The Dutch language and its historical development

Content of the report

1. General information about the Dutch language (Prepared by Kateryna
Shevchuk)
2. Historical development. (Prepared by Halyna Tsyhulya)
3. Regional variants/dialects (Prepared by Maria Soloshyk).
4. Additional interesting facts. (Prepared by Uliana Sudoma)

1.General information about the Dutch language

Dutch is a member of the West Germanic branch of the Germanic language
family, which also includes Afrikaans, Frisian, English and German, among
others. According to the genealogical system, Dutch is one of the languages that is
most closely related to English. And a lot of people say that Dutch is quite similar
to German too. In fact, it is right to say that Dutch lies somewhere between English
and German, as the parts of the West Germanic branch. It is the third most
widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives English and German.
Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates slightly more Romance
loans than German but far fewer than English. As with German, the vocabulary of
Dutch also has strong similarities with the continental Scandinavian languages,
but is not mutually intelligible in text or speech with any of them.
Dutch is a language that's spoken mainly in Europe but also in a few other places
around the world. It has 23 million native speakers and around 28 million
speakers in total, including second language speakers.
Dutch is the national statutory language of the Netherlands where it is spoken by
16.4 million people.
Also Dutch is a national statutory language of Belgium along with French and
German. It is spoken by over 6 million people.
Although there are 80,000 speakers of Dutch (called Vlaams, or Flemish) in the
northeast corner of France, it has no official recognition.
It is also spoken in the South American nation of Suriname where it has around
350,000 native speakers as well as around 250,000 second language speakers.
Dutch is the de facto national language of Suriname with 200,000 speakers.
It is also an official language on the island of Aruba, along with the language
papiamento. But few of the 100,000 people there actually use Dutch, even though
they all learn it in school.
It is also spoken in Curacao where it is spoken by around 15,000 people as a
native language and by many of the other 140,000 people as a second language.
It is also an official language in Sint Maarten along with English. A couple of
thousand people there speak Dutch but English is actually much more common.
Dutch is the national statutory language of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba with
about 21,000 speakers.
Dutch ceased to be an official language of Indonesia after its independence from
the Netherlands in 1949. It had been a language of importance ever since the Dutch
East Indies Company arrived on the islands in the 17 th Century. That is also why
there are still people who learn and speak the language, in order to study older
documents.
Afrikaans, one of 11 official languages used in South Africa, has its roots in
Dutch, as the Dutch set up trading posts there in the 17 th Century, when they were
sailing to the East (i.e. Indonesia).In Namibia the Dutch language is the largest
language, even though English is the official language. (about 3 million people
speak)

2. History development
Dutch is a part of the Indo-European language family, as are the vast majority of
European languages. Within this language family, it can be further categorised as a
Germanic language. The West Germanic sub-group, in which Dutch sits, is split
into three main branches: Dutch, German and English. These three branches are
closely related to one another, and this can help to explain why English speakers
may find Dutch easier to learn.
Despite the fact that Dutch comes from the Germanic language family, you should
take care not to call the language, “German”, or you may end up insulting some of
those who you are speaking to. Germany and the Netherlands have a long and
interesting political history together, and some Dutch people may consider this
mistake to be politically offensive. Take particular care when using the words
“Dutch” and “Deutch”, which is the German language word for the German
language. Although the two words are both derived from the same root, they mean
very different things.
Dutch, like most modern languages, is conventionally divided into three phases:
 450/500-1150 Old Dutch (First attested in the Salic Law)
 1150-1500 Middle Dutch (Also called " Diets" in popular use, though not
by linguists)
 1500-Present Modern Dutch (Saw the creation of the Dutch standard
language and includes contemporary Dutch)
The transition between these languages was very gradual and one of the few
moments linguists can detect somewhat of a revolution is when the Dutch standard
language emerged and quickly established itself. It should be noted that Standard
Dutch is very similar to most Dutch dialects.
In the Medieval period, Old Franconian began to develop into Old Dutch in the
Low Countries. Then Old Dutch completely replaced its predecessor and became
the main language spoken in areas that would later become the southern
Netherlands and northern Belgium. Eventually Old Dutch evolved into Middle
Dutch and split into several regional dialects which were partly sustained by
provincial political arguments. In the 14th century, when the House of Burgundy
got control over the Low Countries, they tried to standardise the Dutch language.
By the 16th century, Antwerp had become the most powerful city in the Low
Countries and had influence on dialects until the Spanish devastated the city,
which led to a mass death of people. At that time Holland was ruled by the newly
formed Dutch Republic. In 1637, the Protestant leaders of the Dutch Republic
published a new Dutch edition of the Bible which effectively standardised the
language. The language had remained unchanged since the 17th century, even
though it continued to develop in some regions. Nonetheless, there are still many
regional dialects spoken throughout the Netherlands and Belgium. Furthermore,
during the colonial period Dutch developed into several Creoles languages and
also split into Afrikaans – which is currently spoken by approximately 18 million
people mainly in South Africa and Namibia. For Dutch speakers, their language is
known as Nederlands which denotes its area of origin. The English word Dutch
derives from an old Germanic word which means popular.

