Where is dutch spoken

The Dutch nation have throughout the last few centuries been a colonial power with a vast influence on word history. In Europe, Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands, the Flemish dialect of Dutch is one of the main languages of Belgium and spoken by minorities in France and Germany.

While Indonesia is turning its back to Dutch history, many still speak the language and in South Africa and Nairobi, Afrikaans, which is an off-shoot of the Dutch language, is spoken by millions.

Dutch, in other words, is a language spoken around the globe by a lot of different cultures and peoples. The Dutch language is a Germanic language that originally broke off from the other Germanic languages some years ago, when it first became Frankish. The Frankish language was spoken in different areas in the region at different times, even in modern day France where it was spoken in Gaul and went on to influence Old French. In the Middle Ages, Dutch further broke away from linguistic features that still remain its sister language, German today, like case endings and the use of the subjunctive.

It was, however, in the Netherlands that Dutch evolved into the language that it is today. Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch that has evolved from the various Cape Dutch dialects spoken in South Africa and Namibia. It is closely related to Dutch and English. The Dutch language There are around 23 million native speakers of Dutch worldwide. So not so small after all! The Netherlands has 16 million inhabitants and Dutch is the only official language of the country.

Frisian is very close to English. Dutch sometimes called Flemish has always been the mother tongue of the majority of people in Flanders, but it was not always recognised as such because Flanders was governed by many foreign rulers in the past.

When the French took over in the 18 th century, Dutch was deliberately pushed aside. French was the language of the upper and middle classes and the ruling elite. In Dutch was finally granted official status, but as change was slow, it was decided in to make it the only language allowed in Flemish education and public life.

Nowadays, there are 6 million speakers of Dutch in Flanders The southern part of Belgium, Wallonia, remained entirely French-speaking and the capital, Brussels, is bilingual. For starters, Dutch is relatively simple for English speakers to learn, coming in fourth on our list of easiest languages. In fact, many Dutch words are spelled exactly the same as English words. Dutch is also a good choice because of its similarities to German, which is more challenging to pick up.

If you want to learn German later on, Dutch can be a good leg-up! Try Babbel. Toggle Menu. Ready to learn?