Dutch language

Dutch(endonym:Nederlands[ˈneːdərlɑnts]) is aWest Germanic languageof theIndo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first languageand 5 million as a second language and is thethird most spokenGermanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of the population of theNetherlandsandFlanders(which includes 60% of the population ofBelgium).Dutch was one of the official languages ofSouth Africauntil 1925, when it was replaced byAfrikaans, a separate but partiallymutually intelligibledaughter languageof Dutch.Afrikaans, depending on the definition used, may be considered asister language,spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly inSouth AfricaandNamibia,and evolving fromCape Dutchdialects.
In South America, it is the native language of the majority of the population ofSuriname, and spoken as a second or third language in thepolyglotCaribbeanisland countries ofAruba,CuraçaoandSint 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.TheDutch Caribbeanmunicipalities (St. Eustatius,SabaandBonaire) have Dutch as one of the official languages.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,until it was banned in 1957, but the ban was lifted afterwards.About a fifth of theIndonesian languagecan be traced to Dutch, including manyloan words.Indonesia'sCivil Codehas not been officially translated, and the original Dutch language version dating from colonial times remains the authoritative version.Up to half a million native speakers reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined,and historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of Franceand Germany.
Dutch is one of the closest relatives of bothGermanand English,and is colloquially said to be "roughly in between" them.Dutch, like English, has not undergone theHigh German consonant shift, does not useGermanic umlautas a grammatical marker, has largely abandoned the use of thesubjunctive, and haslevelledmuch of itsmorphology, including most of itscase system.Features shared with German, however, include the survival of two to threegrammatical genders– albeit with few grammatical consequences– as well as the use ofmodal particles,final-obstruent devoicing, and (similar)word order.Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic; it incorporates slightly moreRomance loansthan German, but far fewer than English.
In Belgium, the Netherlands and Suriname, the native official name for Dutch isNederlands(historicallyNederlandschbefore theDutch orthographic reforms).SometimesVlaams("Flemish") is used as well to describeStandard DutchinFlanders, whereasHollands("Hollandic") is occasionally used as a colloquial term for the standard language in the central and northwestern parts of the Netherlands.
English uses the adjectiveDutchas 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*-iskazwas an adjective-forming suffix, of which-ishis theModern Englishform.Theodiscuswas itsLatinisedformand used as anadjectivereferring to theGermanicvernacularsof 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.It was first recorded in 786, when theBishop of Ostiawrites toPope Adrian Iabout asynodtaking place inCorbridge,England, where the decisions are being written down "tam Latine quam theodisce" meaning "in Latin as well as common vernacular".
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 theantonymof*walhisk(Romance-speakers, specificallyOld French).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.
In the Low CountriesDietschor its Early Modern Dutch formDuytschas 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 courtin 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 theRomansreferring to the region asGermania Inferior("Lower" Germania).It is a reference to the Low Countries' downriver location at theRhine–Meuse–Scheldt deltanear theNorth Sea.
From 1551, the designationNederlandsreceived strong competition from the nameNederduytsch(literally "Low Dutch",Dutchbeing used in its archaic sense covering all continental West Germanic languages). It is acalqueof the aforementioned Roman provinceGermania Inferiorand 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.Use ofNederduytschwas popular in the 16th century but ultimately lost out overNederlandsduring the close of the 18th century, with(Hoog)Duytschestablishing 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 Germandialectologiststerming 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 asNederduitsandHoogduits. As a result,Nederduitsno 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 Dutchandits literature.
Old Dutchcan 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 continuumremained 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 Franksin the 5th century. These happened to develop throughMiddle Dutchto Modern Dutch over the course of fifteen centuries.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 whenlinguistscan 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:
Among theIndo-European languages, Dutch is grouped within theGermanic languages, meaning it shares acommon ancestorwith languages such as English, German, and theScandinavian languages. All Germanic languages are subject to theGrimm's lawandVerner's lawsound shifts, which originated in theProto-Germanic languageand define the basic features differentiating them from other Indo-European languages. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in thepre-Roman Northern European Iron Age.
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups:East(now extinct),West, andNorthGermanic.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 ofphonologicalandmorphologicalinnovations not found in North or East Germanic.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.
TheFranksemerged in the southern Netherlands (Salian Franks) and central Germany (Ripuarian Franks), and later descended intoGaul. The name oftheir kingdomsurvives in that of France. Although they ruled theGallo-Romansfor 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 languagewith 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.