3. Regional variants/dialects
The dialect picture is somewhat complicated since Dutch is spoken in several
countries.The variety of Dutch spoken in Belgium is known as Flemish. There is a
dialect continuum between Dutch and Low German so that there is no clear
boundary between the two languages. Some German dialects are closer to Dutch
than they are to Standard German.
Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are both related with the Dutch
language and are spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard
language. Although heavily under the influence of the standard language, some of
them remain remarkably diverse and are found in the Netherland and in the
Brussels and Flemish regions of Belgium (is the Dutch-speaking northern portion
of Belgium). The areas in which they are spoken often correspond with former
medieval counties and duchies. The Netherlands (but not Belgium) distinguishes
between a dialect and a regional language. Those words are actually more political
than linguistic because a regional language unites a large group of very different
varieties.
Dutch dialects and regional languages are not spoken as often as they used to be,
especially in the Netherlands. The use of dialects and regional languages among
both Dutch adults and youth is in heavy decline. Of the officially recognized
regional languages Limburgish is spoken the most and Dutch Low Saxon the least.
Some dialects had, until recently, extensions across the borders of other standard
language areas. In most cases, the heavy influence of the standard language has
broken the dialect continuum.
In Flanders, there are roughly four dialect groups: West Flemish, East Flemish,
Brabantian and Limburgish. Some of these dialects, especially West and East
Flemish have incorporated some French loanwords in everyday language.
Brussels, especially, is heavily influenced by French because roughly 85% of the
inhabitants of Brussels speak French.
Some Flemish dialects are so distinct that they might be considered as separate
language variants. West Flemish in particular has sometimes been considered as
such. Dialect borders of these dialects do not correspond to present political
boundaries, but reflect older, medieval divisions. The Brabantian dialect group, for
instance, also extends to much of the south of the Netherlands, and so does
Limburgish. West-Flemish is also spoken in part of the Dutch province of Zeeland,
and even in a small part near Dunkirk, France, bordering on Belgium.
The Hollandic dialect is widely-spoken, and is native to major urban areas like
Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Hollandic dialect will be familiar to those who are
learning Dutch, as it is the most common dialect to be taught to second-language
learners.
Nowadays in The Netherlands only older people speak these dialects in the smaller
villages, with the exception of the Low Saxon and Limburgish. Most towns and
cities stick to standard Dutch - although many cities have their own city dialect,
which continues to prosper. In Belgium dialects are very much alive however;
many senior citizens there are unable to speak standard Dutch.
Last but not the least, by many native speakers of Dutch, both in Belgium and the
Netherlands, Afrikaans and Frisian are often assumed to be very deviant dialects of
Dutch. In fact, they are two different languages, Afrikaans having evolved mainly
from Dutch. There is no dialect continuum between the Frisian and adjoining Low
Saxon.
4. Additional interesting facts
1. It’s probably the easiest language for native English speakers to learn
Given their Germanic roots, Dutch, German, and English bear some similarities;
Dutch is probably somewhere in the middle between English and German. While
Dutch does enjoy leaving the verb at the end of the sentence occasionally, like in
German, it doesn’t have the cases German does, which makes it more akin to
English. Further, where German has three (nominative) definite articles, der, die,
das, and English one, the, Dutch has two, de and het.
However, Dutch pronunciation is notoriously difficult. Your pronunciation of
Dutch words, e.g. Scheveningen, tells native speakers whether or not Dutch is
really your mother-tongue;
2. The first Dutch words are dated back to the 12th century
The first known example of written Dutch is said to have been written as a poem
on a piece of paper, thought to test a writing implement during the 12th century.
The oldest known Dutch love verse was written in around 1100. In this period
information, stories and rhymes were usually communicated orally. We know that
in the 5th century people spoke to each other in the earliest forms of Dutch. In
1171 Hendrik van Veldeke wrote one of the oldest Dutch literary texts. Van
Veldeke is the oldest Dutch writer known by name.Though, some say the oldest
writing pieces of Dutch writing were either a book on Salic Law in the 6th century
or an inscription found on a metal mount for a sword scabbard, called the
Bergakker inscription. Anyway, the Dutch language has sure come a long way.
3. The nouns in Dutch are not specified for case
Although similar to the German language, there’s no need to think that Dutch has
the same gruesome array of cases for all of its nouns. Luckily for those looking to
learn Dutch, their nouns have no cases. This is definitely a plus as it’s one less
thing to memorize!
4. Dutch words have many consonants
While Dutch may be the easiest language for English speakers to learn, it does
have its challenges. There are many Dutch words that are quite tricky and seem
like tongue twisters within themselves, containing several consonants in a row. For
instance, angstschreeuw which means “a scream of fear”) has eight consonants
while the word slechtstschrijvend, meaning “worst writing” has nine.
5. Nearly one-third of the Dutch language was borrowed
With origins from the French, English and Hebrew language, it’s no question that
the Dutch language has a long linguistic history. A few examples of French
loanwords include bureau (desk or office), paraplu (umbrella), or jus d’orange
(orange juice) and more while and some of the Hebrew loanwords are mazzel
(lucky), and tof (cool), and bajes (jail) just to name a few.
6. The longest word cited in Dutch is 60 letters long
The Dutch language like German is capable of forming compounds of potentially
limitless length. The word
kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamhedencomitéleden contains 60
letters and refers to the commity members of the preparation activities for a
children’s carnival procession. It was cited by the 2011 Guinness Book of World
Records as the longest Dutch word. The Dutch like writing words without spaces
between them and that’s clear to see with this one.
7. Dutch has given birth to other languages
Due to Dutch colonization in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch language
spread all across the globe. In South Africa, however, Dutch began to take on a life
of its own, and in the 18th century, developed unique characteristics that
distinguish it from Dutch. Presently, Afrikaans, which is spoken by over 6 million
in South Africa, is considered to be an entirely different language from Dutch.
8. Dutch was heavily influenced by French
The influence of French in the Netherlands is profound, where many of its words
have found their way in many languages, with much of its vocabulary being
adopted into Dutch lexicon. Between the 19th and 20th century, the spillover
effects of French in the Dutch language is natural and makes sense, as language is
a part of a people’s culture, and cultures spread easily. Here are just a few Dutch
words taken from the French language:
bagage – bagage (baggage, luggage); blesser – blesseren (to hurt, to injure);
caduque – kaduuk (broken); appartement – appartement (apartment)