Flemish Language

Flemish Language, also Vlaams, language of historic Flanders (comprising what is now the northern part of Belgium and part of the Netherlands and France), spoken by just over 1 million people. It is, in addition, spoken by a small population in France near Belgium, and by over half the residents of Zeeland in the Netherlands. Although classed as a separate language by many, some believe it to be a (non-standard) dialect of Dutch. Standard Dutch (an official language in Belgium) is used by most Flemish people for official purposes while Flemish is used more often by those in western Flanders (and in fact is not mutually intelligible with eastern Flanders Dutch dialects).

Although linguists prefer the term Vlaams, Dutch and Flemish remain common because they have political and cultural meaning. This is especially true of local spoken dialects, which form a gradual chain of dialects through Dutch-Flemish territory. Also, Flemish speech has many loan words from French. The spelling systems of Flemish differ slightly across the three countries in which Flemish is spoken (Belgium, Holland, France), causing some difficulties. In spite of attempts to establish a written language from regional Flemish dialects, Belgium, like the Netherlands, uses Standard Netherlandic (Standard Dutch) as its literary language.

The northern and southern Netherlands region (or the Low Countries) became politically separate in 1579, when Holland and other northern provinces established an independent government (see Belgium: History). When France occupied the southern provinces in 1794, French became the official language and the language of culture. Even with the brief union of Belgium and Holland as the kingdom of the Netherlands (1815-1830), the people in southern Belgium continued speaking French (the Walloon dialect), while those in the north clung to their local Flemish dialects. This linguistic division persisted after Belgian independence (1830) and continues today. After a long struggle, culminating in 1938, Dutch was made the official language in northern Belgium, with equal legal status to French.

Selected statistical data from Ethnologue: Languages of the World, SIL International.