Dutch-speaking world (included are areas of daughter languageAfrikaans)
Distribution of Standard Dutch in Europe Dark blue where a majority language, light blue for Brussels, Friesland and Low Franconian dialects in France and Germany
In South America, it is the native language of the majority of the population ofSuriname, and spoken as a second or third language in thepolyglotCaribbean island countries ofAruba,Curaçao andSint Maarten. All these countries have recognised Dutch as one of their official languages, and are involved in one way or another in theDutch Language Union.[7] TheDutch Caribbean municipalities (St. Eustatius,Saba andBonaire) have Dutch as one of the official languages.[8] In Asia, Dutch was used in theDutch East Indies (now mostlyIndonesia) by a limited educated elite of around 2% of the total population, including over 1 million indigenous Indonesians,[9] until it was banned in 1957, but the ban was lifted afterwards.[10] About a fifth of theIndonesian language can be traced to Dutch, including manyloan words.[10] Indonesia'sCivil Code has not been officially translated, and the original Dutch language version dating from colonial times remains the authoritative version.[11] Up to half a million native speakers reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined,[c] and historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France[12] and Germany.[d]
In Belgium, the Netherlands and Suriname, the native official name for Dutch isNederlands[14][15] (historicallyNederlandsch before theDutch orthographic reforms).[16] SometimesVlaams ("Flemish") is used as well to describeStandard Dutch inFlanders, whereasHollands ("Hollandic") is occasionally used as a colloquial term for the standard language in the central and northwestern parts of the Netherlands.[17]
English uses the adjectiveDutch as a noun for the language of the Netherlands and Flanders. 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.[18]Theodiscus was itsLatinised form[19] and used as anadjective referring to theGermanicvernaculars of theEarly Middle Ages. In this sense, it meant "the language of the common people". The term was used as opposed toLatin, thenon-native language of writing and theCatholic Church.[20] 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 common vernacular".[21][22][23]
According to a hypothesis by De Grauwe, In northernWest Francia (i.e. modern-day Belgium) the term would take on a new meaning during theEarly Middle Ages, when, within the context of a highly dichromatic linguistic landscape, it came to be theantonym of*walhisk (Romance-speakers, specificallyOld French).[24] The word, now rendered asdietsc (Southwestern variant) orduutsc (Central and Northern Variant), could refer to the Dutch language itself, as well as a broader Germanic category depending on context. 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.[25]
In the Low CountriesDietsch or its Early Modern Dutch formDuytsch as an endonym for Dutch gradually went out of common use and was gradually replaced by the Dutch endonymNederlands. This designation (first attested in 1482) started at theBurgundian court in the 15th century, although the use ofneder,laag,bas, andinferior ("nether" or "low") to refer to the area known as the Low Countries goes back further in time, with theRomans referring to the region asGermania Inferior ("Lower" Germania).[26][27][28] It is a reference to the Low Countries' downriver location at theRhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta near theNorth Sea.
From 1551, the designationNederlands received strong competition from the nameNederduytsch (literally "Low Dutch",Dutch being used in its archaic sense covering all continental West Germanic languages). It is acalque of the aforementioned Roman provinceGermania Inferior and an attempt by early Dutch grammarians to give their language more prestige by linking it to Roman times. Likewise,Hoogduits ("High German") andOverlands ("Upper-landish") came into use as a Dutch exonym for the various German dialects used in neighboring German states.[29] Use ofNederduytsch was popular in the 16th century but ultimately lost out overNederlands during the close of the 18th century, with(Hoog)Duytsch establishing itself as the Dutch exonym for German during this same period.
In the 19th century Germany saw the rise of the categorisation of dialects, with Germandialectologists terming the German dialects spoken in the mountainous south of Germany asHochdeutsch ("High German"). Subsequently, German dialects spoken in the north were designated asNiederdeutsch ("Low German"). The names for these dialects were calqued by Dutch linguists asNederduits andHoogduits. As a result,Nederduits no longer serves as a synonym for the Dutch language. In the 19th century, the term "Diets" was revived by Dutch linguists and historians as well, as a poetic name forMiddle Dutch andits literature.[30]
Old Dutch can be discerned more or less around the same time asOld English (Anglo-Saxon),Old High German,Old Frisian, andOld Saxon. These names are derived from the modernstandard languages. In this age no standard languages had yet developed, while a perfect West Germanicdialect continuum remained present; the division reflects the contingent future contribution dialect groups would have to the later languages. The early form of Dutch was a set of Franconian dialects spoken by theSalian Franks in the 5th century. These happened to develop throughMiddle Dutch to Modern Dutch over the course of fifteen centuries.[31] During that period, they forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, and influenced or even replaced Old Saxon spoken in the east (contiguous with the Low German area). On the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in present-day France and Germany. The division into Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, since the transition between them was very gradual. One of the few moments whenlinguists can detect something of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. The development of the Dutch language is illustrated by the following sentence in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch:
Irlôsin sol an frithe sêla mîna fan thên thia ginâcont mi, wanda under managon he was mit mi (Old Dutch)
Erlossen sal [hi] in vrede siele mine van dien die genaken mi, want onder menegen hi was met mi (Middle Dutch)
Verlossen zal hij in vrede ziel mijn van degenen die genaken mij, want onder menigen hij was met mij (Modern Dutch, same word order)
Hij zal mijn ziel in vrede verlossen van degenen die mij genaken, want onder menigen was hij met mij (Modern Dutch, default word order)[32]
He will deliver my soul in peace from those who approach me, because, amongst many, he was with me (English)[33]
Lighter-coloured areas denote areas of either mixed settlement, such as between East-Germanic and Balto-Slavic peoples, or possible settlement, such as the Istvaeones within the Roman Empire or the Ingvaenes in Northern Denmark.
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups:East (now extinct),West, andNorth Germanic.[35] They remained mutually intelligible throughout theMigration Period. Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English,Scots,Frisian,Low German (Old Saxon) andHigh German. It is characterised by a number ofphonological andmorphological innovations not found in North or East Germanic.[36] The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally split into three dialect groups:Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic),Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine Germanic) andIrminonic (Elbe Germanic). It appears that the Frankish tribes fit primarily into the Istvaeonic dialect group with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest, which are still seen in modern Dutch.
The Frankish language itself is not directly attested, the only possible exception being theBergakker inscription, found near the Dutch city ofTiel, which may represent a primary record of 5th-century Frankish. Although some place names recorded in Roman texts such asvadam (modern Dutch:wad, English: "mudflat"), could arguably be considered as the oldest single "Dutch" words, the Bergakker inscription yields the oldest evidence of Dutch morphology. However, interpretations of the rest of the text lack any consensus.[37]
TheFranks emerged in the southern Netherlands (Salian Franks) and central Germany (Ripuarian Franks), and later descended intoGaul. The name oftheir kingdom survives in that of France. Although they ruled theGallo-Romans for nearly 300 years, their language,Frankish, became extinct in most of France and was replaced by later forms of the language throughout Luxembourg and Germany in around the 7th century. It was replaced in France byOld French (aRomance language with a considerable Old Frankish influence).
However, the Old Franconian language did not die out at large, as it continued to be spoken in the Low Countries, and subsequently evolved into what is now called Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch in the Low Countries. In fact, Old Frankish could be reconstructed from Old Dutch and Frankish loanwords in Old French.[38]
The termOld Dutch orOld Low Franconian[39][40] refers to the set ofFranconian dialects (i.e. West Germanic varieties that are assumed to have evolved fromFrankish) spoken in theLow Countries during theEarly Middle Ages, from around the 5th to the 12th century.[41] Old Dutch is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French.[42] Old Dutch is regarded as the primary stage in the development of a separate Dutch language. It was spoken by the descendants of theSalian Franks who occupied what is now the southernNetherlands, northernBelgium, part of northern France, and parts of theLower Rhine regions of Germany.
The High German consonant shift, moving over Western Europe from south to west, caused a differentiation with theCentral and High Franconian in Germany. The latter would as a consequence evolve (along withAlemannic,Bavarian andLombardic) into Old High German. At more or less the same time the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, moving over Western Europe from west to east, led to the development ofOld English (or Anglo-Saxon),Old Frisian andOld Saxon. Hardly influenced by either development, Old Dutch probably remained relatively close to the original language of the Franks. However, the language did experience developments of its own, such as very earlyfinal-obstruent devoicing. In fact, the find at Bergakker indicates that the language may already have experienced this shift during the Old Frankish period.
The Utrecht baptismal vow
Attestations of Old Dutch sentences are extremely rare. The language is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and loan words from Old Dutch in other languages.[42] The oldest recorded is found in theSalic law. In thisFrankish document written around 510 the oldest Dutch sentence has been identified:Maltho thi afrio lito ("I say to you, I free you, serf") used to free a serf. Another old fragment of Dutch isVisc flot aftar themo uuatare ("A fish was swimming in the water"). The oldest conserved larger Dutch text is theUtrecht baptismal vow (776–800) starting withForsachistu diobolae ... ec forsacho diabolae (litt.: "Forsake you the devil? ... I forsake the devil"). If only for its poetic content, the most famous Old Dutch sentence is probablyHebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan, hinase hic enda tu, wat unbidan we nu ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"), is dated to around the year 1100, written by a Flemishmonk in a convent inRochester,England. Since the sentence speaks to the imagination, it is often erroneously stated as the oldest Dutch sentence.
Old Dutch naturally evolved intoMiddle Dutch. The year 1150 is often cited as the time of the discontinuity, but it actually marks a time of profuse Dutch writing; during this period a richMedieval Dutch literature developed. There was at that time no overarchingstandard language; Middle Dutch is rather a collective name for a number of closely related, mutually intelligible dialects spoken in the former Old Dutch area. Where Old Dutch fragments are very hard to read for untrained Modern Dutch speakers, the various literary works of Middle Dutch are somewhat more accessible.[43] The most notable difference between Old and Middle Dutch is in a feature of speech known asvowel reduction, whereby vowels in unstressed syllables are leveled to aschwa.
The Middle Dutch dialect areas were affected by political boundaries. The sphere of political influence of a certain ruler often also created a sphere of linguistic influence, with the language within the area becoming more homogenous. Following the contemporary political divisions they are in order of importance:
West Flemish with theCounty of Flanders at its centre. It had been influential during the earlier Middle Ages (the "Flemish expansion") but lost prestige to the neighbouring Brabantian in the 13th century.
Brabantian (and related East Flemish), spoken primarily in theDuchy of Brabant and adjacent parts. It was an influential dialect during most of the Middle Ages, during the so-called "Brabantian expansion" in which the influence of Brabant was extended outwards into other areas.
Hollandic, which had theCounty of Holland as its heartland, where originallyOld Frisian was spoken. The people adopted Low Franconian[44][45] and a new Frankish dialect with a Frisiansubstrate developed. It was less influential during most of the Middle Ages but became more so in the 16th century during the "Hollandic expansion"; theEighty Years' War took place in the Southern Netherlands during this period.
Limburgish, spoken by the people in the modern-day provinces ofDutch andBelgian Limburg, and adjacent lands in Germany. It was over time tied to different political areas and is therefore the most divergent of the dialects. It was even partly influenced by the High German consonant shift and is the most distant to the later developed standard language to which it contributed little. It was, however, the earliest Middle Dutch dialect that developed a literary tradition.
Since it is part of the Old Saxon and not Low Franconian (Old Dutch) area,Dutch Low Saxon is not strictly a Dutch dialect. However, it was influenced by Middle Dutch since the 14th century and it did play a part in the formation of the standard Dutch language in later periods. It was spoken in theOversticht territories of theepiscopal principality of Utrecht and adjacent parts ofGuelders. Adialect continuum remained present with Low Franconian areas to the west and Low Saxon areas to the east.
Title page of theStatenvertaling (1637) reads:Biblia ... Uyt de Oorspronckelijcke talen in onse Neder-landtsche tale getrouwelijck over-geset. (English: From the Original languages into our Dutch language faithfully translated.)[46]
A process ofstandardisation started in theMiddle Ages, especially under the influence of theBurgundian Ducal Court in Dijon (Brussels after 1477). The dialects of Flanders and Brabant were the most influential around this time. The process of standardisation became much stronger at the start of the 16th century, mainly based on the urban dialect ofAntwerp. The 1585fall of Antwerp to the Spanish army led to a flight to the northern Netherlands, where theDutch Republic declared its independence from Spain. This influenced the urban dialects of the province ofHolland. In 1637, a further important step was made towards a unified language,[47] when theStatenvertaling, the first major Bible translation into Dutch, was created that people from all over the new republic could understand. It used elements from various, evenDutch Low Saxon, dialects but was predominantly based on the urban dialects of Holland of post 16th century.[48]
In theSouthern Netherlands (now Belgium and Luxembourg), developments were different. Under subsequentSpanish,Austrian andFrench rule, the standardisation of Dutch language came to a standstill. The state, law, and increasingly education used French, yet more than half the Belgian population were speaking a variety of Dutch. In the course of the 19th century, theFlemish Movement stood up for the rights of Dutch speakers, mostly referred to as "Flemish". However, the dialect variation was a serious disadvantage in the face of the standardisedfrancophony.[49] Since standardisation is a lengthy process, Dutch-speaking Belgium associated itself with the standard language that had already developed in the Netherlands over the centuries. Therefore, the situation in Belgium is essentially no different from that in the Netherlands, although there are recognisable differences in pronunciation, comparable to the pronunciation differences between standard British and standard American English.[50] In 1980 the Netherlands and Belgium concluded theLanguage Union Treaty. This treaty lays down the principle that the two countries must gear their language policy to each other, among other things, for a common system of spelling.
Dutch belongs to its ownWest Germanic sub-group, theLow Franconian languages, paired with its sister language Limburgish or East Low Franconian. Its closest relative is themutually intelligible daughter language Afrikaans. Other West Germanic languages related to Dutch areGerman,English and the un-standardised languagesLow German andYiddish.
Dutch stands out in combining someIngvaeonic characteristics (occurring consistently in English and Frisian and reduced in intensity from west to east over thecontinental West Germanic plane) with dominant Istvaeonic characteristics, some of which are also incorporated in German. Unlike German, Dutch (apart from Limburgish) has not been influenced at all by the south to north movement of theHigh German consonant shift and had some changes of its own.[k] The cumulation of these changes resulted over time in separate, but related standard languages with various degrees of similarities and differences between them. For a comparison between the West Germanic languages, see the sections Phonology, Grammar, and Vocabulary.
Dutchdialects are primarily the dialects that are both related with the Dutch language and are spoken in the same language area as the Dutchstandard language. Although heavily under the influence of the standard language, some of them remain diverse and are found in theNetherlands and in theBrussels andFlemish regions ofBelgium. The areas in which they are spoken often correspond with former medieval counties and duchies. The Netherlands (but not Belgium) distinguishes between a dialect and astreektaal ("regional language"). Those words are actually more political than linguistic because a regional language unites a large group of very different varieties. Such is the case with theGronings dialect, which is considered a variety of theDutch Low Saxon regional language, but it is relatively distinct from other Dutch Low Saxon varieties. Also, some Dutch dialects are more remote from the Dutch standard language than some varieties of a regional language are. Within the Netherlands, a further distinction is made between a regional language and a separate language, which is the case with the (standardised)West Frisian language. It is spoken alongside Dutch in the province ofFriesland.
Dutch dialects and regional languages are not spoken as often as they used to be, especially in the Netherlands. Recent research by Geert Driessen shows that the use of dialects and regional languages among both Dutch adults and youth is in heavy decline. In 1995, 27 percent of the Dutch adult population spoke a dialect or regional language on a regular basis, but in 2011, that was no more than 11 percent. In 1995, 12 percent of children of primary school age spoke a dialect or regional language, but in 2011, that had declined to four percent. Of the officially recognised regional languagesLimburgish is spoken the most (in 2011 among adults 54%, among children 31%) and Dutch Low Saxon the least (adults 15%, children 1%). The decline of theWest Frisian language in Friesland occupies a middle position (adults 44%, children 22%). Dialects are most often spoken in rural areas, but many cities have a distinct city dialect. For example, the city ofGhent has very distinct "g", "e" and "r" sounds that greatly differ from its surrounding villages. TheBrussels dialect combines Brabantian with words adopted fromWalloon andFrench.
