romikgosai/squad_modified huggingface dataset:
Some Flemish dialects are so distinct that they might be considered as separate language variants, although the strong significance of language in Belgian politics would prevent the government from classifying them as such. West Flemish in particular has sometimes been considered a distinct variety. Dialect borders of these dialects do not correspond to present political boundaries, but reflect older, medieval divisions. The Brabantian dialect group, for instance, also extends to much of the south of the Netherlands, and so does Limburgish. West Flemish is also spoken in Zeelandic Flanders (part of the Dutch province of Zeeland), and by older people in French Flanders (a small area that borders Belgium).

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What Dutch dialect is so distinct that it's often considered a language variant?
A: West Flemish", '
Q: What kind of governmental boundary does dialect distribution transcend, reflecting medieval divisions?
A: political boundaries', '
Q: What province is Zeelandic Flanders in?
A: Zeeland', '
Q: What area that abuts Belgium still has some older people who speak West Flemish?
A: French Flanders', '
Q: Along with Limburgish, what other Dutch dialect is spoken down into a lot of the southern Netherlands?
A: Brabantian']
Many native speakers of Dutch, both in Belgium and the Netherlands, assume that Afrikaans and West Frisian are dialects of Dutch but are considered separate and distinct from Dutch: a daughter language and a sister language, respectively. Afrikaans evolved mainly from 17th century Dutch dialects, but had influences from various other languages in South Africa. However, it is still largely mutually intelligible with Dutch. (West) Frisian evolved from the same West Germanic branch as Old English and is less akin to Dutch.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What dialect is considered a sister language to Dutch?
A: West Frisian', "
Q: Which Dutch dialect is so distinct that it's often called a daughter language?
A: Afrikaans", '
Q: Afrikaans is mostly derived from the Dutch spoken in what century?
A: 17th', '
Q: The Dutch influence on Afrikaans was seasoned with languages from what country?
A: South Africa', '
Q: What two-word phrase describes the relationship whereby Dutch and Afrikaans speakers can understand each other?
A: mutually intelligible']
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's French Flanders, where it is in the ultimate stage of language death. Though Belgium as a whole is multilingual, the two regions into which the country is divided (Flanders, francophone Wallonia, bilingual Brussels and small 'facility' zones) are largely monolingual. The Netherlands and Belgium produce the vast majority of music, films, books and other media written or spoken in Dutch. Dutch is a monocentric language, with all speakers using the same standard form (authorized by the Dutch Language Union) based on a Dutch orthography employing the Latin alphabet when writing. In stark contrast to its written uniformity, Dutch lacks a prestige dialect and has a large dialectal continuum consisting of 28 main dialects, which can themselves be further divided into at least 600 distinguishable varieties.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What percentage of people in Belgium speak Dutch?
A: 59%', '
Q: What country in Europe has the highest percentage of Dutch speakers?
A: the Netherlands', '
Q: What region in France is experiencing Dutch language death?
A: French Flanders', "
Q: What's the name of the institution that ensures Dutch is monocentric?
A: Dutch Language Union", '
Q: How many different major dialects of Dutch are there?
A: 28']
Outside of the Netherlands and Belgium, the dialect around the German town of Kleve (South Guelderish) both historically and genetically belongs to the Dutch language. In Northeastern France, the area around Calais was historically Dutch-speaking (West Flemish) of which an estimated 20,000 daily speakers. The cities of Dunkirk, Gravelines and Bourbourg only became predominantly French-speaking by the end of the 19th century. In the countryside, until World War I, many elementary schools continued to teach in Dutch, and the Catholic Church continued to preach and teach the catechism in Flemish in many parishes.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What town in Germany has always had mostly Dutch speakers?
A: Kleve', '
Q: About how many people around Calais, France speak Dutch every day?
A: 20,000', '
Q: It took until the end of what century for people in French cities like Gravelines to finally switch over to French from Dutch?
A: 19th', '
Q: Which church often preached in Flemish prior to World War I?
A: the Catholic Church', '
Q: In what area of France is Calais located?
A: Northeastern France']
During the second half of the 19th century Dutch was banned from all levels of education by both Prussia 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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: In what country other than France did Dutch lose most of it usage in the 19th century?
A: Prussia', '
Q: In France and Germany, what languages will often be substituted by native speakers of Dutch dialects?
A: German or French', '
Q: In what segment of the population is the decline in usage of Dutch most prominent?
A: younger generations', '
Q: Other than France, what country does not give Dutch legal status as a language?
A: Germany', '
Q: What language did France and Prussia ban from use in education in the late 19th century?
A: Dutch']
As a foreign language, Dutch is mainly taught in primary and secondary schools in areas adjacent to the Netherlands and Flanders. In French-speaking Belgium, over 300,000 pupils are enrolled in Dutch courses, followed by over 23,000 in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, and about 7,000 in the French region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (of which 4,550 are in primary school). At an academic level, the largest number of faculties of neerlandistiek can be found in Germany (30 universities), followed by France (20 universities) and the United Kingdom (5 universities).

