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TheLow Countries comprise the coastalRhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta region inWestern Europe, whose definition usually includes the modern countries ofLuxembourg,Belgium and theNetherlands.[1][2] Both Belgium and the Netherlands derived their names from earlier names for the region, due tonether meaning "low" andBelgica being theLatinized name for all the Low Countries,[3] anomenclature that became obsolete afterBelgium's secession in 1830.
The Low Countries—and the Netherlands and Belgium—had in their history exceptionally many and widely varying names, resulting in equally varying names in different languages. There is diversity even within languages: the use of one word for the country and another for the adjective form is common. This holds for English, whereDutch is the adjective form for the country "the Netherlands". Moreover, many languages have the same word for both the country of the Netherlands and the region of the Low Countries, e.g., French (les Pays-Bas), Spanish (los Países Bajos) and Portuguese (Países Baixos). The complicated nomenclature is a source of confusion for outsiders, and is due to the long history of the language, the culture and the frequent change of economic and military power within the Low Countries over the past 2,000 years.
The historic Low Countries made up much ofFrisia, home to theFrisii, and theRoman provinces ofGallia Belgica andGermania Inferior, home to theBelgae andGermanic peoples like theBatavi. Throughout the centuries, the names of these ancestors have been in use as a reference to the Low Countries, in an attempt to define a collective identity. In the 4th and 5th centuries aFrankish confederation of Germanic tribes significantly made a lasting change by entering the Roman provinces and starting to build theCarolingian Empire, of which the Low Countries formed a core part.
By the 8th century, most of the Franks had exchanged their GermanicFrankish language for the Latin-derivedRomances ofGaul. The Franks that stayed in the Low Countries had kept their original language, i.e.,Old Dutch, also known as "Old Low Franconian" among linguists. At the time the language was spoken, it was known as *þiudisk, meaning "of the people"—as opposed to the Latin language "of theclergy"—which is the source of the English wordDutch. Now an international exception, it used to have in the Dutch language itself acognate with the same meaning, i.e.,Diets(c) orDuuts(c).
The designation "low" to refer to the region has also been in use many times. First by the Romans, who called it Germania "Inferior". After theFrankish empire was divided several times, most of it became the Duchy ofLower Lorraine in the 10th century, where the Low Countries politically have their origin.[4][5] Lower Lorraine disintegrated into a number of duchies, counties and bishoprics. Some of these became so powerful, that their names were used as apars pro toto for the Low Countries, i.e.,Flanders,Holland and to a lesser extentBrabant.Burgundian, and laterHabsburg rulers[6][7] added one by one the Low Countries' polities in a single territory, and it was at theirfrancophone courts that the termles pays de par deçà arose, that would develop inLes Pays-Bas or in English "Low Countries" or "Netherlands".
English is one of the only languages to use the adjectiveDutch for the language of the Netherlands and Flanders. Its connection to thevernacular can be traced back to theEarly Medieval Latin termTheodiscus, meaning 'of the people' or 'popular language.' In the Middle Ages,Theodiscus was used to distinguish the spoken language of the common Germanic folk fromLatin, which was the language of the church, science, and administration. It served as a way to categorize languages based on their practical and social functions.[8] The word is derived fromProto-Germanic*þiudiskaz. The stem of this word,*þeudō, meant "people" in Proto-Germanic, and*-iskaz was an adjective-forming suffix, of which-ish is theModern English form.[9]Theodiscus was itsLatinised form[10]
It was first recorded in 786, when theBishop of Ostia writes toPope Adrian I about asynod taking place inCorbridge,England, where the decisions are being written down "tam Latine quam theodisce" meaning "in Latin as well as Germanic".[11][12][13] So in this sensetheodiscus referred to the Germanic language spoken in Great Britain, which was later replaced by the nameEnglisc.[14]
By the late 14th century,þēodisc had given rise toMiddle Englishduche and its variants, which were used as a blanket term for all the non-ScandinavianGermanic languages spoken on the European mainland. Historical linguists have noted that the medieval "Duche" itself most likely shows an externalMiddle Dutch influence, in that it shows avoiced alveolar stop rather than the expectedvoiced dental fricative. This would be a logical result of theMedieval English wool trade, which brought the English in close linguistic contact with the cloth merchants living in the Dutch-speaking cities ofBruges andGhent, who at the time, referred to their language asdietsc.[15]
Its exact meaning is dependent on context, but tends to be vague regardless.[16] When concerning language, the wordduche could be used as a hypernym for several languages (The North est Contrey which lond spekyn all maner Duche tonge – The North [of Europe] is an area, in which all lands speak all manner of "Dutch" languages) but it could also suggest singular use (In Duche a rudder is a knyght – In "Dutch" a rudder [cf.Dutch: ridder] is a knight) in which case linguistic and/or geographic pointers need to be used to determine or approximate what the author would have meant in modern terms, which can be difficult.[17] For example, in his poemConstantyne, the English chroniclerJohn Hardyng (1378–1465) specifically mentions the inhabitants of three Dutch-speaking fiefdoms (Flanders, Guelders and Brabant) as travel companions, but also lists the far more general "Dutchemēne" and "Almains", the latter term having an almost equally broad meaning, though being more restricted in its geographical use; usually referring to people and locaties within modernGermany,Switzerland andAustria:
He went to Roome with greate power of Britons strong, | He went to Rome with a large number of Britons, |
| —Excerpt from "Constantyne",John Hardyng | —J. Rivington, The Chronicle of Iohn Hardyng |
By early 17th century, general use of the word Dutch had become exceedingly rare inGreat Britain and it became anexonym specifically tied tothe modern Dutch, i.e. theDutch-speaking inhabitants of theLow Countries. Many factors facilitated this, including close geographic proximity, trade and military conflicts, for instance theAnglo-Dutch Wars.[20][21] Due to the latter, "Dutch" also became a pejorative label pinned by English speakers on almost anything they regard as inferior, irregular, or contrary to their own practice. Examples include "Dutch treat" (each person paying for himself), "Dutch courage" (boldness inspired by alcohol), "Dutch wife" (a type ofsex doll) and "Double Dutch" (gibberish, nonsense) among others.[22]
In theUnited States, the word "Dutch" remained somewhat ambiguous until the start of the 19th century. Generally, it referred to the Dutch, their language or theDutch Republic, but it was also used as an informal monniker (for example in the works ofJames Fenimore Cooper andWashington Irving) for people who would today be considered Germans or German-speaking, most notably thePennsylvania Dutch. This lingering ambiguity was most likely caused by close proximity to German-speaking immigrants, who referred to themselves or (in the case of the Pennsylvania Dutch) their language as "Deutsch" or "Deitsch", rather than archaic use of the term "Dutch"[23][24][25][26][27][28]
In the Dutch language itself,Old Dutch*thiudisk evolved into a southern variantduutsc and a western variantdietsc inMiddle Dutch, which were both known asduytsch in Early Modern Dutch. In the earliest sources, its primary use was to differentiate between Germanic and the Romance dialects, as expressed by the Middle Dutch poetJan van Boendale, who wrote:[20][29]
Want tkerstenheit es gedeelt in tween, | |
| —Excerpt from "Brabantsche Yeesten", by Jan van Boendale (1318)[30] |
During theHigh Middle Ages "Dietsc/Duutsc" was increasingly used as an umbrella term for the specific Germanic dialects spoken in theLow Countries, its meaning being largely implicitly provided by the regional orientation of medieval Dutch society: apart from the higher echelons of the clergy and nobility, mobility was largely static and hence while "Dutch" could by extension also be used in its earlier sense, referring to what today would be called Germanic dialects as opposed toRomance dialects, in many cases it was understood or meant to refer to the language now known as Dutch.[20][21][31] Apart from the sparsely populated eastern borderlands, there was little to no contact with contemporary speakers of German dialects, let alone a concept of the existence of German as language in its modern sense among the Dutch. Because medieval trade focused on travel by water and with the most heavily populated areas adjacent to Northwestern France, the average 15th century Dutchman stood a far greater chance of hearing French or English than a dialect of the German interior, despite its relative geographical closeness.[32] Medieval Dutch authors had a vague, generalized sense of common linguistic roots between their language and various German dialects, but no concept of speaking the same language existed. Instead they saw their linguistic surroundings mostly in terms of small scale regiolects.[33]
In the 19th century, the term "Diets" was revived by Dutch linguists and historians as a poetic name forMiddle Dutch andits literature.[34]