The termOld DutchorOld Low Franconianrefers to the set ofFranconian dialects(i.e. West Germanic varieties that are assumed to have evolved fromFrankish) spoken in theLow Countriesduring theEarly Middle Ages, from around the 5th to the 12th century.Old Dutch is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French.Old Dutch is regarded as the primary stage in the development of a separate Dutch language. It was spoken by the descendants of theSalian Frankswho occupied what is now the southernNetherlands, northernBelgium, part of northern France, and parts of theLower Rhineregions of Germany.
The High German consonant shift, moving over Western Europe from south to west, caused a differentiation with theCentral and High Franconianin Germany. The latter would as a consequence evolve (along withAlemannic,BavarianandLombardic) 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 FrisianandOld 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.
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.The oldest recorded is found in theSalic law. In thisFrankishdocument 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 vogalanestas 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 Flemishmonkin 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 literaturedeveloped. 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.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:
A process ofstandardisationstarted in theMiddle Ages, especially under the influence of theBurgundianDucal Court in Dijon (Brusselsafter 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 Antwerpto the Spanish army led to a flight to the northern Netherlands, where theDutch Republicdeclared 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,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.
In theSouthern Netherlands(now Belgium and Luxembourg), developments were different. Under subsequentSpanish,AustrianandFrench 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 Movementstood 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.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.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 Germanicsub-group, theLow Franconianlanguages, paired with its sister language Limburgish or East Low Franconian. Its closest relative is themutually intelligibledaughter language Afrikaans. Other West Germanic languages related to Dutch areGerman,Englishand the un-standardised languagesLow GermanandYiddish.
Dutch stands out in combining someIngvaeonic characteristics(occurring consistently in English and Frisian and reduced in intensity from west to east over thecontinental West Germanicplane) 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 shiftand had some changes of its own.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.
Dutchdialectsare 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 theNetherlandsand in theBrusselsandFlemish regionsofBelgium. 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 Saxonregional 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 languagesLimburgishis 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 languagein 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 ofGhenthas very distinct "g", "e" and "r" sounds that greatly differ from its surrounding villages. TheBrusselsdialect combines Brabantian with words adopted fromWalloonandFrench.
Some dialects had, until recently, extensions across the borders of other standard language areas. In most cases, the heavy influence of the standard language has broken thedialect continuum. Examples are theGronings dialectspoken inGroningenas well as the closely related varieties in adjacentEast Frisia(Germany).Kleverlandishis a dialect spoken in southernGelderland, the northern tip ofLimburg, and northeast ofNorth Brabant(Netherlands), but also in adjacent parts ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia(Germany).Limburgish(Limburgs) is spoken inLimburg (Belgium)as well as in the remaining part ofLimburg (Netherlands)and extends across the German border. West Flemish (Westvlaams) is spoken inWest Flanders, the western part ofZeelandic Flandersand also inFrench Flanders, where it virtually became extinct to make way for French.
TheWest Flemishgroup of dialects, spoken inWest FlandersandZeeland, 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 Flemishand 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.
Hollandicis spoken inHollandandUtrecht, though the original forms of this dialect (which were heavily influenced by a West Frisiansubstratumand, 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,AmsterdamandUtrecht. 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 Frisianin the 16th century and is known asStadsfries("Urban Frisian"). Hollandic together with inter aliaKleverlandishandNorth Brabantian, but without Stadsfries, are theCentral Dutch dialects.
Brabantianis named after the historicalDuchy of Brabant, which corresponded mainly to the provinces ofNorth Brabantand southernGelderland, the Belgian provinces ofAntwerpandFlemish 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 ofLimburgwhile its strong influence on theEast FlemishofEast Flandersand easternZeelandic Flandersweakens towards the west. In a small area in the northwest of North Brabant (Willemstad),Hollandicis spoken. Conventionally, theKleverlandishdialects 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.
Limburgish, spoken in bothBelgian LimburgandNetherlands Limburgand 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 theRipuarianvarieties 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,DrentheandOverijssel, as well as parts of the provinces ofGelderland,Flevoland,FrieslandandUtrecht. 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,ZutphenandDoesburg) 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.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.
While a somewhat heterogeneous group ofLow Franconiandialects, Limburgish has received official status as a regional language in theNetherlandsand 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 languagesin South Africa.
West Frisian(Westerlauwers Fries), along withSaterland FrisianandNorth Frisian, evolved from the same branch of theWest Germanic languagesasOld 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 languageof Dutch, like English and German.
