and several former Dutch colonies. It is closely related to other
(ie.
. Dutch is a descendant of
. Dutch and Afrikaans are to a large extent
.
("Dutch Language Union").
. Dutch has officially three
, masculine, feminine, and neuter, however, according to some interpretations these are reduced to only two, common and neuter, which is similar to the gender systems of most
.
, are pronounced. Like most Germanic languages it has a
structure that allows fairly complex consonant clusters. Dutch is often noted for the prominent use of
(ch and g, pronounced at the back of the mouth), often picked up on as a source of amusement or even satire.
Dutch vocabulary is predominantly Germanic in origin, considerably more so than English. This is to a large part due to the heavy influence of
on English, and to Dutch patterns of word formation, such as the tendency to form long and sometimes very complicated
, being more similar to those of German and the Scandinavian languages.
, is spoken in the southwestern Netherlands and the northwestern part of Belgium. The whole of Dutch variants spoken in Belgium is also often called "Flemish" and sometimes claimed to be a separate language, an issue which can be very controversial for the Dutch-speaking population of Belgium. Officially, both Belgium and the Netherlands adhere to
. The difference between Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch is roughly comparable to the
, though only pronunciation-wise as both countries use the same written standard. However, most Belgian Flemings, if asked what their mother-tongue is, will give it as Dutch rather than Flemish.
Main article: History of Dutch History Dutch is a
Germanic language, and within this family it is a
West Germanic language. Dutch did not experience the
High German consonant shift (apart from the transition from /θ/ to /d/), and is a
Low Franconian language. There was at one time a
dialect continuum that blurred the boundary between Dutch and Low Saxon. In some small areas, there are still dialect continuums, but they are gradually becoming extinct.
Dutch is grammatically similar to German, such as in syntax and verb morphology (for a comparison of verb morphology in English, Dutch and German, see
Germanic weak verb and
Germanic strong verb).
Dutch has grammatical cases, but these are now mostly limited to pronouns and
set phrases.
Dutch has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter although masculine and feminine have merged to form the common gender (de), whilst the neuter (het) remains distinct as before. The inflectional grammar of Dutch, for instance in adjective and noun endings, has been simplified over time.
For many English speakers, basic Dutch, when written, looks recognizable, but the
pronunciation may be markedly different. This is true especially of the
diphthongs and of the letter <g>, which is pronounced as a velar continuant. The
rhotic pronunciation of <r> causes some English-speakers to believe Dutch sounds similar to a West Country accent; this is the reason for
Bill Bryson's famous remark that when one hears Dutch one feels one ought to be able to understand it. Dutch pronunciation is, however, difficult to master for English speakers, its diphthongs and gutturals being the greatest obstacles.
Classification Dutch is spoken by almost all inhabitants of the
Netherlands and
Flanders (the northern half of
Belgium); in Flanders, it is often referred to by the dialect name
Vlaams (Flemish). It is also spoken in the bilingual region of
Brussels, together with
French and other languages. In the northernmost part of
France, the
Dunkirk arrondissement in the
Nord département, Dutch is still spoken as a minority language, also often called
Vlaams. On the
Caribbean islands of
Aruba and the
Netherlands Antilles, Dutch is used, but is less common than
Papiamento (Aruba,
Curaçao,
Bonaire) and
English (
Sint Maarten,
Sint Eustatius,
Saba). Dutch is spoken as a mother tongue by about 60% of the population in
Suriname, most of whom are bilingual with
Sranan Tongo or other ethnic languages (2005,
Nederlandse Taalunie:
[1], in Dutch). There are also some speakers of Dutch in countries with many Dutch and Flemish immigrants, such as
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand and the
United States. In
South Africa and
Namibia the closely-related language
Afrikaans is spoken. There are also a number of Dutch speakers in
Indonesia.
Geographic distribution Dutch is an
official language of the
Netherlands,
Belgium,
Suriname,
Aruba, and the
Netherlands Antilles. The Dutch, Flemish and Surinamese governments coordinate their language activities in the
Nederlandse Taalunie ('
Dutch Language Union'). Dutch was an official language in South Africa up until 1961 (it had fallen into disuse after
Afrikaans became an official language in 1925). A noticeable minority of the inhabitants of New Zealand, 16,347 (0.4%) are sufficiently fluent in Dutch to carry on an everyday conversation.