TheWest Flemish group of dialects, spoken inWest Flanders andZeeland, is so distinct that it might be considered as a separate language variant, although the strong significance of language in Belgian politics would prevent the government from classifying them as such. An oddity of the dialect is that, thevoiced velar fricative (written as "g" in Dutch) shifts to avoiced glottal fricative (written as "h" in Dutch), while the letter "h" becomes mute (like in French). As a result, when West Flemings try to talk Standard Dutch, they are often unable to pronounce the g-sound, and pronounce it similar to the h-sound. This leaves, for example, no difference between "held" (hero) and "geld" (money). Or in some cases, they are aware of the problem, and hyper-correct the "h" into a voiced velar fricative or g-sound, again leaving no difference. The West Flemish variety historically spoken in adjacent parts in France is sometimes calledFrench Flemish and is listed as a Frenchminority language. However, only a very small and aging minority of the French-Flemish population still speaks and understands West Flemish.
Hollandic is spoken inHolland andUtrecht, though the original forms of this dialect (which were heavily influenced by a West Frisiansubstratum and, from the 16th century on, byBrabantian dialects) are now relatively rare. The urban dialects of theRandstad, which are Hollandic dialects, do not diverge from standard Dutch very much, but there is a clear difference between the city dialects ofRotterdam,The Hague,Amsterdam andUtrecht. In some rural Hollandic areas more authentic Hollandic dialects are still being used, especially north of Amsterdam. Another group of dialects based on Hollandic is that spoken in the cities and larger towns ofFriesland, where it partially displacedWest Frisian in the 16th century and is known asStadsfries ("Urban Frisian"). Hollandic together with inter aliaKleverlandish andNorth Brabantian, but without Stadsfries, are theCentral Dutch dialects.
Brabantian is named after the historicalDuchy of Brabant, which corresponded mainly to the provinces ofNorth Brabant and southernGelderland, the Belgian provinces ofAntwerp andFlemish Brabant, as well as Brussels (where its native speakers have become a minority) and the province ofWalloon Brabant. Brabantian expands into small parts in the west ofLimburg while its strong influence on theEast Flemish ofEast Flanders and easternZeelandic Flanders[51] weakens towards the west. In a small area in the northwest of North Brabant (Willemstad),Hollandic is spoken. Conventionally, theKleverlandish dialects are distinguished from Brabantian, but there are no objective criteria apart from geography to do so. Over 5 million people live in an area with some form of Brabantian being the predominant colloquial language out of the area's 22 million Dutch-speakers.[52][53]
Limburgish, spoken in bothBelgian Limburg andNetherlands Limburg and in adjacent parts in Germany, is considered a dialect in Belgium, while having obtained the official status of regional language in the Netherlands. Limburgish has been influenced by theRipuarian varieties like theColognian dialect, and has had a somewhat different development since the late Middle Ages.
Two dialect groups have been given the official status ofregional language (orstreektaal) in the Netherlands. Like several other dialect groups, both are part of a dialect continuum that continues across the national border.
The Dutch Low Saxon dialect area comprises the provinces ofGroningen,Drenthe andOverijssel, as well as parts of the provinces ofGelderland,Flevoland,Friesland andUtrecht. This group, which is not Low Franconian but instead Low Saxon and close to neighbouring Low German, has been elevated by the Netherlands (and by Germany) to the legal status ofstreektaal (regional language) according to theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. It is regarded as Dutch for a number of reasons. From the 14th to 15th century onward, its urban centers (Deventer,Zwolle,Kampen,Zutphen andDoesburg) have been increasingly influenced by the western written Dutch and became a linguistically mixed area. From the 17th century onward, it was gradually integrated into the Dutch language area.[54] Dutch Low Saxon used to be at one end of the Low Germandialect continuum. However, the national border has given way to dialect boundaries coinciding with a political border, because the traditional dialects are strongly influenced by the national standard varieties.[55]
While a somewhat heterogeneous group ofLow Franconian dialects, Limburgish has received official status as a regional language in theNetherlands and Germany, but not in Belgium. Due to this official recognition, it receives protection by chapter 2 of theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Afrikaans, although to a significant degree mutually intelligible with Dutch, is usually not considered a dialect but instead a separatestandardised language. It is spoken in South Africa and Namibia. As a daughter language of 17th-century Dutch dialects, Afrikaans evolved in parallel with modern Dutch, but was influenced by variousother languages in South Africa.
West Frisian (Westerlauwers Fries), along withSaterland Frisian andNorth Frisian, evolved from the same branch of theWest Germanic languages asOld English (i.e.Anglo-Frisian) and are therefore genetically more closely related to English and Scots than to Dutch. The different influences on the respective languages, however, particularly that of Norman French on English and Dutch on West Frisian, have rendered English quite distinct from West Frisian, and West Frisian less distinct from Dutch than from English. Although under heavy influence of the Dutch standard language, it is not mutually intelligible with Dutch and considered asister language of Dutch, like English and German.[56]
Dutch is anofficial language of the Netherlands proper (not enshrined in theconstitution but in administrative law[61][l]), Belgium, Suriname, the Dutch Caribbean municipalities (St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire),Aruba,Curaçao andSint Maarten. Dutch is also an official language of several international organisations, such as theEuropean Union,[65]Union of South American Nations[66] and theCaribbean Community. At an academic level, Dutch is taught in about 175 universities in 40 countries. About 15,000 students worldwide study Dutch at university.[67]
In Europe, Dutch is the majority language in the Netherlands (96%) and Belgium (59%) as well as a minority language in Germany and northern France'sFrench Flanders. Though Belgium as a whole is multilingual, three of the fourlanguage areas into which the country is divided (Flanders, francophoneWallonia, and theGerman-speaking Community) are largely monolingual, withBrussels being bilingual. The Netherlands and Belgium produce the vast majority ofmusic,films,books and other media written or spoken in Dutch.[68] Dutch is amonocentric language, at least what concerns its written form, with all speakers using the samestandard form (authorised by theDutch Language Union) based on aDutch orthography defined in the so-called "Green Booklet" authoritative dictionary and employing theLatin alphabet when writing; however, pronunciation varies between dialects. Indeed, in stark contrast to its written uniformity, Dutch lacks a uniqueprestige dialect and has a large dialectal continuum consisting of 28 main dialects, which can themselves be further divided into at least 600 distinguishable varieties.[69][70] In the Netherlands, theHollandic dialect dominates in nationalbroadcast media while in FlandersBrabantian dialect dominates in that capacity, making them in turn unofficialprestige dialects in their respective countries.
Outside the Netherlands and Belgium, the dialect spoken in and around the German town ofKleve (Kleverlandish) is historically and genetically aLow Franconian variety. In North-Western France, the area aroundCalais was historically Dutch-speaking (West Flemish), of which an estimated 20,000 are daily speakers. The cities ofDunkirk,Gravelines andBourbourg only became predominantly French-speaking by the end of the 19th century. In the countryside, untilWorld War I, many elementary schools continued to teach in Dutch, and the Catholic Church continued to preach and teach thecatechism in Dutch in many parishes.[71]
During the second half of the 19th century, Dutch was banned from all levels of education by bothPrussia and France and lost most of its functions as a cultural language. In both Germany and France, the Dutch standard language is largely absent, and speakers of these Dutch dialects will use German or French in everyday speech. Dutch is not afforded legal status in France or Germany, either by the central or regional public authorities, and knowledge of the language is declining among younger generations.[72]
As aforeign language, Dutch is mainly taught in primary and secondary schools in areas adjacent to the Netherlands andFlanders. InFrench-speaking Belgium, over 300,000 pupils are enrolled in Dutch courses, followed by over 23,000 in theGerman states ofLower Saxony andNorth Rhine-Westphalia, and about 7,000 in theFrench region ofNord-Pas-de-Calais (of which 4,550 are in primary school).[73] At an academic level, the largest number of faculties ofneerlandistiek can be found in Germany (30 universities), followed by France (20 universities) and the United Kingdom (5 universities).[73][74]
In theDutch East Indies (present dayIndonesia andMalacca, Malaysia), Dutch was used by only a limited educated elite.[75]Indonesia did not adopt the Dutch language after independence. However, theIndonesian language is heavily influenced by Dutch. Seen here iskantor pos (from the Dutchpostkantoor), meaningpost office.
Despite the Dutch presence in Indonesia for almost 350 years, as the Asian bulk of theDutch East Indies, the Dutch language has no official status there[76] and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation, or employed in the legal profession such as historians, diplomats, lawyers, jurists and linguists/polyglots,[77] as certainlaw codes are still only available in Dutch.[78] Dutch is taught in various educational centres in Indonesia, the most important of which is the Erasmus Language Centre (ETC) inJakarta. Each year, some 1,500 to 2,000 students take Dutch courses there.[79] In total, several thousand Indonesians study Dutch as a foreign language.[80] Owing to centuries of Dutch rule in Indonesia, many old documents are written in Dutch. Many universities therefore include Dutch as a source language, mainly for law and history students.[81] In Indonesia this involves about 35,000 students.[67]
Unlike other European nations, the Dutch chose not to follow a policy of language expansion amongst the indigenous peoples of their colonies.[82] In the last quarter of the 19th century, however, a local elite gainedproficiency in Dutch so as to meet the needs of expanding bureaucracy and business.[83] Nevertheless, the Dutch government remained reluctant to teach Dutch on a large scale for fear of destabilising the colony. Dutch, the language of power, was supposed to remain in the hands of the leading elite.[83]
After independence, Dutch was dropped as an official language and replaced byIndonesian, but this does not mean that Dutch has completely disappeared in Indonesia:Indonesian Dutch, a regional variety of the Dutch, was still spoken by about 500,000 half-blood in Indonesia in 1985.[84] Yet the Indonesian language inherited many words from Dutch: words for everyday life as well as scientific and technological terms.[85] One scholar argues that 20% of Indonesian words can be traced back to Dutch words,[10] many of which are transliterated to reflect phonetic pronunciation e.g.kantoor "office" in Indonesian iskantor,handdoek "towel" in Indonesian ishanduk, orbushalte "bus stop" in Indonesian ishalte bus. In addition, many Indonesian words arecalques of Dutch; for example,rumah sakit "hospital" is calqued on the Dutchziekenhuis (literally "sickhouse"),kebun binatang "zoo" ondierentuin (literally "animal garden"),undang-undang dasar "constitution" fromgrondwet (literally "ground law"). These account for some of thedifferences in vocabulary between Indonesian and Malay. Someregional languages in Indonesia have some Dutch loanwords as well; for example,Sundanese wordKatel or "frying pan" origin in Dutch is "ketel". TheJavanese word for "bike/bicycle" "pit" can be traced back to its origin in Dutch "fiets". TheMalacca state ofMalaysia was also colonized by the Dutch in its longest period that Malacca was under foreign control. In the 19th century, theEast Indies trade started to dwindle, and with it the importance of Malacca as a trading post. The Dutch state officially ceded Malacca to the British in 1825. It took until 1957 for Malaya to gain its independence.[86] Despite this, the Dutch language is rarely spoken in Malacca or Malaysia and only limited to foreign nationals able to speak the language.
After the declaration of independence of Indonesia,Western New Guinea, the "wild east" of theDutch East Indies, remained a Dutch colony until 1962, known asNetherlands New Guinea.[87] Despite prolonged Dutch presence, the Dutch language is not spoken by many Papuans, the colony having been ceded to Indonesia in 1963.
Dutch-speaking immigrant communities can also be found in Australia and New Zealand. The2011 Australian census showed 37,248 people speaking Dutch at home.[88] At the2006 New Zealand census, 26,982 people, or 0.70 percent of the total population, reported to speak Dutch to sufficient fluency that they could hold an everyday conversation.[89]
In contrast to the colonies in theEast Indies, from the second half of the 19th century onwards, the Netherlands envisaged the expansion of Dutch in its colonies in theWest Indies. Until 1863, whenslavery was abolished in the West Indies, slaves were forbidden to speak Dutch, with the effect that local creoles such asPapiamento andSranan Tongo which were based not on Dutch but rather other European languages, became common in the Dutch West Indies. However, as most of the people in theColony of Surinam (nowSuriname) worked on Dutch plantations, this reinforced the use of Dutch as a means for direct communication.[83][90]
InSuriname today, Dutch is the sole official language,[91] and over 60 percent of the population speaks it as amother tongue.[92] Dutch is the obligatory medium of instruction in schools in Suriname, even for non-native speakers.[93] A further twenty-four percent of the population speaks Dutch as asecond language.[94] Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975 and has been an associate member of theDutch Language Union since 2004.[95] Thelingua franca of Suriname, however, isSranan Tongo,[96] spoken natively by about a fifth of the population.[68][m]
Dutch is official on all 6Dutch Caribbean islands (Aruba,Bonaire,Curaçao,Sint Maarten,Saba andSint Eustatius), but is not commonly spoken on any of the islands. Dutch is spoken as a first language by only 7% to 8% of the population,[97] although most people on the Dutch Caribbean islands can speak Dutch to varying degrees of fluency as the education system is in Dutch at some or all levels.
Martin Van Buren, the eighthPresident of the United States, spoke Dutch natively and is the only U.S. president whose first language was not English. Dutch prevailed for many generations as the dominant language in parts ofNew York along theHudson River. Another famous American born in this region who spoke Dutch as a first language wasSojourner Truth.
According to the2000 United States census, 150,396 people spoke Dutch at home,[100] while according to the2006 Canadian census, this number reaches 160,000 Dutch speakers.[101] At an academic level, 20 universities offer Dutch studies in the United States.[73][74] In Canada, Dutch is the fourth most spoken language by farmers, after English, French and German,[102] and the fifth most spoken non-official language overall (by 0.6% of Canadians).[103]
Standard Dutch used in a 1916 ad in South Africa before Afrikaans replaced Dutch for use in mediaThe distribution of Afrikaans across South Africa: proportion of the population speaking Afrikaans at home:
0–20%
20–40%
40–60%
60–80%
80–100%
The largest legacy of the Dutch language lies in South Africa, which attracted large numbers of Dutch, Flemish and other northwest European farmer (in Dutch,boer) settlers, all of whom were quickly assimilated.[104] The long isolation from the rest of the Dutch-speaking world made the Dutch as spoken in Southern Africa evolve into what is now Afrikaans.[105] In 1876, the first Afrikaans newspaper calledDie Afrikaanse Patriot was published in the Cape Colony.[106]
European Dutch remained theliterary language[105] until the start of the 1920s, when under pressure ofAfrikaner nationalism the local "African" Dutch was preferred over the written, European-based standard.[104] In 1925, section 137 of the 1909 constitution of theUnion of South Africa was amended by Act 8 of 1925, stating "the wordDutch in article 137 ... is hereby declared to include Afrikaans".[107][108] The constitution of 1983 only listed English and Afrikaans as official languages. It is estimated that between 90% and 95% of Afrikaans vocabulary is ultimately of Dutch origin.[109][110]
Both languages are still largely mutually intelligible, although this relation can in some fields (such as lexicon, spelling and grammar) be asymmetric, as it is easier for Dutch speakers to understand written Afrikaans than it is for Afrikaans speakers to understand written Dutch.[111] Afrikaans is grammatically far less complex than Dutch, and vocabulary items are generally altered in a clearly patterned manner, e.g.vogel becomesvoël ("bird") andregen becomesreën ("rain").[112] In South Africa, the number of students following Dutch at university is difficult to estimate, since the academic study of Afrikaans inevitably includes the study of Dutch.[67] Elsewhere in the world, the number of people learning Dutch is relatively small.
Afrikaans is the third largest language of South Africa in terms of native speakers (~13.5%),[113] of whom 53% areColoureds and 42.4%Whites.[114] In 1996, 40 percent of South Africans reported to know Afrikaans at least at a very basic level of communication.[115] It is thelingua franca in Namibia,[104][116][117] where it is spoken natively in 11 percent of households.[118] In total, Afrikaans is thefirst language in South Africa alone of about 7.1 million people[113] and is estimated to be asecond language for at least 10 million people worldwide,[119] compared to over 23 million[92] and 5 million respectively, for Dutch.[2]
The Dutch colonial presence elsewhere in Africa, notablyDutch Gold Coast, was too ephemeral not to be wiped out by prevailing colonising European successors. Likewise, the Belgian colonial presence in theCongo andRuanda-Urundi (Rwanda andBurundi held under aLeague of Nations mandate and later a UN trust territory) left little Dutch (Flemish) legacy, as French was the main colonial language.[120]
Unlike other Germanic languages, Dutch has no phonologicalaspiration of consonants.[121] Like most other Germanic languages, the Dutchconsonant system did not undergo theHigh German consonant shift and has asyllable structure that allows fairly-complexconsonant clusters. Dutch also retains full use of thevelarfricatives ofProto-Germanic that were lost or modified in many other Germanic languages. Dutch hasfinal-obstruent devoicing. At the end of a word, voicing distinction is neutralised and all obstruents are pronounced voiceless. For example, Dutchgoede (̇'good') is[ˈɣudə] but the related formgoed is[ɣut]. Dutch shares thisfinal-obstruent devoicing with German (the Dutch noungoud is pronounced[ɣɑut], the adjectivegouden is pronounced[ɣɑudə(n)], like the German nounGold, pronounced[ɡɔlt], adjectivegolden, pronounced[ɡɔldn] vs Englishgold andgolden, both pronounced with[d].)
Voicing of pre-vocalic initialvoiceless alveolar fricatives occurs although less in Dutch than in German (Dutchzeven, Germansieben with[z] versus Englishseven and Low Germanseven with[s]), and also the shift/θ/ →/d/. Dutch shares only with Low German the development of/xs/ →/ss/ (Dutchvossen,ossen and Low GermanVösse,Ossen versus GermanFüchse,Ochsen and Englishfoxes,oxen), and also the development of/ft/ →/xt/ though it is far more common in Dutch (Dutchzacht and Low Germansacht versus Germansanft and Englishsoft, but Dutchkracht versus GermanKraft and Englishcraft).
[ʔ] is not a separate phoneme in Dutch, but is inserted before vowel-initial syllables within words after/a/ and/ə/ and often also at the beginning of a word.
The lateral/l/ is slightly velarised postvocalically in most dialects, particularly in the north.[122]
/x/ and/ɣ/ may be true velars[x] and[ɣ], uvular[χ] and[ʁ] or palatal[ç] and[ʝ]. The more palatal realisations are common in southern areas, and uvulars are common in the north.
Some northern dialects have a tendency to devoice all fricatives, regardless of environment, which is particularly common with/ɣ/ but can affect others as well.
/ɕ/ and/ʑ/ are not native phonemes of Dutch and usually occur in borrowed words, likeshow andbagage ('baggage'), but may occur if/s/ and/z/ are palatalised.
/ɡ/ is not a native phoneme of Dutch and occurs only in borrowed words, likebaguette.
Like English, Dutch did not developi-mutation as a morphological marker and shares with most other Germanic languages the lengthening of shortvowels instressed opensyllables, which has led to contrastivevowel length being used as amorphological marker. Dutch has an extensivevowel inventory. Vowels can be grouped as back rounded, front unrounded and front rounded. They are also traditionally distinguished by length ortenseness.
Vowel length is not always considered a distinctive feature in Dutch phonology because it normally occurs with changes in vowelquality. One feature or the other may be considered redundant, and some phonemic analyses prefer to treat it as an opposition oftenseness. However, even if it is not considered part of the phonemic opposition, the long/tense vowels are still realised asphonetically longer than their short counterparts. The changes in vowel quality are also not always the same in all dialects, some of which may be little difference at all, with length remaining the primary distinguishing feature. Although all older words pair vowel length with a change in vowel quality, new loanwords have reintroduced phonemic oppositions of length. Comparezonne(n)[ˈzɔnə] ("suns") versuszone[ˈzɔːnə] ("zone") versuszonen[ˈzoːnə(n)] ("sons"), orkroes[krus] ("mug") versuscruise[kruːs] ("cruise").
The distinction between/iyu/ and/iːyːuː/ is only slight and may be considered allophonic for most purposes. However, some recent loanwords have introduced distinctively-long/iːyːuː/, making the length distinction marginally phonemic.
The long close-mid vowels/eːøːoː/ are realised as slightly closing diphthongs[eɪøʏoʊ] in many northern dialects.
The long open-mid vowels/ɛːœːɔː/ occur only in a handful of loanwords, mostly from French. In certain Belgian Dutch varieties, they may also occur as realisations of/ɛiœyau/.[122]
The long close and close-mid vowels are often pronounced more closed or as centering diphthongs before an/r/ in the syllable coda, which may occur before coda/l/ as well.
Unique to the development of Dutch is the collapse of olderol/ul/al +dental intool + dental, followed by vocalisation of pre-consonantal /l/ and after a short vowel. That created the diphthong/ɑu/: Dutchgoud,zout andbout corresponds with Low GermanGold,Solt,Bolt; GermanGold,Salz,Balt and Englishgold,salt,bolt. It is the most common diphthong, along with/ɛiœy/. All three are the only ones commonly considered unique phonemes in Dutch. The tendency for native English speakers is to pronounce Dutch names with/ɛi/ (written asij orei) as/aɪ/, (like the English "long i"), which does not normally lead to confusion for native listeners since in a number of dialects (such as in Amsterdam[123]), the same pronunciation is heard.
In contrast,/ɑi/ and/ɔi/ are rare in Dutch. The "long/tense" diphthongs are indeed realised as proper diphthongs but are generally analysed phonemically as a long/tense vowel, followed by a glide/j/ or/ʋ/. All diphthongs end in a close vowel (/iyu/) and are grouped here by their first element.
Thesyllable structure of Dutch is (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C). Many words, as in English, begin with three consonants:straat/straːt/ (street). There are words that end in four consonants:herfst/ɦɛrfst/ (autumn),ergst/ɛrxst/ (worst),interessantst/ɪn.tə.rɛ.sɑntst/ (most interesting),sterkst/stɛrkst/ (strongest), the last three of which aresuperlative adjectives.
The highest number of consonants in a single cluster is found in the wordslechtstschrijvend/ˈslɛxtstˌsxrɛi̯vənt/ (writing worst), with seven consonant phonemes.angstschreeuw/ˈɑŋstsxreːu̯/ⓘ (scream in fear) has six in a row.
A notable change in pronunciation has been occurring in younger generations in the Dutch provinces ofUtrecht,North andSouth Holland, which has been dubbed "Polder Dutch" by Jan Stroop.[124] Such speakers pronounce⟨ij/ei⟩,⟨ou/au⟩ and⟨ui⟩, which used to be pronounced respectively as/ɛi/,/ɔu/, and/œy/, as increasingly lowered to[ai],[au], and[ay] respectively. In addition, the same speakers pronounce/eː/,/oː/, and/øː/ as thediphthongs[ei],[ou], and[øy][125] respectively, making the change an example of achain shift.
The change is interesting from a sociolinguistic point of view because it has apparently happened relatively recently, in the 1970s and was pioneered by older well-educated women from the upper middle classes.[126] The lowering of the diphthongs has long been current in many Dutch dialects and is comparable to the EnglishGreat Vowel Shift and the diphthongisation of long high vowels in ModernHigh German, which had centuries earlier reached the state now found in Polder Dutch. Stroop theorises that the lowering of open-mid to open diphthongs is a phonetically "natural" and inevitable development and that Dutch, after it had diphthongised the long high vowels like German and English, "should" have lowered the diphthongs like German and English as well.
Instead, he argues that the development has been artificially frozen in an "intermediate" state by the standardisation of Dutch pronunciation in the 16th century in which lowered diphthongs found in rural dialects were perceived as ugly by the educated classes and were accordingly declared substandard. Now, however, he thinks that the newly-affluent and independent women can afford to let that natural development take place in their speech. Stroop compares the role of Polder Dutch with the urban variety of British English pronunciation calledEstuary English.
AmongBelgian andSurinamese Dutch-speakers and speakers from other regions in the Netherlands, this vowel shift is not taking place.
Standard Dutch uses threegenders across natural and grammatical genders but for most non-Belgian speakers, masculine and feminine have merged to form the common gender (withde for "the"). The neuter (which useshet) remains distinct. This is similar to those of mostContinental Scandinavian tongues. Less so than English, inflectional grammar (such as in adjectival and noun endings) has simplified.
Weak verbs are most numerous, constituting about 60% of all verbs. In these, the past tense and past participle are formed with a dental suffix:
Weak verbs with past in-de
Weak verbs with past in-te
Strong verbs are the second most numerous verb group. This group is characterised by a vowel alternation of the stem in the past tense and perfect participle. Dutch distinguishes between 7 classes, comprising almost all strong verbs, with some internal variants. Dutch has many 'half strong verbs': these have a weak past tense and a strong participle or a strong past tense and a weak participle. The following table shows the vowel alternations in more detail. It also shows the number of roots (bare verbs) that belong to each class, variants with a prefix are excluded.
Verb class
Verb
Present
Past
Participle
Number of roots
1
kijken
(to watch)
ɛi
kijk
eː
keek
eː
gekeken
58
2a
bieden
(to offer)
i
bied
oː
bood
oː
geboden
17
2b
stuiven
(to gush)
œy
stuif
oː
stoof
oː
gestoven
23
3a
klimmen
(to climb)
ɪ
klim
ɔ
klom
ɔ
geklommen
25
3b
zenden
(to send)
ɛ
zend
ɔ
zond
ɔ
gezonden
18
3 + 7
sterven
(to die)
ɛ
sterf
i
stierf
ɔ
gestorven
6
4
breken
(to break)
eː
breek
ɑ ~ aː
brak ~ braken
oː
gebroken
7
4 irregular
wegen
(to weigh)
eː
weeg
oː
woog
oː
gewogen
3
5
geven
(to give)
eː
geef
ɑ ~ aː
gaf ~ gaven
eː
gegeven
10
5 irregular
zitten
(to sit)
ɪ
zit
ɑ ~ aː
zat ~ zaten
eː
gezeten
3
6
dragen
(to carry)
aː
draag
u
droeg
aː
gedragen
4
7
roepen
(to call)
X
roep
i
riep
X
geroepen
8
7 irregular
vangen
(to catch)
X
vang
ɪ
ving
X
gevangen
3
Half strong past
vragen
(to ask)
vraag
vroeg
gevraagd
3
Half strong perfect
bakken
(to bake)
bak
bakte
gebakken
19
Other
scheppen
(to create)
schep
schiep
geschapen
5
There is an ongoing process of "weakening" of strong verbs. The verb "ervaren" (to experience) used to be strictly a class 6 strong verb, having the past tense "ervoer" and participle "ervaren", but the weak form "ervaarde" for both past tense and participle is currently also in use. Some other verbs that were originally strong such as "raden" (to guess) and "stoten" (to bump), have past tense forms "ried" and "stiet" that are at present far less common than their weakened forms; "raadde" and "stootte".[127] In most examples of such weakened verbs that were originally strong, both their strong and weak formations are deemed correct.
As in English, the case system of Dutch and thesubjunctive have largely fallen out of use, and the system has generalised thedative over theaccusativecase for certainpronouns (NL:me,je; EN:me,you; LI:mi,di vs. DE:mich/mir,dich/dir). While standard Dutch has threegrammatical genders, this has few consequences and the masculine and feminine gender are usually merged into a common gender in the Netherlands but not in Belgium (EN: none; NL/LI: common and neuter; in Belgium masculine, feminine and neuter is in use).
Modern Dutch has mostly lost its case system.[128] However, certain idioms and expressions continue to include now archaic case declensions. The definite article has just two forms,de andhet, more complex than English, which has onlythe. The use of the older inflected formden in the dative and accusative, as well as use ofder in the dative, is restricted to numerous set phrases, surnames and toponyms. But some dialects still use both, particularly "der" is often used instead of "haar" (her).
Masculine singular
Feminine singular
Neuter singular
Plural (any gender)
Nominative
de
de
het
de
Genitive
van de
van de
van het
van de
Genitive
des
der
des
der
In modern Dutch, the genitive articlesdes andder in the bottom line are commonly used inidioms. Other usage is typically considered archaic, poetic or stylistic. One must know whether a noun is masculine or feminine to use them correctly. In most circumstances, the prepositionvan, the middle line, is instead used, followed by the normal articlede orhet, and in that case it makes no difference whether a word is masculine or feminine. For the idiomatic use of the articles in the genitive, see for example:
Masculine singular: "des duivels" (lit: "of the devil") (common proverbial meaning: Seething with rage)
Feminine singular: "het woordenboekder Friese taal" ("the dictionary of the Frisian language")
Neuter singular: "de vrouwdes huizes" ("the lady of the house")
Plural: de voortgang "der werken" ("the progress of (public) works")
In contemporary usage, thegenitive case still occurs a little more often with plurals than with singulars, as the plural article isder for all genders and no special noun inflection must be taken account of.Der is commonly used in order to avoid reduplication ofvan, e.g.het merendeelder gedichtenvan de auteur instead ofhet merendeelvan de gedichtenvan de auteur ("the bulk of the author's poems").
There is also a genitive form for the pronoundie/dat ("that [one], those [ones]"), namelydiens for masculine and neuter singulars (occurrences ofdier for feminine singular and all plurals are extremely rare). Although usually avoided in common speech, this form can be used instead of possessive pronouns to avoid confusion. Compare:
Hij vertelde over zijn zoon enzijn vrouw. – He spoke about his son andhis (own) wife.
Hij vertelde over zijn zoon endiens vrouw. – He spoke about his son andthe latter's wife.
Analogically, the relative and interrogative pronounwie ("who") has the genitive formswiens andwier (corresponding to Englishwhose, but less frequent in use).
Dutch also has a range of fixed expressions that make use of the genitive articles, which can be abbreviated using apostrophes. Common examples include "'s ochtends" (with's as abbreviation ofdes; "in the morning") anddesnoods (lit: "of the need", translated: "if necessary").
The Dutch written grammar has simplified over the past 100 years:cases are now mainly used for the pronouns, such asik (I),mij, me (me),mijn (my),wie (who),wiens (whose: masculine or neuter singular),wier (whose: feminine singular; masculine, feminine or neuter plural). Nouns and adjectives are not case inflected (except for the genitive of proper nouns (names): -s, -'s or -'). In the spoken language cases and case inflections had already gradually disappeared from a much earlier date on (probably the 15th century) as in many continental West Germanic dialects.
Inflection of adjectives is more complicated. The adjective receives no ending with indefinite neuter nouns in singular (as witheen/ən/ 'a/an'), and-e in all other cases. (This was also the case in Middle English, as in "a goode man".)Fiets belongs to the masculine/feminine category, whilewater andhuis are neuter.
Masculine singular or feminine singular
Neuter singular
Plural (any gender)
Definite (with definite article or pronoun)
de mooie fiets ("the beautiful bicycle") onze mooie fiets ("our beautiful bicycle") deze mooie fiets ("this beautiful bicycle")
het mooie huis ("the beautiful house") ons mooie huis ("our beautiful house") dit mooie huis ("this beautiful house")
de mooie fietsen ("the beautiful bicycles") de mooie huizen ("the beautiful houses") onze mooie fietsen ("our beautiful bicycles") deze mooie huizen ("these beautiful houses")
Indefinite (with indefinite article or no article and no pronoun)
een mooie fiets ("a beautiful bicycle") koude soep ("cold soup")
een mooi huis ("a beautiful house") koud water ("cold water")
An adjective has noe if it is in thepredicative:De soep is koud.
More complex inflection is still found in certain lexicalised expressions likede heer des huizes (literally, "the man of the house"), etc. These are usually remnants of cases (in this instance, the genitive case which is still used in German, cf.Der Herr des Hauses) and other inflections no longer in general use today. In such lexicalised expressions remnants of strong and weak nouns can be found too, e.g.in het jaar des Heren (Anno Domini), where-en is actually the genitive ending of the weak noun. Similarly in some place names:'s-Gravenbrakel,'s-Hertogenbosch, etc. (with weak genitives ofgraaf "count",hertog "duke"). Also in this case, Germanretains this feature.
Dutch shares much of its word order with German. Dutch exhibitssubject–object–verb word order, but in main clauses theconjugated verb is moved into the second position in what is known as verb second orV2 word order. This makes Dutch word order almost identical to that of German, but often different from English, which hassubject–verb–object word order and has since lost the V2 word order that existed inOld English.[129]
An example sentence used in some Dutch language courses and textbooks is "Ik kan mijn pen niet vinden omdat het veel te donker is", which translates into English word for word as "I can my pen not find because it far too dark is", but in standard English word order would be written "I cannot find my pen because it is far too dark". If the sentence is split into a main and subclause and the verbs highlighted, the logic behind the word order can be seen.
Main clause: "Ikkan mijn pen nietvinden"
Verb infinitives are placed in final position, but the finite, conjugated verb, in this case "kan" (can), is made the second element of the clause.
In subordinate clauses: "omdat het veel te donkeris", the verb or verbs always go in the final position.
In aninterrogative main clause the usual word order is: conjugated verb followed by subject; other verbs in final position:
"Kun jij je pen niet vinden?" (literally "Can you your pen not find?") "Can't you find your pen?"
In the Dutch equivalent of awh-question the word order is: interrogative pronoun (or expression) + conjugated verb + subject; other verbs in final position:
"Waarom kun jij je pen niet vinden?" ("Why can you your pen not find?") "Why can't you find your pen?"
In atag question the word order is the same as in a declarative clause:
"Jij kunt je pen niet vinden?" ("You can your pen not find?") "You can't find your pen?"
A subordinate clause does not change its word order:
"Kun jij je pen niet vinden omdat het veel te donker is?" ("Can you your pen not find because it far too dark is?") "Can you not find your pen because it's far too dark?"
In Dutch, the diminutive is used extensively. The nuances of meaning expressed by the diminutive are a distinctive aspect of Dutch, and can be difficult for non-native speakers to master. It is very productive[130]: 61 and formed by adding one of thesuffixes to the noun in question, depending on the latter's phonological ending:
-je for ending in -b, -c, -d, -t, -f, -g, -ch, -k, -p, -v, -x, -z or -s:neef →neefje (male cousin,nephew)
-pje for ending in -m:boom (tree) →boompje
-kje for ending in -ing if the preceding syllable carries the stress:koning (king) →koninkje (the 'ng'-sound transforms into 'nk'); butring →ringetje (ring), andvondeling →vondelingetje (foundling) without this stress pattern
-tje for ending in -h, -j, -l, -n, -r, -w, or a vowel other than -y:zoen →zoentje (kiss). A single open vowel is doubled when adding "-tje" would change the pronunciation:auto →autootje (car).
-′tje for ending in -y and for abbreviations:baby →baby'tje,cd →cd'tje,A4 →A4'tje
-etje for ending in -b, -l, -n, -ng or -r preceded by a "short" (lax) vowel:bal →balletje (ball). Final consonant is doubled (except for -ng) to preserve the vowel's shortness.
The diminutive suffixes-ke (from which-tje has derived bypalatalisation),-eke,-ske,-ie (only for words ending -ch, -k, -p, or -s),-kie (instead of-kje), and-pie (instead of-pje) are used in southern dialects, and the forms ending on-ie as well in northern urban dialects. Some of these form part of expressions that became standard language, likeeen makkie, fromgemak =ease). The nounjoch (young boy) has, exceptionally, only the diminutive formjochie, also in standard Dutch. The form -ke is also found in many women's given names: Janneke, Marieke, Marijke, Mieke, Meike etc.
In Dutch, the diminutive is not restricted to nouns, but can be applied tonumerals (met z'n tweetjes, "the two of us"),pronouns (onderonsje, "tête-à-tête"),verbal particles (moetje, "shotgun marriage"), and evenprepositions (toetje, "dessert").[130]: 64–65 Adjectives andadverbs commonly take diminutive forms; the former take a diminutive ending and thus function as nouns, while the latter remain adverbs and always have the diminutive with the-s appended, e.g. adjective:groen ("green") → noun:groentje ("rookie"); adverb:even ("a while") → adverb:eventjes ("a little while").
Some nouns have two different diminutives, each with a different meaning:bloem (flower) →bloempje (lit. "small flower"), butbloemetje (lit. also "small flower", meaningbouquet). A few nouns exist solely in a diminutive form, e.g.zeepaardje (seahorse), while many, e.g.meisje (girl), originally a diminutive ofmeid (maid), have acquired a meaningindependent of their non-diminutive forms. A diminutive can sometimes be added to an uncountable noun to refer to a single portion:ijs (ice,ice cream) →ijsje (ice cream treat,cone of ice cream),bier (beer) →biertje. Some diminutive forms only exist in the plural, e.g.kleertjes (clothing).
When used to refer to time, the Dutch diminutive form can indicate whether the person in question found it pleasant or not:een uurtjekletsen (chatting for a "little" hour.) The diminutive can, however, also be used pejoratively:Hij was weer eens het "mannetje". (He acted as if he was the "little" man.)
All diminutives (even lexicalised ones like "meisje"(girl)) have neuter gender and take neuter concords: "ditkleine meisje", not "dezekleine meisje".
There are two series of personal pronouns, subject and objects pronouns. The forms on the right-hand sides within each column are the unemphatic forms; those not normally written are given in brackets. Onlyons andu do not have an unemphatic form. The distinction between emphatic and unemphatic pronouns is very important in Dutch.[130]: 67 Emphatic pronouns in English use thereflexive pronoun form, but are used to emphasise the subject, not to indicate a direct or indirect object. For example, "I gave (to) myself the money" is reflexive but "I myself gave the money (to someone else) " is emphatic.
Like English, Dutch has generalised the dative over the accusative case for all pronouns, e.g. NL 'me', 'je', EN 'me', 'you', vs. DE 'mich'/'mir' 'dich'/'dir'. There is one exception: the standard language prescribes that in the third person plural,hen is to be used for the direct object, andhun for the indirect object. This distinction was artificially introduced in the 17th century by grammarians, and is largely ignored in spoken language and not well understood by Dutch speakers. Consequently, the third person plural formshun andhen are interchangeable in normal usage, withhun being more common. The shared unstressed formze is also often used as both direct and indirect objects and is a useful avoidance strategy when people are unsure which form to use.[131]
Dutch also shares with English the presence of h- pronouns, e.g. NLhij,hem,haar,hen,hun and ENhe,him,her vs. DEer,ihn,ihr,ihnen.
Like most Germanic languages, Dutch forms nouncompounds, where the first noun modifies the category given by the second (hondenhok = doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, Dutch (like the other Germanic languages) either uses the closed form without spaces (boomhut = tree house) or inserts a hyphen (VVD-coryfee = outstanding member of theVVD, a political party). Like German, Dutch allows arbitrarily long compounds, but the longer they get, the less frequent they tend to be.
The longest serious entry in theVan Dale dictionary iswapenstilstandsonderhandelingⓘ (ceasefire negotiation). Leafing through the articles of association (Statuten) one may come across a 30-lettervertegenwoordigingsbevoegdheidⓘ (authorisation of representation). An even longer word cropping up in official documents is"ziektekostenverzekeringsmaatschappij"ⓘ(health insurance company) though the shorterzorgverzekeraar (health insurer) is more common.
Notwithstanding official spelling rules, some Dutch-speaking people, like some Scandinavians and German speakers, nowadays tend to write the parts of a compound separately, a practice sometimes dubbedde Engelse ziekte (the English disease).[132]
Dutch vocabulary is predominantly Germanic in origin, with loanwords accounting for 20%.[133] The main foreign influence on Dutch vocabulary since the 12th century and culminating in theFrench period has been French and (northern)Oïl languages, accounting for an estimated 6.8% of all words, or more than a third of all loanwords.Latin, which was spoken in the southern Low Countries for centuries and then played a major role as the language of science and religion, follows with 6.1%. High German and Low German were influential until the mid-20th century and account for 2.7%, but they are mostly unrecognisable since many have been "Dutchified": GermanFremdling → Dutchvreemdeling. Dutch has borrowed words from English since the mid-19th century, as a consequence of the increasing power and influence of Britain and the United States. English loanwords are about 1.5%, but continue to increase.[134] Many English loanwords become less visible over time as they are either gradually replaced by calques (skyscraper became Dutchwolkenkrabber) or neologisms (bucket list becameloodjeslijst). Conversely, Dutch contributed many loanwords to English, accounting for 1.3% of its lexicon.[135]
Dutch uses thedigraph⟨ij⟩ as a single letter and it can be seen in several variations. Here, a marking sayinglijnbus ("line/route" + "bus"; the tram lane also serves as bus road).
Dutch is written using theLatin script. Dutch uses one additional character beyond the standard alphabet, thedigraph⟨ij⟩. It has a relatively high proportion of doubled letters, both vowels and consonants, due to the formation of compound words and also to the spelling devices for distinguishing the many vowel sounds in the Dutch language. An example of five consecutive doubled letters is the wordvoorraaddoos (food storage container). Thediaeresis (Dutch:trema) is used to mark vowels that are pronounced separately when involving a pre- or suffix, and ahyphen is used when the problem occurs in compound words, e.g.beïnvloed (influenced),de zeeën (the seas) butzee-eend (scoter; lit. sea duck). Generally, otherdiacritical marks occur only in loanwords. However, theacute accent can also be used for emphasis or to differentiate between two forms, and its most common use is to differentiate between the indefinitearticleeen/ən/ "a, an" and the numeraléén/eːn/ "one".
Since the 1980s, the Dutch Language Union has been given the mandate to review and make recommendations on the official spelling of Dutch. Spelling reforms undertaken by the union occurred in 1995 and 2005. In the Netherlands, the official spelling is currently given legal basis by the Spelling Act of September 15, 2005.[n][o] The Spelling Act gives the Committee of Ministers of the Dutch Language Union the authority to determine the spelling of Dutch by ministerial decision. In addition, the law requires that this spelling be followed "at the governmental bodies, at educational institutions funded from the public purse, as well as at the exams for which legal requirements have been established". In other cases, it is recommended, but it is not mandatory to follow the official spelling. The Decree on the Spelling Regulations 2005 of 2006 contains the annexed spelling rules decided by the Committee of Ministers on April 25, 2005.[p][q] In Flanders, the same spelling rules are currently applied by the Decree of the Flemish Government Establishing the Rules of the Official Spelling and Grammar of the Dutch language of June 30, 2006.[r]
TheWoordenlijst Nederlandse taal, more commonly known ashet groene boekje (i.e. "the green booklet", because of its colour), is the authoritative orthographic word list (without definitions) of the Dutch Language Union; a version with definitions can be had asHet Groene Woordenboek; both are published bySdu.
Alle mensen worden vrij en gelijk in waardigheid en rechten geboren. Zij zijn begiftigd met verstand en geweten, en behoren zich jegens elkander in een geest van broederschap te gedragen.[137]
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[138]
^In France, a historical dialect calledFrench Flemish is spoken. There are about 80,000 Dutch speakers in France; seeSimpson 2009, p. 307. In French Flanders, only a remnant of 20,000 Flemish-speakers remain; seeBerdichevsky 2004, p. 90. French Flemish is spoken in the north-west of France by an estimated population of 20,000 daily speakers and 40,000 occasional speakers; seeEuropean Commission 2010. A dialect continuum exists between Dutch and German through theKleverlandish andLimburgish dialects. In 1941, 400,000 Indonesians spoke Dutch, and Dutch exerted a major influence on Indonesian; seeSneddon 2003, p. 161. In 1941, about 0.5% of the inland population had a reasonable knowledge of Dutch; seeMaier 2005, p. 12. At the beginning of World War II, about one million Asians had an active command of Dutch, while an additional half million had a passive knowledge; seeJones 2008, p. xxxi. Many older Indonesians speak Dutch as a second language; seeThomson 2003, p. 80. Some of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia speak Dutch amongst each other; seeTan 2008, pp. 62–64,Erdentuğ & Colombijn 2002, p. 104. Dutch is spoken by "smaller groups of speakers" in Indonesia; seeBussmann 2002, p. 83. Some younger Indonesians learn Dutch as a foreign language because their parents and grandparents may speak it and because in some circles, Dutch is regarded as the language of the elite; seeVos 2001, p. 91. At present, only educated people of the oldest generation, in addition to specialists who require knowledge of the language, can speak Dutch fluently; seeAmmon et al. 2006, p. 2017. Around 6.4% of present-day Indonesian vocabulary can be traced back to Dutch words, seeTadmor 2009, p. 698.
^Dutch is traditionally described as morphologically between English and German, but syntactically closer to German; seeClyne 2003, p. 133. Dutch has been positioned to be between English and German; seePutnam 2011, p. 108,Bussmann 2002, p. 83,Müller 1995, p. 121,Onysko & Michel 2010, p. 210. Typologically, Dutch takes a position between German and English, a similar word order to that of German, grammatical gender, and a largely Germanic vocabulary with many cognates to German words. It is morphologically close to English, and the case system and subjunctive have largely fallen out of use; seeSwan & Smith 2001, p. 6.
^Simpson 2009, p. 307,Booij 1999, p. 1 Dutch and German do not have a strict SVO order as in English; seeHogg 2002, pp. 87, 134. In contrast to English, which has SVO as the underlying word order, for Dutch and German this is SV1OV2 or (in subordinate clauses) SOV; seeIngram 1989, p. 495,Jordens & Lalleman 1988, pp. 149, 150, 177. Dutch has almost the same word order as German; seeSwan & Smith 2001, p. 6.
^Dutch vocabulary has more Germanic words than English and more Romance words than German; seeSimpson 2009, p. 309,Swan & Smith 2001, p. 17. Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic; seeSwan & Smith 2001, p. 6. Dutch has the most similar vocabulary to English; seeMallory & Adams 2006, p. 1.
^Friedrich Maurer uses the termIstvaeonic instead of Franconian; see Friedrich Maurer (1942),Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und frühdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde, Bern: Verlag Francke.
^The Dutch language does have the status of official language in the Netherlands, together with the Dutch Sign Language and West-Frisian (in Friesland). However, it is not legally enshrined in theDutch constitution, which is uncommon in the European Union.[62][63][64] There is almost no legally defined status of Dutch stipulated anywhere in legislation.[64] A long series of parliamentary and public discussions in the 2010s on the question whether to enshrine Dutch as the official language of the Netherlands came to nothing, and the proposal was withdrawn again by the government in February 2018.[64]
^Recognition of Surinamese-Dutch (Surinaams-Nederlands) as an equal natiolect was expressed in 1976 by the publication of theWoordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands – een geannoteerde lijst van Surinaams-Nederlandse woorden en uitdrukkingen (Dictionary of Surinam Dutch – an annotated list of Surinam-Dutch words and expressions), see Johannes van DonselaarWoordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands – een geannoteerde lijst van Surinaams-Nederlandse woorden en uitdrukkingen, Utrecht : Instituut A. W. de Groot voor Algemene Taalwetenschap van de Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht (1976), Amsterdam, E.T.Rap (1977)ISBN90-6005-125-4, published in 1989 as theWoordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands (Dictionary of Surinam Dutch), by Van Donselaar, and later by the publication of theWoordenboek Surinaams Nederlands (Dictionary Surinam Dutch) in 2009 (editor Renata de Bies, in cooperation with lexicologists Willy Martin en Willy Smedts), which was previously published as theWoordenboek van de Surinaamse Bijdrage aan het Nederlands (Dictionary of the Surinam Contribution to Dutch").
^SeeSpellingwet (in Dutch),archived from the original on October 24, 2019, retrievedOctober 24, 2019
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^W. Haubrichs, "Theodiscus, Deutsch und Germanisch – drei Ethnonyme, drei Forschungsbegriffe. Zur Frage der Instrumentalisierung und Wertbesetzung deutscher Sprach- und Volksbezeichnungen". In: H. Beck et al.,Zur Geschichte der Gleichung "germanisch-deutsch" (2004), 199–228
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^Full English transcript: Bible, that is: The entire H. Scripture, containing all the Canonical Books of the Old and the New Testaments. Now first, by order of the High Lords States General of the United Netherlands, and according to the Decision of the National Synod, held at Dordrecht, in the Years 1618 and 1619. From the Original languages into our Dutch language faithfully translated. With new added Clarifications of the dark passages, notes of the paralleled Texts, and new Indexes of both Testaments.
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