Dutch is anofficial languageof the Netherlands proper (not enshrined in theconstitutionbut in administrative law), Belgium, Suriname, the Dutch Caribbean municipalities (St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire),Aruba,CuraçaoandSint Maarten. Dutch is also an official language of several international organisations, such as theEuropean Union,Union of South American Nationsand 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.
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 areasinto which the country is divided (Flanders, francophoneWallonia, and theGerman-speaking Community) are largely monolingual, withBrusselsbeing bilingual. The Netherlands and Belgium produce the vast majority ofmusic,films,booksand other media written or spoken in Dutch.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 orthographydefined in the so-called "Green Booklet" authoritative dictionary and employing theLatin alphabetwhen writing; however, pronunciation varies between dialects. Indeed, in stark contrast to its written uniformity, Dutch lacks a uniqueprestige dialectand has a large dialectal continuum consisting of 28 main dialects, which can themselves be further divided into at least 600 distinguishable varieties.In the Netherlands, theHollandic dialectdominates in nationalbroadcast mediawhile in FlandersBrabantian dialectdominates in that capacity, making them in turn unofficialprestige dialectsin their respective countries.
Outside the Netherlands and Belgium, the dialect spoken in and around the German town ofKleve(Kleverlandish) is historically and genetically aLow Franconianvariety. In North-Western France, the area aroundCalaiswas historically Dutch-speaking (West Flemish), of which an estimated 20,000 are daily speakers. The cities ofDunkirk,GravelinesandBourbourgonly 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 thecatechismin Dutch in many parishes.
During the second half of the 19th century, Dutch was banned from all levels of education by bothPrussiaand 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.
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 statesofLower SaxonyandNorth Rhine-Westphalia, and about 7,000 in theFrench regionofNord-Pas-de-Calais(of which 4,550 are in primary school).At an academic level, the largest number of faculties ofneerlandistiekcan be found in Germany (30 universities), followed by France (20 universities) and the United Kingdom (5 universities).
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 thereand 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,as certainlaw codesare still only available in Dutch.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.In total, several thousand Indonesians study Dutch as a foreign language.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.In Indonesia this involves about 35,000 students.
Unlike other European nations, the Dutch chose not to follow a policy of language expansion amongst the indigenous peoples of their colonies.In the last quarter of the 19th century, however, a local elite gainedproficiencyin Dutch so as to meet the needs of expanding bureaucracy and business.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.
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.Yet the Indonesian language inherited many words from Dutch: words for everyday life as well as scientific and technological terms.One scholar argues that 20% of Indonesian words can be traced back to Dutch words,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 arecalquesof 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 vocabularybetween Indonesian and Malay. Someregional languagesin Indonesia have some Dutch loanwords as well; for example,SundanesewordKatelor "frying pan" origin in Dutch is "ketel". TheJavaneseword for "bike/bicycle" "pit" can be traced back to its origin in Dutch "fiets". TheMalaccastate ofMalaysiawas also colonized by the Dutch in its longest period that Malacca was under foreign control. In the 19th century, theEast Indiestrade 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.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.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 censusshowed 37,248 people speaking Dutch at home.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.
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, whenslaverywas abolished in the West Indies, slaves were forbidden to speak Dutch, with the effect that local creoles such asPapiamentoandSranan Tongowhich 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.
InSurinametoday, Dutch is the sole official language,and over 60 percent of the population speaks it as amother tongue.Dutch is the obligatory medium of instruction in schools in Suriname, even for non-native speakers.A further twenty-four percent of the population speaks Dutch as asecond language.Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975 and has been an associate member of theDutch Language Unionsince 2004.Thelingua francaof Suriname, however, isSranan Tongo,spoken natively by about a fifth of the population.
Dutch is official on all 6Dutch Caribbeanislands (Aruba,Bonaire,Curaçao,Sint Maarten,SabaandSint 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,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.
Now-extinctDutch-based creole languageswere formerly spoken in theVirgin IslandsandGuyana(Negerhollands,Berbice Dutch creole,Skepi Dutch creole).
In the United States, a now extinct dialect of Dutch,Jersey Dutch, spoken by descendants of 17th-century Dutch settlers in Bergen and Passaic counties, was still spoken as late as 1921.OtherDutch-based creole languagesonce spoken in the Americas includeMohawk Dutch(inAlbany, New York),Berbice(in Guyana),Skepi(inEssequibo, Guyana) andNegerhollands(in theUnited States Virgin Islands).Pennsylvania Dutchis not a member of the set of Dutch dialects and is less misleadingly calledPennsylvania German.
