page_title: Culture of the Netherlands
section_title: Language
hierarchical_section_title: Culture of the Netherlands / Language
context_page_description: The culture of the Netherlands is diverse, reflecting regional differences as well as the foreign influences built up by centuries of the Dutch people's mercantile and explorative spirit. The Netherlands and its people have long played an important role as centre of cultural liberalism and tolerance. The Dutch Golden Age is popularly regarded as its zenith.
context_section_description: The official language of the Netherlands is Dutch, spoken by almost all people in the Netherlands. Dutch is also spoken and official in Aruba, Brussels, Curaçao, Flanders, Sint Maarten and Suriname. It is a West Germanic, Low Franconian language that originated in the Early Middle Ages (c. 470) and was standardized in the 16th century. West Frisian is also a recognized language and it is used by the government in the province of Friesland. Several dialects of Low Saxon (Nedersaksisch in Dutch) are spoken in much of the north and east and are recognized by the Netherlands as regional languages according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Another Dutch dialect granted the status of regional language is Limburgish, which is spoken in the south-eastern province of Limburg. However, both Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish spread across the Dutch-German border and belong to a common Dutch-Low German dialect continuum.
  Lastly, a sister language of Dutch, Afrikaans, has emerged in recent years. Originally an amalgamation of languages used on the ports of Cape Town by employees of the United East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC), the language developed from a 16th-century lingua franca (only shortly after the Statenvertaling, the first Dutch Bible translation in 1637) into a myriad of local dialects (including variations spoken by populations of Khoi). During the time of the Boer Republics, some populations favoured Modern Dutch, while others identified more closely with "kitchen Dutch". At the height of the unity of these republics, a language almost 300 years in the making (consisting of isolated Bantu, Khoi, Portuguese, German, Danish, French etc. influence) underwent broad reformation (which included the adoption of some synthetic attributes) into the established language recognised today. Following the reformation, Afrikaans shares a notably large lexicon with Modern Dutch, confusing many novice linguists into mistakingly classifying Afrikaans as a daughter language of Modern Dutch (though this may arguably be a case of hubris).
  There is a tradition of learning foreign languages in the Netherlands: about 89% of the total population have a good knowledge of English, 70% of German, 29% of French and 5% of Spanish.
caption: A map illustrating the area in which Dutch is spoken.
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