Questions and answers:
['
Q: About how many students in Belgium are studying Dutch?
A: 300,000', '
Q: How many primary school students are learning Dutch in Nord-Pas-de-Calais?
A: 4,550', '
Q: What country has the most universities offering courses in neerlandistiek?
A: Germany', '
Q: How many universities in France offer neerlandistiek courses?
A: 20', '
Q: Besides North Rhine-Westphalia, which German state has the most pupils of Dutch?
A: Lower Saxony']
Despite the Dutch presence in Indonesia for almost 350 years, as the Asian bulk of the Dutch East Indies, the Dutch language has no official status there and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation, or employed in the legal profession, as some legal codes are 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) in Jakarta. 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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: For how long have there been Dutch speakers in Indonesia?
A: almost 350 years', '
Q: In what profession is Dutch often required in the Dutch East Indies?
A: the legal profession', '
Q: What institution in Jakarta still teaches Dutch?
A: Erasmus Language Centre', '
Q: About how many pupils in all of Indonesia study Dutch as part of their coursework?
A: 35,000', '
Q: In addition to students pursuing law degrees, what other course of study often includes Dutch?
A: history']
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 gained proficiency in 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.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Towards the end of what century did it become important for more people in Dutch colonies to speak Dutch?
A: 19th', '
Q: What VIP segment of the population in Dutch colonies learned Dutch to participate in business and government?
A: local elite', '
Q: What was the Dutch government afraid of doing if they taught their colonies Dutch?
A: destabilising the colony', "
Q: Leaders wanted to hang onto knowledge of the Dutch language because it's the language of what?
A: power"]
After independence, Dutch was dropped as an official language and replaced by Malay. 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 (Dutch for "office") in Indonesian is kantor, while bus ("bus") becomes bis. In addition, many Indonesian words are calques on Dutch, for example, rumah sakit (Indonesian for "hospital") is calqued on the Dutch ziekenhuis (literally "house of the sick"), kebun binatang ("zoo") on dierentuin (literally "animal garden"), undang-undang dasar ("constitution") from grondwet (literally "ground law"). These account for some of the differences in vocabulary between Indonesian and Malay.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What became the official language of Indonesia after they declared their independence?
A: Malay', '
Q: What\'s the Indonesian word for "office"? 
A: kantor', '
Q: What term describes the literally translated Indonesian versions of Dutch terms that have become standard?
A: calques', '
Q: What is the Indonesian calque for the Dutch word that literally translates as "animal garden"?
A: kebun binatang', '
Q: What Dutch word for a hospital was calqued into the Indonesian "rumah sakit"?
A: ziekenhuis']
In Suriname today, Dutch is the sole official language, and over 60 percent of the population speaks it as a mother 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 a second language. Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975 and has been an associate member of the Dutch Language Union since 2004. The lingua franca of Suriname, however, is Sranan Tongo, spoken natively by about a fifth of the population.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: About what percentage of residents of Suriname speak Dutch?
A: 60', '
Q: What language would you hear teachers speak if you attended school in Suriname?
A: Dutch', '
Q: When did Suriname officially become independent from the Netherlands?
A: 1975', '
Q: What year did Suriname join the Dutch Language Union?
A: 2004', "
Q: What's the common language that around 20% of Suriname's people speak?
A: Sranan Tongo"]
In the United States, an almost 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. Other Dutch-based creole languages once spoken in the Americas include Mohawk Dutch (in Albany, New York), Berbice (in Guyana), Skepi (in Essequibo, Guyana) and Negerhollands (in the United States Virgin Islands). Pennsylvania Dutch is not a member of the set of Dutch dialects and is less misleadingly called Pennsylvania German.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What's the year that Jersey Dutch was last spoken, according to records?
A: 1921", '
Q: What Dutch-based language popped up in the area of Albany, New York?
A: Mohawk Dutch', "
Q: What's a more accurate name for Pennsylvania Dutch since it's not a Dutch dialect?
A: Pennsylvania German", '
Q: Which Dutch dialect was once spoken in the U.S. Virgin Islands?
A: Negerhollands', '
Q: In what country were the Berbice and Skepi dialects spoken?
A: Guyana']
European Dutch remained the literary language until the start of the 1920s, when under pressure of Afrikaner nationalism the local "African" Dutch was preferred over the written, European-based standard. In 1925, section 137 of the 1909 constitution of the Union of South Africa was amended by Act 8 of 1925, stating "the word Dutch in 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% to 95% of Afrikaans vocabulary is ultimately of Dutch origin.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: In what decade did European Dutch yield to the local dialect in South Africa?
A: 1920s', '
Q: At the high end, what percentage of Afrikaans words come from Dutch?
A: 95%', "
Q: What South African document from 1983 doesn't list Dutch as an official language?
A: constitution", '
Q: What section of the constitution was changed by Act 8 of 1925 to include Afrikaans with Dutch?
A: 137', '
Q: What pressure influenced the shift in South Africa from the use of European Dutch in the 1920s?
A: Afrikaner nationalism']
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. vogel becomes voël ("bird") and regen becomes reën ("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.

Questions and answers:
["
Q: Who has a more difficult time understanding the other's language: Dutch speakers or Afrikaans speakers?
A: Afrikaans speakers", '
Q: Is Afrikaans more or less complex compared to Dutch?
A: less complex', '
Q: What\'s the Dutch word for "bird"?
A: vogel', '
Q: What is the Afrikaans word for "rain"?
A: reën', '
Q: Is it difficult or easy to estimate the number of students in South Africa who study Dutch?
A: difficult']
It is the third language of South Africa in terms of native speakers (~13.5%), of whom 53 percent are Coloureds and 42.4 percent Whites. In 1996, 40 percent of South Africans reported to know Afrikaans at least at a very basic level of communication. It is the lingua franca in Namibia, where it is spoken natively in 11 percent of households. In total, Afrikaans is the first language in South Africa alone of about 6.8 million people and is estimated to be a second language for at least 10 million people worldwide, compared to over 23 million and 5 million respectively, for Dutch.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Approximately what percentage of South Africans are native Afrikaans speakers?
A: 13.5%', '
Q: Which country has 11% of households who speak Afrikaans?
A: Namibia', '
Q: How many of the South Africans surveyed in 1996 said they speak at least a little Afrikaans?
A: 40 percent', '
Q: About how many South Africans speak Afrikaans as their primary language?
A: 6.8 million', '
Q: Approximately how many people in the world speak Dutch as a second language?
A: 5 million']
Unlike other Germanic languages, Dutch doesn't have phonological aspiration of consonants. Like English, Dutch did not participate in the second consonant shift. Like most Germanic languages, the Dutch consonant system did not undergo the High German consonant shift and has a syllable structure that allows fairly complex consonant clusters. Dutch also retains full use of the velar fricatives that were present in Proto-Germanic, but lost or modified in many other Germanic languages. Dutch has final-obstruent devoicing: at the end of a word, voicing distinction is neutralised and all obstruents are pronounced voiceless. For example, goede ("good") is /ˈɣudə/ but the related form goed is /ɣut/. Dutch shares with German Final-obstruent devoicing (Du brood [broːt] and German Brot vs Eng bread).

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What sound does Dutch still use from Proto-Germanic that was phased out in other Germanic languages?
A: velar fricatives', '
Q: Along with English, what pronunciation shift did Dutch not undergo?
A: the second consonant shift', '
Q: How are obstruents pronounced at the end of Dutch words?
A: voiceless', '
Q: How would you say "good" in Dutch?
A: goede', '
Q: What language other than Dutch also employs final-obstruent devoicing?
A: German']
Voicing of pre-vocalic initial voiceless alveolar fricatives occurs, although less in Dutch than in German (Du zeven, Germ sieben [z] vs. Eng seven and LG seven [s]), and also the shift in /θ/ > /d/. Dutch shares only with Low German the development of /xs/ > /ss/ (Du vossen, ossen and LG Vösse, Ossen vs. Germ Füchse, Ochsen and Eng foxes, oxen), and also the development of /ft/ → /xt/ though it is far more common in Dutch (Du zacht and LG sacht vs. Germ sanft and Eng soft, but Du kracht vs. LG/Germ kraft and Eng cognate craft).