In the second half of the 16th century theneologism "Nederduytsch" (literally: Nether-Dutch, Low-Dutch) appeared in print, in a way combining the earlier "Duytsch" and "Nederlandsch" into one compound. The term was preferred by many leading contemporary grammarians such as Balthazar Huydecoper, Arnold Moonen and Jan ten Kate because it provided a continuity withMiddle Dutch ("Duytsch" being the evolution of medieval "Dietsc"), was at the time considered the proper translation of the Roman Province ofGermania Inferior (which not only encompassed much of the contemporary Dutch-speaking area / Netherlands, but also added classical prestige to the name) and amplified the dichotomy between Early Modern Dutch and the "Dutch" (German) dialects spoken around theMiddle andUpper Rhine which had begun to be calledoverlantsch ofhoogduytsch (literally: Overlandish, High-"Dutch") by Dutch merchants sailing upriver.[35] Though "Duytsch" forms part of the compound in both Nederduytsch and Hoogduytsch, this should not be taken to imply that the Dutch saw their language as being especially closely related to the German dialects spoken in Southerwestern Germany. On the contrary, the term "Hoogduytsch" specifically came into being as a special category because Dutch travelers visiting these parts found it hard to understand the local vernacular: in a letter dated to 1487 a Flemish merchant from Bruges instructs his agent to conduct trade transactions inMainz in French, rather than the local tongue to avoid any misunderstandings.[35] In 1571 use of "Nederduytsch" greatly increased because theSynod of Emden chose the name "Nederduytsch Hervormde Kerk" as the official designation of theDutch Reformed Church. The synods choice of "Nederduytsch" over the more dominant "Nederlandsch", was inspired by the phonological similarities between "neder-" and "nederig" (the latter meaning "humble") and the fact that it did not contain a worldly element ("land"), whereas "Nederlandsch" did.[35]
As the Dutch increasingly referred to their own language as "Nederlandsch" or "Nederduytsch", the term "Duytsch" became more ambiguous. Dutchhumanists, started to use "Duytsch" in a sense which would today be called "Germanic", for example in a dialogue recorded in the influential Dutch grammar book "Twe-spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst", published in 1584:
R. ghy zeyde flux dat de Duytsche taal by haar zelven bestaat/ ick heb my wel laten segghen, | R: You've just said that the Dutch language exists in its own right, |
| —Excerpt from "Twe-spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst", byHendrik Laurenszoon Spiegel (1584)[36][30] |
In the Dutch language itself,Diets(c) (laterDuyts) was used as one of severalExonym and endonyms. As the Dutch increasingly referred to their own language as "Nederlandsch" or "Nederduytsch", the term "Duytsch" became more ambiguous. Dutchhumanists, started to use "Duytsch" in a sense which would today be called "Germanic". Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, the nomenclature gradually became more fixed, with "Nederlandsch" and "Nederduytsch" becoming the preferred terms for Dutch and with "Hooghduytsch" referring to the language today called German. Initially the word "Duytsch" itself remained vague in exact meaning, but after the 1650s a trend emerges in which "Duytsch" is taken as the shorthand for "Hooghduytsch". This process was probably accelerated by the large number of Germans employed as agricultural day laborers and mercenary soldiers in theDutch Republic and the ever increasing popularity of "Nederlandsch" and "Nederduytsch" over "Duytsch", the use of which had already been in decline for over a century, thereby acquiring its current meaning (German) in Dutch.[37][29][38]
In the late 19th century "Nederduits" was reintroduced to Dutch through the German language, where prominent linguists, such as theBrothers Grimm andGeorg Wenker, in the nascent field of German and Germanic studies used the term to refer to Germanic dialects which had not taken part in theHigh German consonant shift. Initially this group consisted of Dutch,English,Low German andFrisian, but in modern scholarship only refers toLow German-varieties. Hence in contemporary Dutch, "Nederduits" is used to describe Low German varieties, specifically those spoken in Northern Germany as the varieties spoken in the eastern Netherlands, while related, are referred to as "Nedersaksisch".[39]
Place names with "low(er)" orneder,lage,nieder,nether,nedre,bas andinferior are used everywhere in Europe. They are often used in contrast with an upstream or higher area whose name contains words such as "upper",boven,oben,supérieure andhaut. For example,Niderlant is mentioned in the 12th centurylegendNibelungenlied, where it is located in thelower Rhine region around the German townXanten.[40] In this context the higher ground is around theUpper Rhine plain around the German city ofWorms, where the events of the poem take place.
