] In the Southern Netherlands, standardisation of Dutch came to a standstill under Spanish, Austrian, and French rule.[7] During the 5th century, the Salian Franks communicated using a collection of Franconian dialects that constituted the early form of Dutch.[8]

The initial phase in the emergence of Dutch as a distinct language is considered to be Old Dutch, for which the surviving evidence is mostly limited to fragmentary remains.[9] Standardisation efforts began during the Middle Ages, with a particularly strong push coming from the Burgundian Ducal Court, which was based in Dijon and, after 1477, in Brussels.[6] A treaty establishing the Language Union was signed by the Netherlands and Belgium in 1980.[10] Afrikaans replaced Dutch as one of South Africa's official languages in 1925, a status Dutch had held until then.[3]

What the cited sources add

The same guide notes that many Dutch words are similar to English ones, both coming from the same old Germanic root.[2] A 2015 article by CCJK reports that linguist Sterre Leufkens found Dutch has the most unnecessary grammatical elements and rules compared to 21 non-European languages.[11] The CCJK article also states that French were considered experts at speaking Dutch, leading to many borrowings from French such as paraplu and bureau.[11] The CCJK article claims that Dutch could have become so full of historical junk because so few people have used it as a second language.[11]

According to a language guide, for English speakers, Dutch is likely the simplest language to acquire, as it falls between German and English in terms of difficulty.[2] That same guide notes that Dutch uses two definite articles, "de" and "het", and, unlike German, it lacks a full set of grammatical cases.[2]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Dutch language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Feiten en cijfers", Taalunieversum (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "A Guide to Dutch – 10 facts about the Dutch language", Languages, 2014. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
  3. Wikipedia, "Dutch language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: European Commission, "Special Eurobarometer 243: Europeans and their Languages (Survey)", Europa, 2006; "Dutch", Languages at Leicester; Wouden, "Roots of Afrikaans: Selected writings of Hans den Besten", John Benjamins Publishing, 2012-06-27, p. 258 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Dutch language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Taalunie", taalunie.org; Netherlands, "Caribbean Netherlands; Spoken languages and main language, characteristics", Statistics Netherlands, 2019-04-04; Groeneboer, K (1993) Weg tot het westen. Het Nederlands voor Indie 1600–1950. Publisher: KITLEV, Leiden.; Maier 2005; Maier 2005; Lindsey, "Indonesian Law", Oxford University Press, 2018-09-06, p. 307; Willemyns, "Journal of multilingual and multicultural development", Multilingual Matters, 2002, p. 4 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Dutch language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Besamusca, "Discovering the Dutch: on culture and society of the Netherlands", Amsterdam University Press, November 19, 2014, p. 239 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Dutch language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dutch & Other Languages", Ccjk.com, January 23, 2015 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Dutch language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McRae, "Conflict and compromise in multilingual societies", Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1984, p. 54–55 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Dutch language" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Dutch language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: De Vries, "Het verhaal van een taal", Prometheus, 2003, p. 12, 21–27; Webster's New World Dictionary: Old Dutch (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Dutch language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Linguistics and the Study of Comics", Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, p. 163 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. "Dutch & Other Languages", Ccjk.com, January 23, 2015. facts only, no text reused. ccjk.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Dutch language (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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