Questions and answers:
['
Q: Is the voicing of pre-vocalic initial voiceless alveolar fricatives more common in Dutch or German?
A: German', '
Q: Does the development of /ft/ to /xt/ occur more in Low German or Dutch?
A: Dutch', '
Q: What number word is spelled the same in English and Low German?
A: seven', '
Q: What\'s the German word for "seven"?
A: sieben', '
Q: Although spelled differently, the first consonant of what Dutch word for "seven" is pronounced the same as its German counterpart?
A: zeven']
Vowel length is not always considered a distinctive feature in Dutch phonology, because it normally co-occurs with changes in vowel quality. One feature or the other may be considered redundant, and some phonemic analyses prefer to treat it as an opposition of tenseness. However, even if not considered part of the phonemic opposition, the long/tense vowels are still realised as phonetically longer than their short counterparts. The changes in vowel quality are also not always the same in all dialects, and in some there may be little difference at all, with length remaining the primary distinguishing feature. And while it is true that older words always pair vowel length with a change in vowel quality, new loanwords have reintroduced phonemic oppositions of length. Compare zonne(n) [ˈzɔnə] ("suns") versus zone [ˈzɔːnə] ("zone") versus zonen [ˈzoːnə(n)] ("sons"), or kroes [krus] ("mug") versus cruise [kruːs] ("cruise").

Questions and answers:
["
Q: What quality of Dutch vowels isn't usually recognized as distinctive?
A: length", '
Q: Is it true or false that older Dutch words combine changes in vowel length and vowel quality?
A: true', '
Q: How would you say "sons" in Dutch?
A: zonen', "
Q: Since vowel quality changes might be very slight between dialects, what's the main vowel feature used to differentiate them?
A: length", '
Q: What does the Dutch word "kroes" mean in English?
A: mug']
Unique to the development of Dutch is the collaps of older ol/ul/al + dental into ol + dental, followed by vocalisation of pre-consonantal /l/ and after a short vowel, creating the diphthong /ɑu/ e.g., Dutch goud, zout and bout corresponds with Low German Gold, Solt, Bolt; German Gold, Salz, Balt and English gold, salt, bold. This is the most common diphthong along with /ɛi œy/. All three are commonly the only ones considered unique phonemes in Dutch. The tendency for native English speakers is to pronounce Dutch names with /ɛi/ (written as ij or ei) as /aɪ/, (like the English vowel y) which does not normally lead to confusion among native listeners, since in a number of dialects (e.g. in Amsterdam) the same pronunciation is heard.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What letter represents the sound native English speakers often use for Dutch names with "ij" or "ei" in them?
A: y', '
Q: How many unique phenomes are usually attributed to Dutch?
A: three', '
Q: What\'s the term we use for the type of sound made for two vowels in words like the Dutch "goud" or "zout"?
A: diphthong', '
Q: What pronunciation did the older Dutch ol/ul/al + dental evolve into?
A: ol + dental']
This 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 English Great Vowel Shift, and the diphthongisation of long high vowels in Modern High German, which centuries earlier reached the state now found in Polder Dutch. Stroop theorizes that the lowering of open-mid to open diphthongs is a phonetically "natural" and inevitable development and that Dutch, after having diphthongised the long high vowels like German and English, "should" have lowered the diphthongs like German and English as well.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What linguistic event in English could we parallel with the Dutch lowering of diphthongs?
A: English Great Vowel Shift', '
Q: In what decade did the Dutch diphthong lowering occur?
A: 1970s', "
Q: The lowering of diphthongs is intriguing partly because it's associated with what single gender?
A: women", '
Q: What researcher posited that the lowering of diphthongs is "natural"?
A: Stroop', '
Q: Which language, in addition to German, did Stroop use to compare Dutch with when stating that the diphthongs "should" have lowered?
A: English']
Instead, he argues, this development has been artificially frozen in an "intermediate" state by the standardisation of Dutch pronunciation in the 16th century, where lowered diphthongs found in rural dialects were perceived as ugly by the educated classes and accordingly declared substandard. Now, however, in his opinion, 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 called Estuary English.

Questions and answers:
['
Q: What word did Stroop use to describe the static stage of diphthong pronunciation?
A: "intermediate"', '
Q: What classes in the 16th century sneered at the pronunciation of Dutch by rural people?
A: educated classes', '
Q: What distinct kind of British English does Stroop say has a similar function to Polder Dutch?
A: Estuary English', '
Q: What phenomenon of Dutch pronunciation was brought about by the attitudes of the elite in the 16th century?
A: standardisation', '
Q: What specific type of diphthongs were the less educated Dutch speakers in the countryside using in the 16th century?
A: lowered diphthongs']