Language Diversity - Language Diversity - Map of Minorities & Regional and Minority Languages of Europe for and about linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe.

Language

Dutch (Nederlands)

Description

Dutch belongs to the West-Germanic group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Especially Low German, but also English, German and Frisian have lots of similarities with Dutch. Also Afrikaans, which is spoken in South Africa and Namibia, originates from Dutch.

Nowadays Dutch is the mother tongue of approximately 25 million people. Dutch is spoken by two main groups: the Dutch (in the Netherlands) and the Flemish (in Belgium). Both Hollandic and Flemish are dialects of Dutch.

The Netherlands and Belgium created the so-called Dutch Language Union on 9 September 1980. This organisation has to ensure that a shared orthography and grammar is maintained.

Important Words

Hello - hallo

Bye - tot ziens

Thank you - dank je

Please - alsjeblieft

Cheers - proost

Use your tongue not just for kissing - gebruik je tong niet alleen om mee te kussen

You are not alone - Jij bent niet alleen

Special

In Dutch spelling, the difference between open and closed syllables is of great importance. Long vocals in open syllables are written with one letter, whereas in closed syllables they are written with double letters:

  • to give, he gives: geven, hij geeft
  • to read, he reads: lezen, hij leest
  • one year, two years: een jaar, twee jaren
  • one language, two languages: een taal, twee talen

Language families

  1. Indo-European
  2. Germanic
  3. West-Germanic
  4. Dutch

Countries (Official language)

Netherlands (14.800.000 Speaker)