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 Yorkalong 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,while according to the2006 Canadian census, this number reaches 160,000 Dutch speakers.At an academic level, 20 universities offer Dutch studies in the United States.In Canada, Dutch is the fourth most spoken language by farmers, after English, French and German,and the fifth most spoken non-official language overall (by 0.6% of Canadians).
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.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.In 1876, the first Afrikaans newspaper calledDie Afrikaanse Patriotwas published in the Cape Colony.
European Dutch remained theliterary languageuntil the start of the 1920s, when under pressure ofAfrikaner nationalismthe local "African" Dutch was preferred over the written, European-based standard.In 1925, section 137 of the 1909 constitution of theUnion of South Africawas amended by Act 8 of 1925, stating "the wordDutchin article 137 ... is hereby declared to include Afrikaans".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.
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.Afrikaans is grammatically far less complex than Dutch, and vocabulary items are generally altered in a clearly patterned manner, e.g.vogelbecomesvoël("bird") andregenbecomesreën("rain").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.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%),of whom 53% areColouredsand 42.4%Whites.In 1996, 40 percent of South Africans reported to know Afrikaans at least at a very basic level of communication.It is thelingua francain Namibia,where it is spoken natively in 11 percent of households.In total, Afrikaans is thefirst languagein South Africa alone of about 7.1 million peopleand is estimated to be asecond languagefor at least 10 million people worldwide,compared to over 23 millionand 5 million respectively, for Dutch.
The Dutch colonial presence elsewhere in Africa, notablyDutch Gold Coast, was too ephemeral not to be wiped out by prevailing colonising European successors. Belgian colonial presence inCongoandRwanda-Urundi(BurundiandRwanda, held underLeague of Nationsmandate and later a UN trust territory) left little Dutch (Flemish) legacy, as French was the main colonial language.
For further details on different realisations of phonemes, dialectal differences and example words, see the full article atDutch phonology.
Unlike other Germanic languages, Dutch has no phonologicalaspiration of consonants.Like most other Germanic languages, the Dutchconsonantsystem did not undergo theHigh German consonant shiftand has asyllablestructure that allows fairly-complexconsonant clusters. Dutch also retains full use of thevelarfricativesofProto-Germanicthat 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 formgoedis[ɣut]. Dutch shares thisfinal-obstruent devoicingwith German (the Dutch noungoudis pronounced[ɣɑut], the adjectivegoudenis pronounced[ɣɑudə(n)], like the German nounGold, pronounced[ɡɔlt], adjectivegolden, pronounced[ɡɔldn]vs Englishgoldandgolden, both pronounced with[d].)
Voicing of pre-vocalic initialvoiceless alveolar fricativesoccurs although less in Dutch than in German (Dutchzeven, Germansiebenwith[z]versus Englishsevenand Low Germansevenwith[s]), and also the shift/θ/→/d/. Dutch shares only with Low German the development of/xs/→/ss/(Dutchvossen,ossenand Low GermanVösse,Ossenversus GermanFüchse,Ochsenand Englishfoxes,oxen), and also the development of/ft/→/xt/though it is far more common in Dutch (Dutchzachtand Low Germansachtversus Germansanftand Englishsoft, but Dutchkrachtversus GermanKraftand Englishcraft).
Notes:
Like English, Dutch did not developi-mutationas a morphological marker and shares with most other Germanic languages the lengthening of shortvowelsinstressedopensyllables, which has led to contrastivevowel lengthbeing used as amorphologicalmarker. Dutch has an extensivevowelinventory. 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 asphoneticallylonger 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").
Notes:
Unique to the development of Dutch is the collapse of olderol/ul/al+dentalintool+ dental, followed by vocalisation of pre-consonantal/l/ and after a short vowel. That created the diphthong/ɑu/: Dutchgoud,zoutandboutcorresponds with Low GermanGold,Solt,Bolt; GermanGold,Salz,Baltand 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 asijorei) 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), 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 structureof 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 aresuperlativeadjectives.
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,NorthandSouth Holland, which has been dubbed "Polder Dutch" by Jan Stroop.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]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.The lowering of the diphthongs has long been current in many Dutch dialects and is comparable to the EnglishGreat Vowel Shiftand 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.
AmongBelgianandSurinameseDutch-speakers and speakers from other regions in the Netherlands, this vowel shift is not taking place.