Both downstream at theRhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, and low at the mountainlessEuropean plain at theNorth Sea apply to theLow Countries. The politically related geographical location of the "upper" ground changed over time tremendously, and rendered over time several names for the area now known as the Low Countries:
Apart from its topographic usage for the then multi-government area of the Low Countries, the 15th century saw the first attested use ofNederlandsch as a term for the Dutch language, by extension hinting at a commonethnonym for people living in different fiefdoms.[43][44] This was used alongside the long-standingDuytsch (the Early Modern spelling of the earlierDietsc orDuutsc). The most common Dutch term for the Dutch language remainedNederduytsch orNederduitsch until it was gradually superseded byNederlandsch in the early 1900s, the latter becoming the sole name for the language by 1945. Earlier, from the mid-16th century on, theEighty Years' War (1568–1648) had divided the Low Countries into the northernDutch Republic and the southernSpanish Netherlands, introducing a distinction, i.e. Northern vs. Southern Netherlands; the first evolved into present-day the Netherlands, the latter into present-day Belgium, after a brief unification in the early 19th century.
The English adjective "Netherlandish", meaning "from the Low Countries", is derived directly from the Dutch adjectiveNederlands (old spellingNederlandsch), and the French and German equivalents. It is rare in general use, but remains common in academic jargon, especially in reference to art or music produced anywhere in the Low Countries during the 15th and early 16th centuries. Since the second half of the 20th century, "Early Netherlandish painting", has replaced the term "Flemish Primitives", despite the equivalents remaining current in French, Dutch and other languages; the latter is now only seen in English text poorly-translated from those other languages. The reluctance to keep using "Flemish Primitives" comes from the pejorative connotation of the noun in common standard English.
In music theFranco-Flemish School is also known as the Netherlandish School. Later art and artists from the southernCatholic provinces of the Low Countries are usually calledFlemish and those from the northernProtestant provinces Dutch, but art historians sometimes use "Netherlandish art" forart of the Low Countries produced before 1830, i.e., until the secession of Belgium from the Netherlands to distinguish the period from what came after. Apart from this largely intellectual use, the term "Netherlandish" as adjective is not commonly used in English, unlike its Dutch equivalent.
Historic and contemporary toponyms include:
Many languages have acognate orcalque derived from the Dutch adjectiveNederlands:
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The Dutch equivalent 'Nederland' knows a less common variation without the 'd', which only occurs conjugated, with a suffix. It is used to ads an archaic, patriotic, exalted, poetic or academic meaning.
TheLow Countries (Dutch:Lage Landen) refers to the historical regionde Nederlanden: those principalities located on and near the mostly low-lying land around theRhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. That region corresponds to all of the Netherlands,Belgium andLuxembourg, forming theBenelux. The name "Benelux" is formed from joining the first two or three letters of each country's nameBelgium,Netherlands andLuxembourg. It was first used to namethe customs agreement that initiated the union (signed in 1944) and is now used more generally to refer to the geopolitical and economical grouping of the three countries, while "Low Countries" is used in a more cultural or historical context.
In many languages the nomenclature "Low Countries" can both refer to the cultural and historical region comprising present-day Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and to "the Netherlands" alone, e.g.,Les Pays-Bas in French,Los Países Bajos in Spanish andi Paesi Bassi in Italian. Several other languages have literally translated "Low Countries" into their own language to refer to the Dutch language:
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Flemish (Dutch:Vlaams) is derived from the name of theCounty of Flanders (Dutch:Graafschap Vlaanderen), in the early Middle Ages the most influential county in theLow Countries, and the economic powerhouse of Northern Europe. It became in the 14th century the residence of theBurgundian dukes, establishing further its cultural dominance. Due to its cultural importance, "Flemish" became in certain languages apars pro toto for the Low Countries and the Dutch language. This was certainly the case in France, since the Flemish are the first Dutch speaking people for them to encounter. In French-Dutch dictionaries of the 16th century, "Dutch" is almost always translated asFlameng.[48]
Fleming is also the name used for immigrants from the Low Countries, most of them from Flanders, who came to Scotland over a 600 year period, between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries.[49][50] The name is still a common Scottish surnames[51] and Clan Fleming is also an officially recognized clan by theLord Lyon King of Arms.[52] The Flemish came to Scotland in several waves. The earliest Flemish settlers in Britain came withWilliam the Conqueror in 1066 with theNorman Conquest. The Flemish were closely allied with the Normans, because William’s wife was the daughter of a Count of Flanders.
A calque ofVlaams as a reference to the language and the region of the Low Countries was also in use in Spain. In the 16th century, when Spain inherited theHabsburg Netherlands, the whole area of the Low Countries was indicated asFlandes, and the inhabitants ofFlandes were calledFlamencos. For example, theEighty Years' War between the rebelliousDutch Republic and the Spanish Empire was calledLas guerras de Flandes[53] and the Spanish army that was based in the Low Countries was named theArmy of Flanders (Spanish:Ejército de Flandes).
The nameVlaanderen is formed from a stemflām-, meaning "flooded area" (cf.Norwegianflaum ‘flood’,English dialectalfleam ‘millstream; trench or gully in a meadow that drains it’), with a suffix-ðr- attached.[54] TheOld Dutch form isflāmisk, which becomesvlamesc,vlaemsch inMiddle Dutch andVlaams inModern Dutch.[55] Flemish is now exclusively used to describe the majority of Dutch dialects found inFlanders, and a reference to the region where they are spoken, corresponding with the Dutch language region of Belgium. This use is also apars pro toto, since the region includes not only the historic county of Flanders where the Dutch dialect(West) Flemish is spoken, but alsoLimburg and the historic region ofBrabant, where respectively the Dutch dialectsLiburgish andBrabantian are spoken. Calques ofVlaams in other languages, in most cases referencing to this region, its people and the language:
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In many languages including English, (acalque of) "Holland" is a commonpars pro toto for theNetherlands as a whole. Even the Dutch use this sometimes, although this may be resented outside the two modern provinces that make up historical Holland. Strictly speaking,Holland is only the central-western region of the country comprising two of the twelve provinces. They areNorth Holland andSouth Holland. Holland has, particularly for outsiders, long become apars pro toto name for the whole nation, similar to the use ofRussia for the (former)Soviet Union, orEngland for theUnited Kingdom.
The use is sometimes discouraged. For example, the "Holland" entry in thestyle guide ofThe Guardian andThe Observer newspapers states: "Do not use when you mean the Netherlands (of which it is a region), with the exception of theDutch football team, which is conventionally known as Holland".[56]
In 2019, the Dutch government announced that it would only communicate and advertise under its real name "the Netherlands" in the future, and stop describing itself as Holland. They stated: “It has been agreed that the Netherlands, the official name of our country, should preferably be used.”[57][58] From 2019 onwards, thenation's football team will solely be called the Netherlands in any official setting.[57] Nonetheless, the name "Holland" is still widely used for the Netherlands national football team.[59][60]
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From the 17th century onwards, theCounty of Holland was the most powerful region in the current Netherlands. Thecounts of Holland were also counts ofHainaut,Friesland andZeeland from the 13th to the 15th centuries. Holland remained most powerful during the period of theDutch Republic, dominating foreign trade, and hence most of the Dutch traders encountered by foreigners were from Holland, which explains why the Netherlands is often called Holland overseas.[61]
After the demise of the Dutch Republic under Napoleon, that country became known as theKingdom of Holland (1806–1810). This is the only time in history that "Holland" became an official designation of the entire Dutch territory. Around the same time, the former countship of Holland was dissolved and split up into two provinces, later known asNorth Holland andSouth Holland, because one Holland province by itself was considered too dominant in area, population and wealth compared to the other provinces. Today the two provinces making up Holland, including the cities ofAmsterdam,The Hague andRotterdam, remain politically, economically and demographically dominant – 37% of theDutch population live there. In most other Dutch provinces, particularly in the south includingFlanders (Belgium), the wordHollander is commonly used in either colloquial orpejorative sense to refer to the perceived superiority or supposed arrogance of people from theRandstad – the mainconurbation of Holland proper and of the Netherlands.
In 2009, members of theFirst Chamber drew attention to the fact that in Dutch passports, for some EU-languages a translation meaning "Kingdom of Holland" was used, as opposed to "Kingdom of the Netherlands". As replacements for theEstonianHollandi Kuningriik,HungarianHolland Királyság,RomanianRegatul Olandei andSlovakHolandské kráľovstvo, the parliamentarians proposedMadalmaade Kuningriik,Németalföldi Királyság,Regatul Țărilor de Jos andNizozemské Kráľovstvo, respectively. Their reasoning was that "if in addition to Holland a recognisable translation of the Netherlands does exist in a foreign language, it should be regarded as the best translation" and that "the Kingdom of the Netherlands has a right to use the translation it thinks best, certainly on official documents".[62] Although the government initially refused to change the text except for the Estonian, recent Dutch passports feature the translation proposed by the First Chamber members. Calques derived fromHolland to refer to the Dutch language in other languages:
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Toponyms:
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As the Low Country's prime duchy, with the only and oldest scientific centre (theUniversity of Leuven),Brabant has served as apars pro toto for the whole of the Low Countries, for example in the writings ofDesiderius Erasmus in the early 16th century.[63]
Perhaps of influence for this pars pro toto usage is the Brabantian holding of the ducal title ofLower Lorraine. In 1190, after the death ofGodfrey III,Henry I became Duke of Lower Lorraine, where the Low Countries have their political origin. By that time the title had lost most of its territorial authority. According to protocol, all his successors were thereafter called Dukes of Brabant and Lower Lorraine (often called Duke of Lothier).
Brabant symbolism served again a role as national symbols during the formation of Belgium. Thenational anthem of Belgium is called theBrabançonne (English: "the Brabantian"), and the Belgium flag has taken its colors from the Brabant coat of arms: black, yellow and red. This was influenced by theBrabant Revolution (French:Révolution brabançonne,Dutch:Brabantse Omwenteling), sometimes referred to as the "Belgian Revolution of 1789–90" in older writing, that was an armedinsurrection that occurred in theAustrian Netherlands (modern-dayBelgium) between October 1789 and December 1790. The revolution led to the brief overthrow ofHabsburg rule and the proclamation of a short-lived polity, theUnited Belgian States. Some historians have seen it as a key moment inthe formation of a Belgian nation-state, and an influence on theBelgian Revolution of 1830.
Holland, Flanders and 15 other counties, duchies and bishoprics in the Low Countries were united as theSeventeen Provinces in apersonal union during the 16th century, covered by thePragmatic Sanction of 1549 ofHoly Roman EmperorCharles V, which freed the provinces from their archaic feudal obligations.
In 1566,Philip II of Spain, heir of Charles V, sent an army of Spanish mercenaries to suppress political upheavals to the Seventeen Provinces. A number of southern provinces (Hainaut,Artois,Walloon Flanders,Namur,Luxembourg andLimburg) united in theUnion of Arras (1579), and begun negotiations for a peace treaty with Spain. In response, nine northern provinces united in theUnion of Utrecht (1579) against Spain. After theFlanders and theBrabant where reconquered by Spain, the remaining seven provinces (Frisia,Gelre,Holland,Overijssel,Groningen,Utrecht andZeeland) signed 2 years later the declaration of independence of theSeven United Provinces. Since then, several ships of theRoyal Netherlands Navy have bared that name.
The nomenclatureBelgica is harking back to the ancient local tribe of theBelgae and the Roman province named after that tribeGallia Belgica. Although a derivation of that name is now reserved for the Kingdom ofBelgium, from the 15th to the 17th century the name was the usual Latin translation to refer to the entireLow Countries. This was from the start of theDutch Revolt against Spain on maps heroically visualised as theLeo Belgicus[64] orpersonified as the maidenBelgica orBelgia. From the second half of the 16th centurylingua Belgica orBelgicus became under the influence ofHumanism also the Latinized name for the Dutch language in dictionaries.[65]
Throughout the centuries the Dutch attempted to define their collective identity by looking at their ancestors, theBatavi. As claimed by the Roman historianTacitus, the Batavi were a brave Germanic tribe living in the Netherlands, probably in theBetuwe region. In Dutch, the adjectiveBataafs ("Batavian") was used from the 15th to the 18th century, meaning "of, or relating to the Netherlands" (but not the southern Netherlands).
Other use:
Frankish was theWest Germanic language spoken by theFranks, a confederation of Germanic tribes that erose in theMigration Period. Between the 5th and 9th centuries, the languages spoken by theSalian Franks in Belgium and the Netherlands evolved intoOld Low Franconian (Dutch:Oudnederfrankisch), which formed the beginning of a separate Dutch language and is synonymous withOld Dutch. Compare the synonymous usage, in a linguistic context, ofOld English versusAnglo-Saxon.
Frisii were an ancient tribe who lived in the coastal area of the Netherlands in Roman times. After theMigration Period the confederation ofAnglo-Saxons, coming from the east, settled the region.Franks in the south, who were familiar with Roman texts, called the coastal regionFrisia, and hence its inhabitantsFrisians, even though not all of the inhabitants had Frisian ancestry.[68][69][70] After aFrisian Kingdom emerged in the mid-7th century in the Netherlands, with its center of power the city ofUtrecht,[71] the Franks conquered the Frisians and converted them to Christianity. From that time on a colony of Frisians was living in Rome and thus the old name for the people from theLow Countries who came to Rome has remained in use in the national church of the Netherlands in Rome, which is called theFrisian church (Dutch:Friezenkerk;Italian:chiesa nazionale dei Frisoni). In 1989, this church was granted to the Dutch community in Rome.
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