Talk:Belgium

Is the language Dutch or Flemish? Even if Flemish is a Dutch dialect, shouldn't it be mentioned in the table?

Flemish is indeed just a dialect. Putting it in the table would also mean you'd have to 1) say Australian English, Canadian English, etc. 2) include other (major) dialects. The official language is Dutch, and is not different from the Dutch spoken in the Netherlands. In spoken language, the pronounciation is different, and there are different words, but it's rather like the English spoken in the UK vs. US . Jeronimo

Thanks. Danny

So what's your opinion on Afrikaans? --Brion VIBBER

Now that's something different. When Dutch settled in South Africa in the 17th century, the kept their own language, Dutch. However, from that point, the two language evolved concurrently, and in different directions, especially after Dutch control in South Africa ended in 1806 or thereabouts. Calling Afrikaans a dialect now would not be true; it has become a language on its own. It is, however, still possible for Dutch speakers to comprehend the basic language, as many words and constructions are still the same. Jeronimo

Some more info: if you look at http://www.ethnologue.com , you'll find more linguistic details than I can offer you. You'll see that Flemish and Dutch are the same, though there is also a real language called Vlaams (=Flemish) spoken by only 200,000 people. But then again, several of the languages listed here would be classified by me as a dialect; then again I'm not a linguist. Jeronimo

The "Vlaams" Jeronimo speaks of here is more commonly known as "West-Vlaams" or West-Flemish. This is a Dutch dialect that is considered by many to have suficient different traits to be called a language separate from Dutch. AFAIK, it hasn't achieved any official status (yet). -Scipius

This won't change much to the core of the discussion, but to call Flemish a dialect is not really true in my opinion. It's rather a regional variety of Dutch. English speakers in the US, Australia, etc... would't think of English as they speak it in terms of a dialect either, would they? - Guy

Given all of this (and I am certainly no expert) and given that there is an article on Flemish, perhaps some way can be found to integrate it in some way. Danny

No, it's not a real dialect (per ethnologue), you're right. And neither are Australian English, etc. But then again, one would probably call the language spoken in North Brabant (where I live) a dialect, while it is really something between Dutch and Flemish. So it is just a matter of what to call it. Anyway, it would be fair to say that Dutch is an official language of Belgium. Jeronimo

I agree entirely. We just call it "Vlaams", partly to identify ourselves as being Flemings and thus different from the Dutch people. - Guy

The definition given in Netherlandic language is pretty accurate: "Flemish" in terms of language is a collective name for the Netherlandic dialects in Belgium. There is really no uniform Flemish dialect, as the dialect of Limburg can differ significantly from that of West Flanders, even though they may share traits that are not found in northern Dutch. Anyway, nice to see a Belgian show up, how do you like the new layout? -Scipius

It's a big improvement to have the same layout for articles in a "collection", such as countries. The same idea could be followed for other articles with a comparable "status" such as cities, famous people, etc... but I'm aware that's a hell of a job! - [user:G_from_B|Guy]]

There are two meanings of the word dialect, one is the official linguistic meaning, something like 'a child node in a family tree of languages'. In that sense, English is a dialect of Germanic, which is in turn a dialect of the Indo-European language. In that sense, Afrikaans is a dialect of Dutch.

The other meaning is an informal one, something like 'an un-language, a derivative of the "real" language'.

Both meanings of 'dialect' are useless and I would suggest that we refrain from using them, not from the POV of being politically correct (I personally hate PCness), but for the practical reason that the use of the word 'dialect' is ambiguous and that both meanings are not really useful in this discussion.--user:Branko

I changed the english translation of Belgium's motto from "Strength lies in unity" to "Unity provides strength", but I wonder if that's a good move. PRO: my translation is closer to the originals (both dutch & french) and is not logically equivalent to the old english translation. CON: the old translation sounds better. -- FvdP 18:20 Sep 13, 2002 (UTC)

I'm the one who originally added the Dutch and English versions of the motto and I took it verbatim from a page on the first site listed under external links, you can find that page here. Make of that what you will, but I would certainly leave it up to a Belgian, if you are indeed one ;) Scipius 14:26 Sep 14, 2002 (UTC)

Being Belgian makes me no expert in translating mottos to english ;-) The link you provide is to the Belgian government's official site, so it's quite authoritative. But this does not mean that the translation it gives is the official translation -- there is perhaps no truly official translation. A bit of search on the web gives a large choice of alternatives: strength lies in unity - strength in unity - strength through union - union (unity) makes strength - in union (unity) there is strength - union (unity) is strength. Why not union makes strength ? (Union looks slightly more relevant than unity; makes is simpler than provides and is a litteral translation of fait/maakt.) -- FvdP 22:58 Sep 17, 2002 (UTC)

Like I said, I'd leave it up to a full Belgian ;). If you want my vote, I would say that the authority of the Belgian government should be enough, but if you insist on something more fitting, then I would go for "Strength through union". It just sound better than "Union makes strength" to my ears. Scipius 20:44 Sep 20, 2002 (UTC)