Standaardnederlands or
Algemeen Nederlands ('Common Dutch', abbreviated to AN) is the
standard language as taught in schools and used by authorities in the Netherlands, Flanders, Suriname, Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. The Dutch Language Union defines what is AN and what is not.
Since efforts to
uplift people came to be considered rather presumptuous, the earlier name
Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands ('Common Civilized Dutch') and its abbreviation ABN have been replaced with
Algemeen Nederlands and thus AN.
Official status In
Flanders, there are 4 main dialect groups:
West Flemish (West-Vlaams),
East Flemish (Oost-Vlaams),
Brabantian (Brabants), which includes several main dialect branches, including Antwerpian, and
Limburgish (Limburgs). Some of these dialects, especially West and East Flemish, have incorporated some French
loanwords in everyday language. An example is
fourchette in various forms (originally a French word meaning fork), instead of
vork. Brussels is especially heavily influenced by French because roughly 85% of the inhabitants of
Brussels speak French. The Limburgish in Belgium is closely related to Dutch Limburgish. An oddity of West Flemings (and to a lesser extent, East Flemings) is that, when they speak AN, their pronunciation of the "soft g" sound (the
voiced velar fricative) is almost identical to that of the "h" sound (the
voiced glottal fricative), thus, the words
held (hero) and
geld (money) sound nearly the same, except that the latter word has a 'y' /j/ sound embedded into the "soft g". When they speak their local dialect, however, their "g" is almost the "h" of the Algemeen Nederlands, and they do not pronounce the "h". Some Flemish dialects are so distinct that they might be considered as separate language variants, although the strong significance of language in Belgian politics would prevent the government from classifying them as such.
West Flemish in particular has sometimes been considered a distinct variety. 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 area near
Dunkirk, France that borders Belgium.
The Netherlands also have different dialect regions. In the east there is an extensive
Low Saxon dialect area: the provinces of
Groningen (
Gronings),
Drenthe and
Overijssel are almost exclusively Low Saxon.
Zuid-Gelders is a dialect also spoken in the German land of
North Rhine-Westphalia. Brabantian (
Noord-Brabant) fades into the dialects spoken in the adjoining provinces of Belgium. The same applies to
Limburgish (
Limburg (Netherlands)), but this variant also has the status of official regional language in the
Netherlands (but not in
Belgium). It receives protection by chapter 2 of the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Limburgish has been influenced by the
Rhinelandic dialects like the
Cologne dialect:
Kölsch Platt, and has had a somewhat different development since the late Middle Ages.
Zealandic of most of
Zeeland is a transitional regional language between West Flemish and Hollandic, with the exception of the eastern part of
Zealandic Flanders where East Flemish is spoken. In
Holland proper,
Hollandic is spoken, though the original forms of this dialect, heavily influenced by a Frisian
substratum, are now relatively rare; the urban dialects of the
Randstad, which are Hollandic dialects, do not diverge from standard Dutch very much, but there is a clear difference between the city dialects of
Rotterdam,
The Hague,
Amsterdam or
Utrecht.
In some rural Hollandic areas more authentic Hollandic dialects are still being used, especially north of Amsterdam. Limburgish and
Low Saxon have been elevated by the Netherlands (and by Germany) to the legal status of
streektaal (
regional language) according to the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which causes some native speakers to consider them separate languages.
Another group of dialects based on Hollandic is that spoken in the cities and larger towns of
Friesland, where it displaced
Frisian in the 16th century and is known as
Stadsfries ("Urban Frisian").
Dutch dialects are not spoken as often as they used to be. Nowadays in The Netherlands only older people speak these dialects in the smaller villages, with the exception of the Low Saxon and Limburgish
streektalen, which are actively promoted by some provinces and still in common use. Most towns and cities stick to standard Dutch - although many cities have their own
city dialect, which continues to prosper. In Belgium, however, dialects are very much alive; many senior citizens there are unable to speak standard Dutch. In both the Netherlands and Belgium, many larger cities also have several distinct smaller dialects.
Many native speakers of Dutch, both in Belgium and the Netherlands, assume that
Afrikaans and
Frisian are 'deviant' dialects of Dutch. In fact, they are different languages, though Afrikaans has evolved mainly from Dutch. In fact, a (West) Frisian standard language has been developed.
Until the early
20th century, variants of Dutch were still spoken by some descendants of
Dutch colonies in the United States.
New Jersey in particular had an active Dutch community with a highly divergent dialect that was spoken as recently as the
1950s. See
Jersey Dutch for more on this dialect.
Russia also has some people today who speak Dutch with these dialects.
Dialects One of the 11 official
languages of South Africa,
Afrikaans is derived from Dutch and is the mother tongue of about 15% of South Africa's population. It is also spoken or understood by many more. Afrikaans originated from modern Dutch (16th century-present).
Before the
United Kingdom took control of South Africa from the Netherlands in 1814, the
Afrikaans language (which wasn't called or considered
Afrikaans at that time) was exposed to a steady stream of Dutch language influence, and the two languages were therefore almost identical. The differentiation and major changes from Dutch started when the Dutch settlers moved deep inland (
Trek Boers). In addition, when the
UK seized South Africa, the Dutch language spoken in South Africa was practically cut off from other Dutch-speaking areas, allowing the language to differentiate and evolve further. In 1922 the Afrikaans language was recognized as one of South Africa's official languages, alongside Dutch and English. Dutch was formally derecognized in South Africa only in 1984 (since 1961 it had merited only a mention in the legislation). By that time, however, it had no longer been in everyday official use for a long time.
The distinction of Afrikaans from the Dutch language was perhaps briefly in danger just after the
Second World War when a great number of Dutch
immigrants chose South Africa as their new homeland. However, the Afrikaans language survived the new influx of Dutch speakers, which might otherwise have turned Afrikaans into a
mixed language. Almost all of the Dutch immigrants and their descendants now speak Afrikaans instead of Dutch, be it (in the case of the Dutch-born parents) with a slight accent. A great deal of
mutual intelligibility still exists.
Someone who is able to speak Dutch usually can read and understand Afrikaans (especially when the native dialect is
Hollandic,
Zealandic,
Flemish or
Brabantic). There are also
Dutch-based creole languages.
Derived languages Main article: Dutch phonology Sounds The
vowel inventory of Dutch is large, with 14 simple vowels and four diphthongs. The vowels
/eː/,
/øː/,
/oː/ are included on the diphthong chart because they are actually produced as narrow closing diphthongs in many dialects, but behave phonologically like the other simple vowels.
[ɐ] (a
near-open central vowel) is an allophone of unstressed
/a/ and
/ɑ/.
Vowels Where symbols for consonants occur in pairs, the left represents the
voiceless consonant and the right represents the
voiced consonant.
Notes:
1)
[g] is not a native phoneme of Dutch and only occurs in borrowed words, like
goal.
2)
[ʔ] is not a separate phoneme in Dutch, but is inserted before vowel-initial syllables within words after
/a/ and
/ə/ and often also at the beginning of a word.
3) In some dialects, notably that of
Amsterdam, the voiced fricatives have almost completely merged with the voiceless ones, and
/v/ is usually realized as
[f],
/z/ is usually realized as
[s], and
/ɣ/ is usually realized as
[x].
4)
[ʃ] and
[ʒ] are not native phonemes of Dutch, and usually occur in borrowed words, like
show and
bagage (baggage). And even then they are usually realized as
[s].
5) The realization of the
/r/ phoneme varies considerably from dialect to dialect. In "standard" Dutch,
/r/ is realized as
[r]. In many dialects it is realized as the voiced uvular fricative
[ʁ] or even as the uvular trill
[ʀ].
6) The realization of the
/ʋ/ varies considerably from the Northern to the Southern and Belgium dialects of the Dutch language. In the South, including Belgium, it is sometimes realized as
[w]. Some, mainly Hollandic, dialects nearly pronounce it like
[v].
Consonants Dutch (with the exception of the Limburg dialects) did not participate in the second Germanic (High German) Sound Shift - compare German
machen /-x-/ Dutch
maken, English
make, German
Pfanne /pf-/, Dutch
pan, English
pan, German
zwei /ts-/, Dutch
twee, English
two.
Dutch underwent a few changes of its own. For example, words in -old or -olt lost the l in favor of a
diphthong as a result of vocalisation. Compare English
old, German
alt, Dutch
oud.
Germanic */uː/ turned into /y/ through palatalization, which sound in turn became a diphthong /œy/, spelt 〈ui〉. Long */iː/ also diphthongized to
/ɛi/, spelt 〈ij〉.
The phoneme
/ɡ/ became a
voiced velar fricative /ɣ/, or a
voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/ (in the South: Flanders, Limburg).
Historical sound changes Main article: Dutch grammar Like all other continental West Germanic languages, Dutch has a word order that is markedly different from English, which presents a problem for some Anglophones learning Dutch. A simple example often used in Dutch language classes and text books is "Ik kan mijn pen niet vinden omdat het veel te donker is" which word-for-word translates to "I can my pen not find because it much too dark is" but actually translates to "I can't find my pen because it's much too dark". This can be explained by saying that the first (main) verb goes at the beginning of the sentence while all the remaining verbs go to the end. It must also be noted that Dutch (like German) often splits larger sentences into smaller ones, each of which can have distinctly different grammatical rules depending on what is actually being said and where the emphasis is placed.
The Dutch written grammar has simplified over the past 100 years: cases are now mainly used for the pronouns, such as
ik (I),
mij, me (me),
mijn (my),
wie (who),
wiens (whose: masculine or feminine singular),
wier (whose: masculine or feminine plural). Nouns and adjectives are not case inflected (except for the genitive of proper nouns (names): -'s or -'). In the spoken language cases and case inflections had already gradually disappeared from a much earlier date on (probably the 15th century) as in all continental West Germanic dialects.
Inflection of adjectives is a little more complicated: nothing with indefinite neuter nouns in singular and -e in all other cases:
een mooi huis (a beautiful house)
het mooie huis (the beautiful house)
mooie huizen (beautiful houses)
de mooie huizen (the beautiful houses)
een mooie vrouw (a beautiful woman)
More complex inflection is still found in certain lexicalized expressions like
de heer des huizes (literally, the man of the house), etc. These are usually remnants of cases (in this instance, the genitive case which is still used in German, cf.
Der Herr des Hauses) and other inflections no longer in general use today. In such lexicalized expressions remnants of strong and weak nouns can be found too, e.g.
in het jaar des Heren (Anno Domini), where "-en" is actually the genitive ending of the weak noun. Also in this case, German
retains this feature.
Dutch nouns can take endings for size: -je for singular
diminutive and -jes for plural diminutive. Between these
suffixes and the radical can come extra letters depending on the ending of the word:
boom (tree) -
boompje ring (ring) -
ringetje koning (king) -
koninkje tien (ten) -
tientje (a ten euro note)
Like most Germanic languages, Dutch forms noun
compounds, where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example:
hondenhok (doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in open form with separating spaces, Dutch (like the other Germanic languages) either uses the closed form without spaces, for example: boomhuis (Eng. tree house) or hyphenated: VVD-coryfee (outstanding member of the VVD, a political party). Like German, Dutch allows arbitrarily long compounds, but the longer they get, the less frequent they tend to be. The longest serious entry in the
Van Dale dictionary is
wapenstilstandsonderhandeling (ceasefire negotiation). Sometimes
hottentottensoldatententententoonstellingsterreinen (hottentot soldiers tents exhibition terrains) is jocularly quoted as the longest Dutch word (note the four times consecutive
ten), but outside this usage it actually never occurs. Notwithstanding official spelling rules, many Dutch people nowadays tend to write the parts of a compound separately, which is sometimes dubbed "the
English disease".
Grammar Main articles: Wiktionary:Category:Dutch language, Wiktionary:Category:Dutch derivations, and List of Romanic words in the Dutch language with a Germanic alternative Vocabulary Main articles: Dutch alphabet and Dutch orthography Writing system The number of non-native speakers of Dutch who voluntarily learn the language is small. This is partly because Dutch is not geographically widespread and because in its home countries
the Netherlands and
Belgium most of its speakers are proficient in other
European languages. In the Netherlands German is spoken with varying levels of proficiency (especially in the regions bordering
Germany) and the language is part of the
core curriculum in schools for 2-5 years. In Belgium, German is less widely spoken, and not always required, but is still spoken by a considerable number of people.
French is also taught for 2-6 years in the Netherlands, but it is not as widely spoken. In
Flanders (Belgium) French is required from age 10 to 18 (from 8 to 18 for Dutch-language schools in bilingual Brussels) and is quite widely spoken, not so strange when one considers that the southern half of Belgium is Francophone. But on the other hand, Francophone Belgians are far less proficient in Dutch; recently,
Walloon schools (but not French-language schools in Brussels) were allowed to choose to teach English as first foreign language, instead of Dutch.
In the Netherlands,
English is taught in schools from a young age - starting in the second highest grade in elementary school from age 10 or 11, and in Flanders from the age of 12 or 13, but typically until the completion of secondary education. Most universities in the two countries, recognizing the importance of the English language in the modern world, continue to teach the language to those students who need to improve their skills. As a result English is spoken throughout the Netherlands and Belgium with members of the younger generation sometimes being fluent or near fluent speakers. The majority of the population of both countries speaks some English.
Some non-native residents of the Netherlands and of Belgium have never learnt to speak Dutch, probably because of a perception of its difficulties. Moreover, and especially in Belgium, the difference between the standard language and the language people speak (their local dialect or, more often, a version of the standard language heavily influenced by it) can be very important and cause difficulties. In addition, native Dutch speakers themselves are often so linguistically proficient that they will try to help a struggling Dutch learner by replying in his or her own (second) language – usually English, or in Belgium also French.
Pronunciation can be a challenge as many of the Dutch vowel sounds are difficult for non native speakers.
Diphthongs such as the "ui" sound in such words as "zuid" (south) or "huis" (house), the "eu" in "keuze" (choice) or "sleutel" (key), and the "ij" sound in words like "mijt" (mite) or "wijn" (wine) present difficulties and even though some of these words are superficially like their English equivalents the correct sound is very different.
Another issue with pronunciation is the "ch"-sound, which Dutch native speakers pronounce as /x/. It has no counterpart in English. Anglo-saxons sometimes make fun of this feature of the Dutch language, and even speakers of Dutch who are well aware of this phonological speciality sometimes ironise it — for example Tom Meyer, a radio commentator, used to say on air that "Dutch isn't a language; it's a disease of the throat." There is a well-known
Second World War anecdote in which the name of Dutch town
Scheveningen was used as a
Shibboleth by the
Dutch Resistance, as there is also no counterpart in German. Therefore native German speakers will pronounce the
sch in Scheveningen as /
ʃ/ (as in the English word
short), while Dutch native speakers will pronounce it as /sx/. This linguistic difference provided a good mechanism to uncover German spies in the ranks of the Dutch resistance.
Its cohesiveness sometimes also produces words that might baffle speakers of other languages due to the high amount of consecutive consonants, such as the word
"angstschreeuw" (help·info) (
ɑŋstsxre:ɥ) (scream in fear), which has grand total of eight in a row (ngstschr) (although the ng and ch are
digraphs). It has to be noted though that the pronunciation of a word can differ greatly from its written form. In this case, "angstschreeuw" actually features 6 consonants (ng-s-t-s-ch-r) originating from two distinct
compounded words ("angst" and "schreeuw"), which is reduced further in everyday pronunciation by blending consecutive consonants into one sound - e.g. "ch" and "r".
Native speakers of German usually have the biggest advantage of all people when learning Dutch from a grammar and vocabulary point of view but almost always struggle with the pronunciation. However, those residents or visitors who do learn some Dutch will be rewarded, not only by the extra fillip this gives to their understanding of Dutch history and culture, but also because it will enable them to converse with people in areas away from the big cities where other languages are less commonly spoken and experience other
Dutch culture.
Dutch as a foreign language Examples Popular misconceptions Further information: Flanders, Flemish (linguistics) Dutch is the language of government, education, and daily life in both the
Netherlands and the
Flemish Region, the northern part of
Belgium. There is no officially recognized language called Flemish, and both the Dutch and Belgian governments adhere to the standard Dutch (
Algemeen Nederlands) defined by the
Nederlandse Taalunie ("Dutch Language Union").
The actual differences between the spoken standard language of Dutch and Belgian speakers are comparable to the differences between American and British English. Some of these differences are recognized by the Taalunie and major dictionaries as being interchangeably valid, although some dictionaries and grammars may mark them as being more prevalent in one region or the other.
The use of the word
Vlaams ("Flemish") to describe
Standard Dutch for the variations prevalent in the Flemish Region and used there, is common in the Netherlands and Belgium. Flemish is also a collective term used for the
Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium.
German dialect Dutch does have a relatively close genetic relationship to the descendants of
Middle English (such as
English and
Scots), since both belong to the
West Germanic languages and both lack most or all of the
High German consonant shift that characterizes the descendants of
Middle High German (such as
German and
Yiddish).
Frisian, however, is even more closely related to the Middle English descendants than Dutch. Languages and dialects sharing some features found in English and Frisian are referred to as
Anglo-Frisian languages or, occasionally,
Ingvaeonic languages.
Relation to English Pennsylvania Dutch, a
West Central German variety called
Deitsch by its speakers, is not a form of Dutch. The word "Dutch" has historically been used for all speakers of continental
West Germanic languages, including, the
Dutch people,
Flemish,
Austrians,
Germans, and the German-speaking
Swiss. It is cognate with the Dutch archaism
Diets, meaning "Dutch", and the
German self-designation
Deutsch. The use of the term "Dutch" exclusively for the language of Belgium, or for the inhabitants of the Netherlands or some of its former colonies, dates from the early 16th century.
Pennsylvania Dutch English speakers do not have any problem in distinguishing between the words Dutch and 'Deutsch'. The former being the English word for the language known to its native speakers as 'Nederlands' and the latter the word given by its native speakers to the language known in English as German, which encompasses both
High German and
Low German as spoken in Germany. The word "Dutch" derived from the Middle Dutch word of the 16th century 'Dietsch' or 'Duitsch' which was the native word of the time for the Dutch language. Over time this word has become the modern Dutch word 'Duits' meaning the German language (Deutsch).
See also (Dutch) Nederlandse Taalunie & Taalunieversum (Dutch Language Union)
Genootschap Onze Taal Linguasphere on dialects of the Dutch language and other languages History of the Dutch Language Ethnologue report for Dutch Euromosaic - Dutch in France - The status of Dutch in France
Sampa for Dutch Free Dutch Tutorial Dutch 101 - Basic information on the Dutch language as well as translations and videos.
Dutch and Afrikaans with Japanese translation incl.sound files
Tony Perkins was the weather forecaster for
ABC's
Good Morning America.
Perkins began his career as a desk assistant for the
ABC News Washington bureau. From
1985 to
1992, he served as a producer and on-air contributor to "The Donnie Simpson Show" on
WKYS-FM in
Washington, D.C. From
1986 to
1988, he hosted and produced "DC20 Breakaway" in Washington. From
1993 to 1999, he served as a weather personality at WTTG-TV in Washington, D.C. and also co-anchored "Fox Morning News" from
1998 to
1999. In 1999, Perkins joined ABC's
Good Morning America, where his catchphrase to turn it over to the local weather was "the weather in your neighborhood." Perkins left
Good Morning America in late
2005 to return to
WTTG in Washington. On
GMA he was succeeded by
Mike Barz. Tony Perkins was a replacement for
Spencer Christian when he moved to
San Francisco to do the weather for
KGO-TV in the late
1990s.
Perkins holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from
American University.
Perkins is an occasional in studio guest to
The Don and Mike Show in Washington D.C.
On May 5th & 6th 2007, Tony Perkins guest hosted
Fox and Friends. He is now working for the
Fox News Channel.
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