Origins

Dutch is a German language, and within this family it belongs to the West German languages. It’s quite close to German and Scandinavian, and less so to English, which has significant historical grounds. Dutch became united as the language of the united provinces of Holland, and is today spoken in its historical birthplace – the Netherlands, Flanders, and parts of Germany and France.

Official Language

Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands, Surinam and one of the officials in Belgium, Aruba, and Netherlands Antilles. It’s spoken in most former Dutch colonies and small emigrant communities all over the world. Dutch is also the parent language of Afrikaans, one of the 150 official languages in South Africa. Before Afrikaans was officially recognized by linguists, Dutch was one of the official languages in South Africa.

Varieties

Flemish, Brabant, Limburgish and Low Saxon can be defined as the most significant varieties of Dutch. Flemish is the variety spoken in Northern Belgium. It is a variety of Dutch, though often miscalled a separate language. Afrikaans was one of the significant Dutch varieties before it was officially recognized as a separate language in the 1960s.

Brief History

The crucial event that launched the birth of one of the most important European languages occurred back in the mid-5th Century. At that time, the second Germanic consonant shift caused the split of Old Frankish (one of the most popular tribal languages in Western Europe at that time) into Frisian, English and Low Saxon. Dutch didn’t undergo the phonetic shift, and was part of the so-called Old Low Frankish (or Old Dutch), where some base the bigger difference between Dutch and English today. This was followed by the period of Middle Dutch, during 1150 – 1500, when the language united the spoken dialects of the area and became known as Dutch though not recognized as an official language yet.

Modern Dutch and the process of standardising the language became effective in the Middle Ages. The language went quickly towards unification, first basing on the dialects of Brabant and Flanders, later on Antwerp and afterwards on the language of the province of Holland. A key event in 1637 was the translation of the Bible into Dutch, a language fully understandable by all of the united provinces.

Today, the United Provinces still speak the standardized Dutch language, regulated by the Dutch Language Institute. These are the Netherlands, Belgium and Surinam.

Did you know?

Dutch has a long history, more than 15 Centuries long. It’s grammatically closer to German than to English. One of the most significant varieties of the Dutch language is Flemish, but there’s no separate Flemish language. Though it’s famous as a language of Northern Europe, Dutch can be heard, in some of its exotic varieties, on several islands around the world, including Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire.