Flemish (disambiguation)

Flemish dialects is the name given to the regional dialects of Dutch that are spoken in Flanders (Belgium). Sometimes the term designates only the dialects spoken in the old County of Flanders, sometimes also the dialects spoken in the entirety of the modern political entity of that name, which coincides with the whole of the Dutch language area in Belgium. They should not be confused with the Dutch standard language used in Belgium. These dialects belong to a continuum of dialects together with Germanic dialects spoken in The Netherlands and Germany. The Flemish dialects in the wider sense cannot unequivocally be distinguished from these on linguistic grounds. Their grouping here is thus mostly for convenience.

Relation between the Flemish Dialects and the Dutch dialects of The Netherlands

The Germanic dialects spoken in Belgium do not originally form a unified dialect group distinct from those spoken in The Netherlands.

They are divided in West Flemish, East Flemish, Brabantic and Limburgian. All of these dialect groups are also spoken in the adjoining areas in The Netherlands, covering about a third of Dutch territory. There are over four million people living in these areas. On the level of dialects, the state border between Belgium and The Netherlands is thus not a language border. East Flemish, Brabantic and Hollandic together form a unity; the other Low Franconian dialects, West Flemish and Limburgian, are less closely related. The Brabantic and Limburgian spoken in The Netherlands is never called "Flemish".

Of the six million people in Belgium who speak Dutch, only a minority uses Flemish dialects in the narrow sense, i.e. the West Flemish or East Flemish roughly spoken in the historic County of Flanders. The largest group consists of Brabantic dialect speakers, a second reason why the use of the generic "Flemish" is potentially deceptive.

The differences between the Standard Dutch spoken in Belgium and that of The Netherlands

It is a common misunderstanding to deduce from the fact that there are Flemish dialects that there would be some official language of Flanders called "Flemish", distinct from Dutch. Both countries have by treaty a common administrative body, the Dutch Language Union, prescribing a unified official spelling standard.

The Dutch standard language as spoken in Flanders is not a separate language from the Dutch of The Netherlands, but there are some minor differences in vocabulary and pronunciation, some merely statistical, some normative, similar to those between British and American English (or perhaps between English in England and English in Scotland). On the other hand, the Dutch-speaking people in Belgium use exactly the same grammar and orthography as the people of The Netherlands. The term Flemish is colloquially used to distinguish the Dutch spoken in Flanders from that of the Netherlands. Using the same name for the local dialects and the local standard suggests there would be a strong causal connection between the two in that the local standard would be derived from the local dialects whereas the "northern" standard would not, but the historical development has been much more complex.

The Dutch standard language originated in present Belgium, so even the standard spoken in Holland proper has partly southern origins. As it is mainly Brabantic in origin and thus reflects the dialects spoken by a Brabantic majority of the Belgian speakers of Dutch, there is little justification to portray it as fundamentally alien to Belgium. Nevertheless there is a tendency within part of the Flemish nationalist movement to call for the creation of a new "Flemish" standard language.

As of 1830, French almost completely replaced the Dutch standard language in Belgium as a medium of administration and advanced education. Dutch dialects were spoken: the standard was only known in its written form. Its more recent rebirth as a living spoken standard came about by an imitation of the standard spoken in The Netherlands. So the standard in Belgium differs only slightly from that in The Netherlands. Such differences as there are however, are again mainly of Brabantic, not Flemish sensu stricto, origin, derived from the urban dialect of Antwerp.