Dutch is grammatically similar toGerman, such as insyntaxand verbmorphology(for verb morphology in English verbs, Dutch and German, seeGermanic weak verbandGermanic strong verb).Grammatical caseshave largely become limited to pronouns and manyset phrases. Inflected forms of the articles are often grace surnames and toponyms.
Standard Dutch uses threegendersacross natural and grammatical genders but for most non-Belgian speakers, masculine and feminine have merged to form the common gender (withdefor "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.
When grouped according to their conjugational class, Dutch has four main verb types:weak verbs,strong verbs,irregular verbsand mixed verbs.
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:
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.
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".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 thesubjunctivehave largely fallen out of use, and the system has generalised thedativeover theaccusativecasefor certainpronouns(NL:me,je; EN:me,you; LI:mi,divs. 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.However, certain idioms and expressions continue to include now archaic case declensions. The definite article has just two forms,deandhet, more complex than English, which has onlythe. The use of the older inflected formdenin the dative and accusative, as well as use ofderin 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).
In modern Dutch, the genitive articlesdesandderin 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 articledeorhet, 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:
In contemporary usage, thegenitive casestill occurs a little more often with plurals than with singulars, as the plural article isderfor all genders and no special noun inflection must be taken account of.Deris commonly used in order to avoid reduplication ofvan, e.g.het merendeeldergedichtenvan deauteurinstead ofhet merendeelvan degedichtenvan deauteur("the bulk of the author's poems").
There is also a genitive form for the pronoundie/dat("that [one], those [ones]"), namelydiensfor masculine and neuter singulars (occurrences ofdierfor 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:
Analogically, the relative and interrogative pronounwie("who") has the genitive formswiensandwier(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'sas abbreviation ofdes; "in the morning") anddesnoods(lit: "of the need", translated: "if necessary").
The Dutch written grammar has simplified over the past 100 years:casesare 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-ein all other cases. (This was also the case in Middle English, as in "a goodeman".)Fietsbelongs to the masculine/feminine category, whilewaterandhuisare neuter.
An adjective has noeif it is in thepredicative:De soep is koud.
More complex inflection is still found in certain lexicalised expressions likede heer deshuizes(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 desHeren(Anno Domini), where-enis 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–verbword order, but in main clauses theconjugated verbis 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–objectword order and has since lost the V2 word order that existed inOld English.
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: "Ikkanmijn 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 aninterrogativemain clause the usual word order is: conjugated verb followed by subject; other verbs in final position:
In the Dutch equivalent of awh-questionthe word order is: interrogative pronoun (or expression) + conjugated verb + subject; other verbs in final position:
In atag questionthe word order is the same as in a declarative clause:
A subordinate clause does not change its word order:
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 productiveand formed by adding one of thesuffixesto the noun in question, depending on the latter's phonological ending:
The diminutive suffixes-ke(from which-tjehas 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-ieas 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").Adjectivesandadverbscommonly 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-sappended, 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. Onlyonsandudo not have an unemphatic form. The distinction between emphatic and unemphatic pronouns is very important in Dutch.Emphatic pronounsin English use thereflexive pronounform, 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,henis to be used for the direct object, andhunfor 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 formshunandhenare interchangeable in normal usage, withhunbeing more common. The shared unstressed formzeis also often used as both direct and indirect objects and is a useful avoidance strategy when people are unsure which form to use.
Dutch also shares with English the presence of h- pronouns, e.g. NLhij,hem,haar,hen,hunand ENhe,him,hervs. 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 Daledictionary 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).
Dutch vocabulary is predominantly Germanic in origin, with loanwords accounting for 20%.The main foreign influence on Dutch vocabulary since the 12th century and culminating in theFrench periodhas 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.Many English loanwords become less visible over time as they are either gradually replaced by calques (skyscraperbecame Dutchwolkenkrabber) or neologisms (bucket listbecameloodjeslijst). Conversely, Dutch contributed many loanwords to English, accounting for 1.3% of its lexicon.
The main Dutch dictionary is theVan Dale groot woordenboek der Nederlandse taal, which contains some 268,826headwords.In the field oflinguistics, the 45,000-pageWoordenboek der Nederlandsche Taalis also widely used. That scholarly endeavour took 147 years to complete and contains all recorded Dutch words from theEarly Middle Agesonward.
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 ahyphenis used when the problem occurs in compound words, e.g.beïnvloed(influenced),de zeeën(the seas) butzee-eend(scoter; lit. sea duck). Generally, otherdiacritical marksoccur only in loanwords. However, theacute accentcan 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.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.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.
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.
Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsin Dutch:
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: