View source for Dutch language

{{Short description|West Germanic language}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Dutch
| altname          = West Low Franconian, North Low Franconian
| nativename       = {{lang|nl|Nederlands}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|nl|ˈneːdərlɑnts||nl-Nederlands.ogg}}
| states           = {{plainlist|
* [[Kingdom of the Netherlands|Netherlands]]
* [[Belgium]]
* [[Suriname]]
* [[France]] ([[Nord (French department)|Nord]])
}}
| speakers         = 25 million
| date             = 2021
| ethnicity        = {{plainlist|
* [[Dutch people|Dutch]]
* [[Flemings]]
* [[Indo people|Indo]] 
* [[Afrikaners]]
* [[Cape Coloureds]]
* [[Cape Malays]]
* [[Griqua people|Griquas]]
* [[Oorlam people|Oorlams]]
* [[Basters]]
}}
| ref              = e19
| speakers2        = Total ([[first language|L1]] plus [[Second language|L2]] speakers): 30 million (2021)<ref name="Eurobarometer Languages" /><ref name="UofL">{{cite web |url=http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/modern-languages/lal/languages%20at%20lal/dutch |title=Dutch |publisher=University of Leicester |website=Languages at Leicester |access-date=July 1, 2014 |archive-date=May 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502062920/http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/modern-languages/lal/languages%20at%20lal/dutch |url-status=live }}</ref>
| standards        = [[Standard Dutch]]
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Germanic languages|Germanic]]
| fam3             = [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]
| fam4             = [[Weser–Rhine Germanic]]
| fam5             = [[Low Franconian languages|Low Franconian]]
| dia1             = [[Central Dutch dialects|Central]]
| dia2             = [[Flemish dialects|Flemish]]
| dia3             = [[Stadsfries dialects|Stadsfries]]
| dia4             = [[West Frisian Dutch]]
| ancestor         = [[Frankish language|Frankish]]
| ancestor2        = [[Old Dutch]]
| ancestor3        = [[Middle Dutch]]
| ancestor4        = [[Modern Dutch]]
| script           = {{plainlist|
*[[Latin script|Latin]] ([[Dutch alphabet]])
*[[Dutch Braille]]}}
| sign             = [[Signed Dutch]] (''NmG'')
| nation           = {{plainlist|
*{{flag|Netherlands}}
:*{{flag|Aruba}}
:*{{flag|Bonaire}}
:*{{flag|Curaçao}}
:*{{flag|Sint Eustatius}}
:*{{flag|Sint Maarten}}
:*{{flag|Saba}}
*{{flag|Belgium}}
*{{flag|Suriname}}
}}
{{Collapsible list |titlestyle=font-weight:normal; background:transparent; text-align:left;|title=[[List of countries and territories where Afrikaans or Dutch are official languages|Organisations]]|
|{{flag|Benelux}}
|{{flag|Caribbean Community}}
|{{flag|European Union}}
|[[Forum for the Progress and Integration of South America|PROSUR]] 
|{{flag|Union of South American Nations|South American Union}}
}}
| minority         = 
| agency           = {{lang|nl|Nederlandse Taalunie}}<br />([[Dutch Language Union]])
| iso1             = nl
| iso2b            = dut
| iso2t            = nld
| iso3             = nld
| iso3comment      = Dutch/[[Flemish dialects|Flemish]]
| lingua           = 52-ACB-a
| glotto           = mode1257
| glottorefname    = Modern Dutch
| map              = Map of the Dutch World.svg
| mapcaption       = Dutch-speaking world (included are areas of daughter language [[Afrikaans]])
| map2             = Dutch Language distribution map.png
| mapcaption2      = Distribution of the Dutch standard language (dark blue where a majority language, light blue for Brussels, Friesland and Low Franconian dialects in France and Germany) in Europe
| notice           = IPA
}}
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Eva speaking Dutch.webm|thumb|A Dutch speaker]]

'''Dutch''' ({{lang-nl |label=[[endonym]]| Nederlands}} {{IPA|nl|ˈneːdərlɑnts||nl-Nederlands.ogg}}) is a [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic language]], spoken by about 25 million people as a first language<ref name="Feiten"/> and 5 million as a second language and is the [[List of languages by total number of speakers|third most spoken]] Germanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of the population of the [[Netherlands]] and [[Flanders]] (which includes 60% of the population of [[Belgium]]).<ref name="Eurobarometer Languages">{{cite web |author=[[European Commission]] |year=2006 |title=Special Eurobarometer 243: Europeans and their Languages (Survey) |url=http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221061227/http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf |archive-date=Feb 21, 2007 |access-date=February 3, 2007 |publisher=[[Europa (web portal)|Europa]]}} "1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." (page 153).</ref><ref name="UofL" /> Dutch was one of the official languages of [[South Africa]] until 1925, when it was replaced by [[Afrikaans]], a separate but partially [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] [[daughter language]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wouden |first=Ton van der |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QuDApplN_AoC&pg=PA258 |title=Roots of Afrikaans: Selected writings of Hans den Besten |date=2012-06-27 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |isbn=978-90-272-7382-6 |pages=258 |language=en}}</ref> of Dutch.{{efn|Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see {{harvnb|Booij|1999|p=2}}, {{harvnb|Jansen|Schreuder|Neijt|2007|p=5}}, {{harvnb|Mennen|Levelt|Gerrits|2006|p=1}}, {{harvnb|Booij|2003|p=4}}, {{harvnb|Hiskens|Auer|Kerswill|2005|p=19}}, {{harvnb|Heeringa|de Wet|2007|pp=1, 3, 5}}.
<br />Afrikaans was historically called Cape Dutch; see {{harvnb|Deumert|Vandenbussche|2003|p=16}}, {{harvnb|Conradie|2005|p=208}}, {{harvnb|Sebba|1997|p=160}}, {{harvnb|Langer|Davies|2005|p=144}}, {{harvnb|Deumert|2002|p=3}}, {{harvnb|Berdichevsky|2004|p=130}}.
<br />Afrikaans is rooted in 17th-century dialects of Dutch; see {{harvnb|Holm|1989|p=338}}, {{harvnb|Geerts|Clyne|1992|p=71}}, {{harvnb|Mesthrie|1995|p=214}}, {{harvnb|Niesler|Louw|Roux|2005|p=459}}.
<br />Afrikaans is variously described as a creole, a partially creolised language, or a deviant variety of Dutch and has a vastly simplified grammar compared to Dutch; see {{harvnb|Sebba|2007|p=116}}.}} Afrikaans, depending on the definition used, may be considered a [[sister language]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kirsner |first=Robert S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oaPPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |title=Qualitative-Quantitative Analyses of Dutch and Afrikaans Grammar and Lexicon |date=2014-02-15 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |isbn=978-90-272-7104-4 |pages=1 |language=en}}</ref> spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in [[South Africa]] and [[Namibia]],{{efn|It has the widest geographical and racial distribution of all official languages of South Africa; see {{harvnb|Webb|2003|pp=7, 8}}, {{harvnb|Berdichevsky|2004|p=131}}. It has by far the largest geographical distribution; see {{harvnb|Alant|2004|p=45}}.<br />It is widely spoken and understood as a second or third language; see {{harvnb|Deumert|Vandenbussche|2003|p=16}}, {{harvnb|Kamwangamalu|2004|p=207}}, {{harvnb|Myers-Scotton|2006|p=389}}, {{harvnb|Simpson|2008|p=324}}, {{harvnb|Palmer|2001|p=141}}, {{harvnb|Webb|2002|p=74}}, {{harvnb|Herriman|Burnaby|1996|p=18}}, {{harvnb|Page|Sonnenburg|2003|p=7}}, {{harvnb|Brook Napier|2007|pp=69, 71}}.<br />An estimated 40&nbsp;percent of South Africans have at least a basic level of communication in Afrikaans; see {{harvnb|Webb|2003|p=7}} {{harvnb|McLean|McCormick|1996|p=333}}. Afrikaans is a lingua franca of Namibia; see {{harvnb|Deumert|2004|p=1}}, {{harvnb|Adegbija|1994|p=26}}, {{harvnb|Batibo|2005|p=79}}, {{harvnb|Donaldson|1993|p=xiii}}, {{harvnb|Deumert|Vandenbussche|2003|p=16}}, {{harvnb|Baker|Prys Jones|1998|p=364}}, {{harvnb|Domínguez|López|1995|p=399}}, {{harvnb|Page|Sonnenburg|2003|p=8}}, {{harvnb|CIA|2010}}.<br />While the number of total speakers of Afrikaans is unknown, estimates range between 15 and 23 million. Afrikaans has 16.3 million speakers; see {{harvnb|de Swaan|2001|p=216}}. Afrikaans has a total of 16 million speakers; see {{harvnb|Machan|2009|p=174}}. About 9 million people speak Afrikaans as a second or third language; see {{harvnb|Alant|2004|p=45}}, {{harvnb|Proost|2006|p=402}}. Afrikaans has over 5 million native speakers and 15 million second language speakers; see {{harvnb|Réguer|2004|p=20}}. Afrikaans has about 6 million native and 16 million second language speakers; see {{harvnb|Domínguez|López|1995|p=340}}. In South Africa, over 23 million people speak Afrikaans to some degree, of which a third are first-language speakers; see {{harvnb|Page|Sonnenburg|2003|p=7}}. L2 "Black Afrikaans" is spoken, with different degrees of fluency, by an estimated 15 million; see {{harvnb|Stell|2008|p=1}}.<br />Dutch and Afrikaans share mutual intelligibility; see {{harvnb|Gooskens|2007|p=453}}, {{harvnb|Holm|1989|p=338}}, {{harvnb|Baker|Prys Jones|1998|p=302}}, {{harvnb|Egil Breivik|Håkon Jahr|1987|p=232}}. For written mutual intelligibility; see {{harvnb|Sebba|2007|p=116}}, {{harvnb|Sebba|1997|p=161}}.<br />It is easier for Dutch speakers to understand Afrikaans than the other way around; see {{harvnb|Gooskens|2007|p=454}}.}} and evolving from [[Cape Dutch]] dialects.

In South America, it is the native language of the majority of the population of [[Suriname]], and spoken as a second or third language in the [[Multilingualism|polyglot]] [[Caribbean]] island countries of [[Aruba]], [[Curaçao]] and [[Sint Maarten]]. All these countries have recognised Dutch as one of their official languages, and are involved in one way or another in the [[Dutch Language Union]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Taalunie |url=https://taalunie.org/over-de-taalunie-/wie-wij-zijn |access-date=2024-04-23 |website=taalunie.org |language=nl |archive-date=January 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105001149/https://taalunie.org/over-de-taalunie-/wie-wij-zijn |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Dutch Caribbean]] municipalities ([[Sint Eustatius|St. Eustatius]], [[Saba (island)|Saba]] and [[Bonaire]]) have Dutch as one of the official languages.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Netherlands |first=Statistics |date=2019-04-04 |title=Caribbean Netherlands; Spoken languages and main language, characteristics |url=https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/figures/detail/82867ENG |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=Statistics Netherlands |language=en-GB |archive-date=October 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231019133313/https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/figures/detail/82867ENG |url-status=live}}</ref> In Asia, Dutch was used in the [[Dutch East Indies]] (now mostly [[Indonesia]]) by a limited educated elite of around 2% of the total population, including over 1 million indigenous Indonesians,<ref>Groeneboer, K (1993) Weg tot het westen. Het Nederlands voor Indie 1600–1950. Publisher: KITLEV, Leiden.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110718083900/http://www.nrcboeken.nl/boek/in-indie-geworteld-druk-1-meijer-h]</ref> until it was banned in 1957, but the ban was lifted afterwards.{{sfn|Maier|2005}} About a fifth of the [[Indonesian language]] can be traced to Dutch, including many [[List of Dutch loanwords in Indonesian|loan words]].{{sfn|Maier|2005}} Indonesia's [[Civil code|Civil Code]] has not been officially translated, and the original Dutch language version dating from colonial times remains the authoritative version.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lindsey |first1=Tim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sB5pDwAAQBAJ&dq=dutch%20language%20in%20nowadays%20Indonesia&pg=PA307 |title=Indonesian Law |last2=Butt |first2=Simon |date=2018-09-06 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-166556-1 |pages=307 |language=en}}</ref> Up to half a million native speakers reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined,{{efn|410,000 in the United States, 159,000 in Canada, 47,000 in Australia; see {{harvnb|Simpson|2009|p=307}}. Between 200,000 and 400,000 in US alone; see {{harvnb|McGoldrick|Giordano|Garcia-Preto|2005|p=536}}.}} and historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France<ref>{{cite book |last=Willemyns |first=Roland |title=Journal of multilingual and multicultural development |publisher=Multilingual Matters |year=2002 |isbn=1853596272 |editor=Jeanine Treffers-Daller, Roland Willemyns |pages=4 |chapter=Language Contact at the Romance-Germanic Language Border |access-date=March 19, 2023 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H7VcdGI20FkC&pg=PA4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124351/https://books.google.com/books?id=H7VcdGI20FkC&pg=PA4 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> and Germany.{{efn|In France, a historical dialect called [[French Flemish]] is spoken. There are about 80,000 Dutch speakers in France; see {{harvnb|Simpson|2009|p=307}}. In French Flanders, only a remnant of 20,000 Flemish-speakers remain; see {{harvnb|Berdichevsky|2004|p=90}}. French Flemish is spoken in the north-west of France by an estimated population of 20,000 daily speakers and 40,000 occasional speakers; see {{harvnb|European Commission|2010}}.<br />A dialect continuum exists between Dutch and German through the [[Kleverlandish]] and [[Limburgish language|Limburgish]] dialects.<br />In 1941, 400,000 Indonesians spoke Dutch, and Dutch exerted a major influence on Indonesian; see {{harvnb|Sneddon|2003|p=161}}. In 1941, about 0.5% of the inland population had a reasonable knowledge of Dutch; see {{harvnb|Maier|2005|p=12}}. At the beginning of World War II, about one million Asians had an active command of Dutch, while an additional half million had a passive knowledge; see {{harvnb|Jones|2008|p=xxxi}}. Many older Indonesians speak Dutch as a second language; see {{harvnb|Thomson|2003|p=80}}. Some of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia speak Dutch amongst each other; see {{harvnb|Tan|2008|pp=62–64}}, {{harvnb|Erdentuğ|Colombijn|2002|p=104}}. Dutch is spoken by "smaller groups of speakers" in Indonesia; see {{harvnb|Bussmann|2002|p=83}}. Some younger Indonesians learn Dutch as a foreign language because their parents and grandparents may speak it and because in some circles, Dutch is regarded as the language of the elite; see {{harvnb|Vos|2001|p=91}}. At present, only educated people of the oldest generation, in addition to specialists who require knowledge of the language, can speak Dutch fluently; see {{harvnb|Ammon|Dittmar|Mattheier|Trudgill|2006|p=2017}}. Around 6.4% of present-day Indonesian vocabulary can be traced back to Dutch words, see {{harvnb|Tadmor|2009|p=698}}.}}

Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both [[German language|German]] and English,{{efn|Dutch and English are the closest relatives of German; see {{harvnb|Abraham|2006|p=124}}. Dutch is the closest relative of German; see {{harvnb|Czepluch|Abraham|2004|p=13}}. Dutch and English are closely related; see {{harvnb|Ingram|1989|p=494}}, {{harvnb|Todd|2004|p=37}}, {{harvnb|Kager|1989|p=105}}, {{harvnb|Hogg|2002|p=134}}, {{harvnb|De Bot|Lowie|Verspoor|2005|pp=130, 166}}, {{harvnb|Weissenborn|Höhle|2001|p=209}}, {{harvnb|Crisma|Longobarde|2009|p=250}}. Dutch and English are very closely related languages; see {{harvnb|Fitzpatrick|2007|p=188}}. Dutch is, after Frisian, the closest relative of English; see {{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|2006|p=23}}, {{harvnb|Classe|2000|p=390}}, {{harvnb|Hogg|2002|p=3}}, {{harvnb|Denning|Kessler|Leben|2007|p=22}}. English is most closely related to Dutch; see {{harvnb|Lightfoot|1999|p=22}}, and more so than to German; see {{harvnb|Sonnenschein|2008|p=100}}, {{harvnb|Kennedy Wyld|2009|p=190}}.}} and is colloquially said to be "roughly in between" them.{{efn|Dutch is traditionally described as morphologically between English and German, but syntactically closer to German; see {{harvnb|Clyne|2003|p=133}}. Dutch has been positioned to be between English and German; see {{harvnb|Putnam|2011|p=108}}, {{harvnb|Bussmann|2002|p=83}}, {{harvnb|Müller|1995|p=121}}, {{harvnb|Onysko|Michel|2010|p=210}}. Typologically, Dutch takes a position between German and English, a similar word order to that of German, grammatical gender, and a largely Germanic vocabulary with many cognates to German words. It is morphologically close to English, and the case system and subjunctive have largely fallen out of use; see {{harvnb|Swan|Smith|2001|p=6}}.}} Dutch, like English, has not undergone the [[High German consonant shift]], does not use [[Germanic umlaut]] as a grammatical marker, has largely abandoned the use of the [[Subjunctive in Dutch|subjunctive]], and has [[Morphological leveling|levelled]] much of its [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], including most of its [[case system]].{{efn|Dutch shares with English its simplified morphology and the abandonment of the [[grammatical case|grammatical case system]]; see {{harvnb|Booij|1999|p=1}}, {{harvnb|Simpson|2009|p=309}}. In contrast to German, case markings have become vestigial in English and Dutch; see {{harvnb|Hogg|2002|p=134}}, {{harvnb|Abraham|2006|p=118}}, {{harvnb|Bussmann|2002|p=83}}, {{harvnb|Swan|Smith|2001|p=6}}. The umlaut in Dutch and English matured to a much lesser extent than in German; see {{harvnb|Simpson|2009|p=307}}, {{harvnb|Lass|1994|p=70}}, {{harvnb|Deprez|1997|p=251}}.|group="n"}} Features shared with German, however, include the survival of two to three [[Gender in Dutch grammar|grammatical genders]]&nbsp;– albeit with few grammatical consequences{{efn|Dutch has effectively two genders; see {{harvnb|Booij|1999|p=1}}, {{harvnb|Simpson|2009|p=309}}, {{harvnb|De Vogelaer|2009|p=71}}. Grammatical gender has little grammatical consequences in Dutch; see {{harvnb|Bussmann|2002|p=84}}}}&nbsp;– as well as the use of [[modal particle]]s,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/dutch/guide/facts.shtml |title=A Guide to Dutch – 10 facts about the Dutch language |publisher=BBC |website=Languages |date=2014 |access-date=December 20, 2019 |archive-date=December 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202161434/http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/dutch/guide/facts.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> [[final-obstruent devoicing]], and (similar) [[V2 word order#Dutch and Afrikaans|word order]].{{efn|{{harvnb|Simpson|2009|p=307}}, {{harvnb|Booij|1999|p=1}} Dutch and German do not have a strict SVO order as in English; see {{harvnb|Hogg|2002|pp=87, 134}}. In contrast to English, which has SVO as the underlying word order, for Dutch and German this is SV<sub>1</sub>OV<sub>2</sub> or (in subordinate clauses) SOV; see {{harvnb|Ingram|1989|p=495}}, {{harvnb|Jordens|Lalleman|1988|pp=149, 150, 177}}. Dutch has almost the same word order as German; see {{harvnb|Swan|Smith|2001|p=6}}.|group="n"}} Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic; it incorporates slightly more [[Romance languages|Romance loans]] than German, but far fewer than English.{{efn|Dutch vocabulary has more Germanic words than English and more Romance words than German; see {{harvnb|Simpson|2009|p=309}}, {{harvnb|Swan|Smith|2001|p=17}}. Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic; see {{harvnb|Swan|Smith|2001|p=6}}. Dutch has the most similar vocabulary to English; see {{harvnb|Mallory|Adams|2006|p=1}}.}}

{{TOC limit|limit=3}}

==Name==
{{Main|Terminology of the Low Countries}}

In Belgium, the Netherlands and Suriname, the native official name for Dutch is {{lang|nl|Nederlands}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9055348/Netherlandic-language |title=Dutch language |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |edition=Online |access-date=27 October 2022 |archive-date=June 22, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080622131514/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9055348/Netherlandic-language |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>See also: {{Cite book |title=Netherlandic Language Research: Men and Works in the Study of Dutch |last=Haeringen |first=Coenraad van |publisher=Brill |year=1960 |edition=2nd |location=Leiden }}</ref> (historically {{lang|nl|Nederlandsch}} before the [[History of Dutch orthography|Dutch orthographic reforms]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nederlandsch#Dutch |title=Nederlandsch |website=Wiktionary |date=July 7, 2021 |access-date=27 October 2022 |archive-date=June 30, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220630004511/https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nederlandsch#Dutch |url-status=live }} {{User-generated source|date=June 2022}}</ref> Sometimes {{lang|nl|Vlaams}} ("[[Flemish dialects|Flemish]]") is used as well to describe [[Standard Dutch]] in [[Flanders]], whereas {{lang|nl|Hollands}} ("[[Hollandic]]") is occasionally used as a colloquial term for the standard language in the central and northwestern parts of the Netherlands.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Germanic Languages |last=De Schutter |first=Georges |publisher=Routledge |year=1994 |editor-last=König |editor-first=Ekkehard |location=London |pages=439 |chapter=Dutch |editor-last2=van der Auwera |editor-first2=Johan}}</ref>

English uses the adjective ''Dutch'' as a noun for the language of the Netherlands and Flanders. The word is derived from [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] {{wikt-lang|gem-pro|*þiudiskaz}}. The stem of this word, {{wikt-lang|gem-pro|*þeudō}}, meant "people" in Proto-Germanic, and {{wikt-lang|gem-pro|*-iskaz}} was an adjective-forming suffix, of which {{wikt-lang|en|-ish}} is the [[Modern English]] form.{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|2006|p=269}} ''{{lang|la|Theodiscus}}'' was its [[List of Latinised names|Latinised]] form<ref>W. Haubrichs, "''Theodiscus'', Deutsch und Germanisch – drei Ethnonyme, drei Forschungsbegriffe. Zur Frage der Instrumentalisierung und Wertbesetzung deutscher Sprach- und Volksbezeichnungen". In: H. Beck et al., ''Zur Geschichte der Gleichung "germanisch-deutsch"'' (2004), 199–228</ref> and used as an [[adjective]] referring to the [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] [[vernacular]]s of the [[Early Middle Ages]]. In this sense, it meant  "the language of the common people". The term was used as opposed to [[Latin language|Latin]], the ''non''-native language of writing and the [[Catholic Church]].<ref>''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary'', 2nd revised edn., s.v. "Dutch" (Random House Reference, 2005).</ref> It was first recorded in 786, when the [[Suburbicarian Diocese of Ostia|Bishop of Ostia]] writes to [[Pope Adrian I]] about a [[synod]] taking place in [[Corbridge]], [[England]], where the decisions are being written down "{{lang|la|tam Latine quam theodisce}}" meaning "in Latin as well as common vernacular".<ref>M. Philippa e.a. (2003–2009) Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands [diets]</ref><ref>{{cite book|title = Walahfrid Strabo's Libellus de Exordiis Et Incrementis Quarundam in&nbsp;... a translation by Alice L. Harting-Correa|isbn = 9004096698|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Fh7vQT-lkTkC&pg=PA223|last1 = Strabo|first1 = Walafridus|year = 1996| publisher=BRILL |access-date = June 3, 2020|archive-date = March 24, 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124337/https://books.google.com/books?id=Fh7vQT-lkTkC&pg=PA223|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>Cornelis Dekker: The Origins of Old Germanic Studies in the Low Countries [https://books.google.com/books?id=sOV5_giY6ssC&dq=tam+latine+quam+theodisce&pg=PA245] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124342/https://books.google.com/books?id=sOV5_giY6ssC&dq=tam+latine+quam+theodisce&pg=PA245|date=March 24, 2023}}</ref>

According to a hypothesis by De Grauwe, In northern [[West Francia]] (i.e. modern-day Belgium) the term would take on a new meaning during the [[Early Middle Ages]], when, within the context of a highly dichromatic linguistic landscape, it came to be the [[antonym]] of ''[[Walhaz|*walhisk]]'' (Romance-speakers, specifically [[Old French]]).<ref>Peter Polenz: Geschichte der deutschen Sprache. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2020, p. 36.</ref> The word, now rendered as {{lang|dum|dietsc}} (Southwestern variant) or {{lang|dum|duutsc}} (Central and Northern Variant), could refer to the Dutch language itself, as well as a broader Germanic category depending on context. During the [[High Middle Ages]] "{{lang|dum|Dietsc}}/{{lang|dum|Duutsc}}" was increasingly used as an umbrella term for the specific Germanic dialects spoken in the [[Low Countries]], its meaning being largely implicitly provided by the regional orientation of medieval Dutch society: apart from the higher echelons of the clergy and nobility, mobility was largely static and hence while "Dutch" could by extension also be used in its earlier sense, referring to what to today would be called Germanic dialects as opposed to [[Romance languages|Romance dialects]], in many cases it was understood or meant to refer to the language now known as Dutch.<ref>L. De Grauwe: Emerging Mother-Tongue Awareness: The special case of Dutch and German in the Middle Ages and the early Modern Period (2002), p. 98–110.</ref>

In the Low Countries {{lang|dum|Dietsch}} or its Early Modern Dutch form ''Duytsch'' as an endonym for Dutch gradually went out of common use and was gradually replaced by the Dutch endonym {{lang|nl|Nederlands}}. This designation (first attested in 1482) started at the [[Burgundian Netherlands|Burgundian court]] in the 15th century, although the use of {{lang|nl|neder}}, {{lang|nl|laag}}, {{lang|nl|bas}}, and {{lang|nl|inferior}} ("nether" or "low") to refer to the area known as the Low Countries goes back further in time, with the [[Roman Empire|Romans]] referring to the region as ''[[Germania Inferior]]'' ("Lower" Germania).<ref>{{in lang|nl}} See J. Verdam, ''Middelnederlandsch handwoordenboek'' (The Hague 1932 (reprinted 1994)): "Nederlant, znw. o. I) Laag of aan zee gelegen land. 2) land aan den Nederrijn; Nedersaksen, -duitschland."</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Hermes in uitbreiding|url=http://users.pandora.be/michel.vanhalme/hermes29.htm|access-date=August 12, 2015|publisher=Users.pandora.be|language=nl|archive-date=June 7, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607142148/http://users.pandora.be/michel.vanhalme/hermes29.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{in lang|nl}} ''neder-'' corresponds with the English ''nether-'', which means "low" or "down". See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=nether Online etymological dictionary. Entry: Nether.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206145915/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=nether |date=December 6, 2008 }}</ref> It is a reference to the Low Countries' downriver location at the [[Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta]] near the [[North Sea]].

From 1551, the designation {{lang|nl|Nederlands}} received strong competition from the name {{lang|nl|Nederduytsch}} (literally "Low Dutch",  ''Dutch'' being used in its archaic sense covering all continental West Germanic languages). It is a [[calque]] of the aforementioned Roman province ''Germania Inferior'' and an attempt by early Dutch grammarians to give their language more prestige by linking it to Roman times. Likewise, {{lang|nl|Hoogduits}} ("High German") and {{lang|nl|Overlands}} ("Upper-landish") came into use as a Dutch exonym for the various German dialects used in neighboring German states.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_ver025190901_01/_ver025190901_01_0030.php|title=Verslagen en mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde 1909 · dbnl|last=DBNL|website=DBNL|language=nl|access-date=April 25, 2017|archive-date=April 26, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170426062011/http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_ver025190901_01/_ver025190901_01_0030.php|url-status=live}}</ref> Use of {{lang|nl|Nederduytsch}} was popular in the 16th century but ultimately lost out over {{lang|nl|Nederlands}} during the close of the 18th century, with {{lang|nl|(Hoog)Duytsch}} establishing itself as the Dutch exonym for German during this same period.

In the 19th century Germany saw the rise of the categorisation of dialects, with German [[dialectology|dialectologists]] terming the German dialects spoken in the mountainous south of Germany as {{lang|de|Hochdeutsch}} ("High German"). Subsequently, German dialects spoken in the north were designated as {{lang|de|Niederdeutsch}} ("Low German"). The names for these dialects were calqued by Dutch linguists as {{lang|nl|Nederduits}} and {{lang|nl|Hoogduits}}. As a result, {{lang|nl|Nederduits}} no longer serves as a synonym for the Dutch language. In the 19th century, the term "{{lang|nl|Diets}}" was revived by Dutch linguists and historians as well, as a poetic name for [[Middle Dutch]] and [[Middle Dutch literature|its literature]].<ref>M. Janssen: Atlas van de Nederlandse taal: Editie Vlaanderen, Lannoo Meulenhoff, 2018, p. 30.</ref>

==History==
[[File:GERMANICEXPANSION.GIF|thumb|Map of the [[pre-Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe]] culture(s) associated with the [[Proto-Germanic language]], ca 500–50 BCE. The area south of Scandinavia is the [[Jastorf culture]].]]

[[Old Dutch]] can be discerned more or less around the same time as [[Old English]] (Anglo-Saxon), [[Old High German]], [[Old Frisian]], and [[Old Saxon]]. These names are derived from the modern [[standard language]]s. In this age no standard languages had yet developed, while a perfect West Germanic [[dialect continuum]] remained present; the division reflects the contingent future contribution dialect groups would have to the later languages. The early form of Dutch was a set of Franconian dialects spoken by the [[Salian Franks]] in the 5th century. These happened to develop through [[Middle Dutch]] to Modern Dutch over the course of fifteen centuries.<ref>{{harvp|Willemyns|2013|p=xiii}}</ref> During that period, they forced Old Frisian back from the western coast to the north of the Low Countries, and influenced or even replaced Old Saxon spoken in the east (contiguous with the Low German area). On the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in present-day France and Germany. The division into Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, since the transition between them was very gradual. One of the few moments when [[Linguistics|linguists]] can detect something of a revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. The development of the Dutch language is illustrated by the following sentence in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch:
* {{lang|odt|Irlôsin sol an frithe sêla mîna fan thên thia ginâcont mi, wanda under managon he was mit mi}} (Old Dutch)
* {{lang|dum|Erlossen sal [hi] in vrede siele mine van dien die genaken mi, want onder menegen hi was met mi}} (Middle Dutch)
* {{lang|nl|Verlossen zal hij in vrede ziel mijn van degenen die genaken mij, want onder menigen hij was met mij}} (Modern Dutch, same word order)
* {{lang|nl|Hij zal mijn ziel in vrede verlossen van degenen die mij genaken, want onder menigen was hij met mij}} (Modern Dutch, default word order)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Psalmen 55 – Oude Testament|url=https://www.statenvertaling.net/bijbel/psal/55.html|access-date=October 24, 2019|website=Statenvertaling.net – bijbel en kunst|language=nl|archive-date=March 16, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200316205930/https://www.statenvertaling.net/bijbel/psal/55.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''He will deliver my soul in peace from those who approach me, because, amongst many, he was with me'' (English)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://biblehub.com/psalms/55-18.htm|title=Psalm 55:18 He will redeem my soul in peace from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me.|website=biblehub.com|access-date=October 24, 2019|archive-date=October 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024122732/https://biblehub.com/psalms/55-18.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Origins===
{{Main|History of the Dutch language}}
[[File:Germanic dialects ca. AD 1.png|thumb|The distribution of the primary [[Germanic languages]] in Europe in around AD 1:
{{legend|Blue|[[North Germanic languages|North Germanic]]}}
{{legend|Red|[[Ingvaeonic languages|North Sea Germanic]], or Ingvaeonic}}
{{legend|Orange|[[Istvaeones|Weser–Rhine Germanic]], or Istvaeonic}}
{{legend|Yellow|[[Irminones|Elbe Germanic]], or Irminonic}}
{{legend|Green|[[East Germanic languages|East Germanic]]}}
Lighter-coloured areas denote areas of either mixed settlement, such as between East-Germanic and Balto-Slavic peoples, or possible settlement, such as the Istvaeones within the Roman Empire or the Ingvaenes in Northern Denmark.]]
Among the [[Indo-European languages]], Dutch is grouped within the [[Germanic languages]], meaning it shares a [[common ancestor]] with languages such as English, German, and the [[Scandinavian languages]]. All Germanic languages are subject to the [[Grimm's law]] and [[Verner's law]] sound shifts, which originated in the [[Proto-Germanic language]] and define the basic features differentiating them from other Indo-European languages. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the [[pre-Roman Iron Age in Northern Europe|pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=1993 |title=Languages of the World: Germanic languages |encyclopedia=The New Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc |location=Chicago, IL, United States |isbn=0-85229-571-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia07ency }} This long-standing, well-known article on the languages can be found in almost any edition of ''Britannica''.</ref>

The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: [[East Germanic languages|East]] (now extinct), [[West Germanic languages|West]], and [[North Germanic languages|North]] Germanic.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hawkins|first=John A.|chapter=Germanic languages|pages=[https://archive.org/details/worldsmajorlangu00comr/page/68 68–76]|editor=[[Bernard Comrie]]|title=The World's Major Languages|url=https://archive.org/details/worldsmajorlangu00comr|url-access=registration|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1987|isbn=0-19-520521-9}}</ref> They remained mutually intelligible throughout the [[Migration Period]]. Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, [[Scots language|Scots]], [[Frisian languages|Frisian]], [[Low German]] (Old Saxon) and [[High German languages|High German]]. It is characterised by a number of [[phonology|phonological]] and [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] innovations not found in North or East Germanic.<ref>{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=Orrin W.|author-link=Orrin W. Robinson (philologist)|title=Old English and Its Closest Relatives|isbn=0-8047-2221-8|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1992}}</ref> The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally split into three dialect groups: [[Ingvaeonic languages|Ingvaeonic]] (North Sea Germanic), [[Istvaeones|Istvaeonic]] (Weser–Rhine Germanic) and [[Irminones|Irminonic]] (Elbe Germanic). It appears that the Frankish tribes fit primarily into the Istvaeonic dialect group with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest, which are still seen in modern Dutch.

===Frankish (3rd–5th centuries)===
{{main|Frankish language}}
The Frankish language itself is not directly attested, the only possible exception being the [[Bergakker inscription]], found near the Dutch city of [[Tiel]], which may represent a primary record of 5th-century Frankish. Although some place names recorded in Roman texts such as ''{{lang|frk|vadam}}'' (modern Dutch: ''{{lang|nl|wad}}'', English: "mudflat"), could arguably be considered as the oldest single "Dutch" words, the Bergakker inscription yields the oldest evidence of Dutch morphology. However, interpretations of the rest of the text lack any consensus.<ref>{{harvp|Willemyns|2013|pp=40–41}}</ref>

The [[Franks]] emerged in the southern Netherlands ([[Salian Franks]]) and central Germany ([[Ripuarian Franks]]), and later descended into [[Gaul]]. The name of [[Francia|their kingdom]] survives in that of France. Although they ruled the [[Gallo-Roman culture|Gallo-Romans]] for nearly 300 years, their language, [[Frankish language|Frankish]], became extinct in most of France and was replaced by later forms of the language throughout Luxembourg and Germany in around the 7th century. It was replaced in France by [[Old French]] (a [[Romance languages|Romance language]] with a considerable Old Frankish influence).

However, the Old Franconian language did not die out at large, as it continued to be spoken in the Low Countries, and subsequently evolved into what is now called Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch in the Low Countries. In fact, Old Frankish could be reconstructed from Old Dutch and Frankish loanwords in Old French.<ref>{{cite book|title=Icons of the Middle Ages: Rulers, Writers, Rebels, and Saints|last1=Matheson|first1=Lister M.|date=2012|publisher=Greenwood|isbn=978-0313340802|location=Santa Barbara, Calif.|page=145}}</ref>

=== Old Dutch (5th–12th centuries) ===
{{main|Old Dutch}}
[[File:OldDutcharea.png|thumb|Area in which Old Dutch was spoken]]

The term ''Old Dutch'' or ''Old Low Franconian''<ref>{{cite book|first1=M. C.|last1=Van den Toorn|first2=W. J. J.|last2=Pijnenburg|display-authors=etal|title=Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal|language=nl|date=1997|page=37}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=G.|last1=Janssens|first2=A.|last2=Marynissen|title=Het Nederlands vroeger en nu|language=nl|edition=2nd|date=2005|pages=38, 54}}</ref> refers to the set of [[Franconian (linguistics)|Franconian dialects]] (i.e. West Germanic varieties that are assumed to have evolved from [[Frankish language|Frankish]]) spoken in the [[Low Countries]] during the [[Early Middle Ages]], from around the 5th to the 12th century.<ref>{{cite book|last1=De Vries|first1=Jan W.|first2=Roland|last2=Willemyns|first3=Peter|last3=Burger|title=Het verhaal van een taal|language=nl|location=Amsterdam|publisher=Prometheus|date=2003|pages=12, 21–27}} Page 27: "''...Aan het einde van de negende eeuw kan er zeker van Nederlands gesproken worden; hoe long daarvoor dat ook het geval was, kan niet met zekerheid worden uitgemaakt.''" [It can be said with certainty that Dutch was being spoken at the end of the 9th century; how long that might have been the case before that cannot be determined with certainty.]</ref> Old Dutch is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French.<ref name="Webster">Webster's New World Dictionary: Old Dutch</ref> Old Dutch is regarded as the primary stage in the development of a separate Dutch language. It was spoken by the descendants of the [[Salian Franks]] who occupied what is now the southern [[Netherlands]], northern [[Belgium]], part of northern France, and parts of the [[Lower Rhine]] regions of Germany.

The High German consonant shift, moving over Western Europe from south to west, caused a differentiation with the [[High Franconian German|Central and High Franconian]] in Germany. The latter would as a consequence evolve (along with [[Alemannic German|Alemannic]], [[Bavarian language|Bavarian]] and [[Lombardic language|Lombardic]]) into Old High German. At more or less the same time the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, moving over Western Europe from west to east, led to the development of [[Old English]] (or Anglo-Saxon), [[Old Frisian]] and [[Old Saxon]]. Hardly influenced by either development, Old Dutch probably remained relatively close to the original language of the Franks. However, the language did experience developments of its own, such as very early [[final-obstruent devoicing]]. In fact, the find at Bergakker indicates that the language may already have experienced this shift during the Old Frankish period.

[[File:Gallee (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|The Utrecht baptismal vow]]
Attestations of Old Dutch sentences are extremely rare. The language is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and loan words from Old Dutch in other languages.<ref name="Webster"/> The oldest recorded is found in the [[Salic law]]. In this [[Franks|Frank]]ish document written around 510 the oldest Dutch sentence has been identified: {{lang|odt|Maltho thi afrio lito}} ("I say to you, I free you, serf") used to free a serf. Another old fragment of Dutch is {{lang|odt|Visc flot aftar themo uuatare}} ("A fish was swimming in the water"). The oldest conserved larger Dutch text is the [[Old Saxon Baptismal Vow|Utrecht baptismal vow]] (776–800) starting with {{lang|odt|Forsachistu diobolae&nbsp;... ec forsacho diabolae}} (litt.: "Forsake you the devil?&nbsp;... I forsake the devil"). If only for its poetic content, the most famous Old Dutch sentence is probably {{lang|nl|[[Hebban olla vogala]] nestas hagunnan, hinase hic enda tu, wat unbidan we nu}} ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"), is dated to around the year 1100, written by a Flemish [[monk]] in a convent in [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]], [[England]]. Since the sentence speaks to the imagination, it is often erroneously stated as the oldest Dutch sentence.

===Middle Dutch (12th–15th centuries)===
{{main|Middle Dutch}}
Old Dutch naturally evolved into [[Middle Dutch]]. The year 1150 is often cited as the time of the discontinuity, but it actually marks a time of profuse Dutch writing; during this period a rich [[Medieval Dutch literature]] developed. There was at that time no overarching [[standard language]]; Middle Dutch is rather a collective name for a number of closely related, mutually intelligible dialects spoken in the former Old Dutch area. Where Old Dutch fragments are very hard to read for untrained Modern Dutch speakers, the various literary works of Middle Dutch are somewhat more accessible.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Besamusca|first1=Emmeline|last2=Verheul|first2=Jaap|title=Discovering the Dutch: on culture and society of the Netherlands|date=November 19, 2014|publisher=Amsterdam University Press|isbn=9789048526093|pages=239|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GiJyBQAAQBAJ|language=en|access-date=June 3, 2020|archive-date=March 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124343/https://books.google.com/books?id=GiJyBQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The most notable difference between Old and Middle Dutch is in a feature of speech known as [[vowel reduction]], whereby vowels in unstressed syllables are leveled to a [[schwa]].

The Middle Dutch dialect areas were affected by political boundaries. The sphere of political influence of a certain ruler often also created a sphere of linguistic influence, with the language within the area becoming more homogenous. Following the contemporary political divisions they are in order of importance:
* [[West Flemish]] with the [[County of Flanders]] at its centre. It had been influential during the earlier Middle Ages (the "Flemish expansion") but lost prestige to the neighbouring Brabantian in the 13th century.
* [[Brabantian dialect|Brabantian]] (and related East Flemish), spoken primarily in the [[Duchy of Brabant]] and adjacent parts. It was an influential dialect during most of the Middle Ages, during the so-called "Brabantian expansion" in which the influence of Brabant was extended outwards into other areas.
* [[Hollandic dialect|Hollandic]], which had the [[County of Holland]] as its heartland, where originally [[Old Frisian]] was spoken. The people adopted Low Franconian<ref>{{Cite book |last=de Vaan |first=Michiel |title=The Dawn of Dutch: Language contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200 |publisher=John Benjamins |year=2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dijkstra |first=M.F.P. |title=Rondom de mondingen van Rijn & Maas: landschap en bewoning tussen de 3e en 9e eeuw in Zuid-Holland, in het bijzonder de Oude Rijnstreek |publisher=Sidestone Press |year=2011}}</ref> and a new Frankish dialect with a Frisian [[Stratum (linguistics)|substrate]] developed. It was less influential during most of the Middle Ages but became more so in the 16th century during the "Hollandic expansion"; the [[Eighty Years' War]] took place in the Southern Netherlands during this period.
* [[Limburgish language|Limburgish]], spoken by the people in the modern-day provinces of [[Limburg (Netherlands)|Dutch]] and [[Limburg (Belgium)|Belgian Limburg]], and adjacent lands in Germany. It was over time tied to different political areas and is therefore the most divergent of the dialects. It was even partly influenced by the High German consonant shift and is the most distant to the later developed standard language to which it contributed little. It was, however, the earliest Middle Dutch dialect that developed a literary tradition.
* Since it is part of the Old Saxon and not Low Franconian (Old Dutch) area, [[Dutch Low Saxon]] is not strictly a Dutch dialect. However, it was influenced by Middle Dutch since the 14th century and it did play a part in the formation of the standard Dutch language in later periods. It was spoken in the [[Overijssel#Oversticht|Oversticht]] territories of the [[episcopal principality of Utrecht]] and adjacent parts of [[Guelders]]. A [[dialect continuum]] remained present with Low Franconian areas to the west and Low Saxon areas to the east.

===Modern Dutch (15th century–present)===
[[File:Statenvertaling title page.jpg|thumb|Title page of the [[Statenvertaling]] (1637) reads: {{lang|nl|Biblia&nbsp;... Uyt de Oorspronckelijcke talen in onse Neder-landtsche tale getrouwelijck over-geset.}} (English: From the Original languages into our Dutch language faithfully translated.)<ref>Full English transcript: Bible, that is: The entire H. Scripture, containing all the Canonical Books of the Old and the New Testaments. Now first, by order of the High Lords States General of the United Netherlands, and according to the Decision of the National Synod, held at Dordrecht, in the Years 1618 and 1619. From the Original languages into our Dutch language faithfully translated. With new added Clarifications of the dark passages, notes of the paralleled Texts, and new Indexes of both Testaments.</ref>]]
A process of [[standard language|standardisation]] started in the [[Middle Ages]], especially under the influence of the [[Burgundian Netherlands|Burgundian]] Ducal Court in Dijon ([[Brussels]] after 1477). The dialects of Flanders and Brabant were the most influential around this time. The process of standardisation became much stronger at the start of the 16th century, mainly based on the urban dialect of [[Antwerp]]. The 1585 [[fall of Antwerp]] to the Spanish army led to a flight to the northern Netherlands, where the [[Dutch Republic]] declared its independence from Spain. This influenced the urban dialects of the province of [[County of Holland|Holland]]. In 1637, a further important step was made towards a unified language,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccjk.com/dutch-full-historical-junk/ |title=Dutch & Other Languages |date=January 23, 2015 |publisher=Ccjk.com |access-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923201159/http://www.ccjk.com/dutch-full-historical-junk/ |url-status=live }}</ref> when the [[Statenvertaling]], the first major Bible translation into Dutch, was created that people from all over the new republic could understand. It used elements from various, even [[Dutch Low Saxon]], dialects but was predominantly based on the urban dialects of Holland of post 16th century.<ref>{{cite web|title=Taal in Nederland .:. Brabants|url=http://taal.phileon.nl/brabants.php|access-date=June 11, 2014|publisher=Taal.phileon.nl|language=nl|archive-date=June 19, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140619102750/http://taal.phileon.nl/brabants.php}}</ref>

In the [[Southern Netherlands]] (now Belgium and Luxembourg), developments were different. Under subsequent [[Spanish Netherlands|Spanish]], [[Austrian Netherlands|Austrian]] and [[French Revolutionary Wars|French rule]], the standardisation of Dutch language came to a standstill. The state, law, and increasingly education used French, yet more than half the Belgian population were speaking a variety of Dutch. In the course of the 19th century, the [[Flemish Movement]] stood up for the rights of Dutch speakers, mostly referred to as "Flemish". However, the dialect variation was a serious disadvantage in the face of the standardised [[French language|francophony]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=McRae|first1=Kenneth D.|title=Conflict and compromise in multilingual societies|date=1984|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press|location=Waterloo, ON|isbn=0889201951|pages=54–55}}</ref> Since standardisation is a lengthy process, Dutch-speaking Belgium associated itself with the standard language that had already developed in the Netherlands over the centuries. Therefore, the situation in Belgium is essentially no different from that in the Netherlands, although there are recognisable differences in pronunciation, comparable to the pronunciation differences between standard British and standard American English.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Bramlett|editor-first1=Frank|title=Linguistics and the Study of Comics|date=2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=Basingstoke|isbn=978-1137004109|pages=163|edition=1st}}</ref> In 1980 the Netherlands and Belgium concluded the [[Dutch Language Union|Language Union Treaty]]. This treaty lays down the principle that the two countries must gear their language policy to each other, among other things, for a common system of spelling.

==Classification==
* [[Indo-European languages]]
** [[Germanic languages|Germanic]]
*** [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]
**** [[Low Franconian languages|Low Franconian]]
***** '''Dutch'''
****** Afrikaans, [[Dutch-based creole languages|Dutch-based creoles]]

Dutch belongs to its own [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] sub-group, the [[Low Franconian]] languages, paired with its sister language Limburgish or East Low Franconian. Its closest relative is the [[mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] daughter language Afrikaans. Other West Germanic languages related to Dutch are [[German language|German]], [[English language|English]] and the un-standardised languages [[Low German]] and [[Yiddish]].

Dutch stands out in combining some [[Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law|Ingvaeonic characteristics]] (occurring consistently in English and Frisian and reduced in intensity from west to east over the [[continental West Germanic]] plane) with dominant Istvaeonic characteristics, some of which are also incorporated in German. Unlike German, Dutch (apart from Limburgish) has not been influenced at all by the south to north movement of the [[High German consonant shift]] and had some changes of its own.{{efn|Friedrich Maurer uses the term ''[[Istvaeones|Istvaeonic]]'' instead of Franconian; see Friedrich Maurer (1942), ''Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und frühdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde'', Bern: Verlag Francke.}} The cumulation of these changes resulted over time in separate, but related standard languages with various degrees of similarities and differences between them. For a comparison between the West Germanic languages, see the sections Phonology, Grammar, and Vocabulary.

==Dialects==
{{Main|Dutch dialects}}
Dutch [[dialect]]s 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{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} diverse and are found in the [[Netherlands]] and in the [[Brussels]] and [[Flemish region]]s 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 {{lang|nl|streektaal}} ("[[regional language]]"). Those words are actually more political than linguistic because a regional language unites a large group of very different varieties. Such is the case with the [[Gronings dialect]], which is considered a variety of the [[Dutch Low Saxon]] regional language, but it is relatively distinct from other Dutch Low Saxon varieties. Also, some Dutch dialects are more remote from the Dutch standard language than some varieties of a regional language are. Within the Netherlands, a further distinction is made between a regional language and a separate language, which is the case with the ([[standard language|standardised]]) [[West Frisian language]]. It is spoken alongside Dutch in the province of [[Friesland]].

Dutch dialects and regional languages are not spoken as often as they used to be, especially in the Netherlands. Recent research by Geert Driessen shows that the use of dialects and regional languages among both Dutch adults and youth is in heavy decline. In 1995, 27 percent of the Dutch adult population spoke a dialect or regional language on a regular basis, but in 2011, that was no more than 11 percent. In 1995, 12 percent of children of primary school age spoke a dialect or regional language, but in 2011, that had declined to four percent. Of the officially recognised regional languages [[Limburgish]] is spoken the most (in 2011 among adults 54%, among children 31%) and Dutch Low Saxon the least (adults 15%, children 1%). The decline of the [[West Frisian language]] in Friesland occupies a middle position (adults 44%, children 22%). Dialects are most often spoken in rural areas, but many cities have a distinct city dialect. For example, the city of [[Ghent]] has very distinct "g", "e" and "r" sounds that greatly differ from its surrounding villages. The [[Brussels]] dialect combines Brabantian with words adopted from [[Walloon language|Walloon]] and [[French language|French]].

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]]. Examples are the [[Gronings dialect]] spoken in [[Groningen (province)|Groningen]] as well as the closely related varieties in adjacent [[East Frisia]] (Germany). [[Kleverlandish]] is a dialect spoken in southern [[Gelderland]], the northern tip of [[Limburg (Netherlands)|Limburg]], and northeast of [[North Brabant]] (Netherlands), but also in adjacent parts of [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] (Germany). [[Limburgish language|Limburgish]] ({{lang|nl|Limburgs}}) is spoken in [[Limburg (Belgium)]] as well as in the remaining part of [[Limburg (Netherlands)]] and extends across the German border. West Flemish ({{lang|nl|Westvlaams}}) is spoken in [[West Flanders]], the western part of [[Zeelandic Flanders]] and also in [[French Flanders]], where it virtually became extinct to make way for French.

===Dialect groups===
[[File:DUTCHDIALECTSMAP.PNG|thumb|Traditional division of Dutch dialects]]
The ''[[West Flemish]]'' group of dialects, spoken in [[West Flanders]] and [[Zeeland]], is so distinct that it might be considered as a separate language variant, although the strong significance of language in Belgian politics would prevent the government from classifying them as such. An oddity of the dialect is that, the [[voiced velar fricative]] (written as "g" in Dutch) shifts to a [[voiced glottal fricative]] (written as "h" in Dutch), while the letter "h" becomes mute (like in French). As a result, when West Flemings try to talk Standard Dutch, they are often unable to pronounce the g-sound, and pronounce it similar to the h-sound. This leaves, for example, no difference between "{{lang|nl|held}}" (hero) and "{{lang|nl|geld}}" (money). Or in some cases, they are aware of the problem, and hyper-correct the "h" into a voiced velar fricative or g-sound, again leaving no difference. The West Flemish variety historically spoken in adjacent parts in France is sometimes called [[French Flemish]] and is listed as a French [[minority language]]. However, only a very small and aging minority of the French-Flemish population still speaks and understands West Flemish.

''[[Hollandic dialect|Hollandic]]'' is spoken in [[Holland]] and [[Utrecht]], though the original forms of this dialect (which were heavily influenced by a West Frisian [[Stratum (linguistics)#Substratum|substratum]] and, from the 16th century on, by [[Brabantian dialect]]s) 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]] and [[Utrecht]]. In some rural Hollandic areas more authentic Hollandic dialects are still being used, especially north of Amsterdam. Another group of dialects based on Hollandic is that spoken in the cities and larger towns of [[Friesland]], where it partially displaced [[West Frisian language|West Frisian]] in the 16th century and is known as {{lang|nl|[[Stadsfries dialects|Stadsfries]]}} ("Urban Frisian"). Hollandic together with inter alia 
[[Kleverlandish]] and [[North Brabantian]], but without Stadsfries, are the [[Central Dutch dialects]].

''[[Brabantian language|Brabantian]]'' is named after the historical [[Duchy of Brabant]], which corresponded mainly to the provinces of [[North Brabant]] and southern [[Gelderland]], the Belgian provinces of [[Antwerp (province)|Antwerp]] and [[Flemish Brabant]], as well as Brussels (where its native speakers have become a minority) and the province of [[Walloon Brabant]]. Brabantian expands into small parts in the west of [[Limburg (Belgium)|Limburg]] while its strong influence on the [[East Flemish]] of [[East Flanders]] and eastern [[Zeelandic Flanders]]<ref>{{ELL2|Belgium}}</ref> weakens towards the west. In a small area in the northwest of North Brabant ([[Willemstad (North Brabant)|Willemstad]]), [[Hollandic]] is spoken. Conventionally, the [[Kleverlandish]] dialects are distinguished from Brabantian, but there are no objective criteria apart from geography to do so. Over 5 million people live in an area with some form of Brabantian being the predominant colloquial language out of the area's 22 million Dutch-speakers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Structuur van de bevolking volgens woonplaats: oppervlakte en bevolkingsdichtheid|url=http://statbel.fgov.be/nl/statistieken/cijfers/bevolking/structuur/woonplaats/oppervlakte_dichtheid/|language=nl|website=Statistics Belgium|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604224753/http://statbel.fgov.be/nl/statistieken/cijfers/bevolking/structuur/woonplaats/oppervlakte_dichtheid/ |archive-date=June 4, 2016 }}</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/20120721053715/http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/themas/bevolking/cijfers/default.htm Netherlands gouvernement CBS] official demographic statistics</ref>

''[[Limburgish language|Limburgish]]'', spoken in both [[Limburg (Belgium)|Belgian Limburg]] and [[Limburg (Netherlands)|Netherlands Limburg]] and in adjacent parts in Germany, is considered a dialect in Belgium, while having obtained the official status of regional language in the Netherlands.  Limburgish has been influenced by the [[Ripuarian language|Ripuarian]] varieties like the [[Colognian dialect]], and has had a somewhat different development since the late Middle Ages.

===Regional languages===
Two dialect groups have been given the official status of [[regional language]] (or {{lang|nl|streektaal}}) in the Netherlands. Like several other dialect groups, both are part of a dialect continuum that continues across the national border.

====Dutch Low Saxon====
{{main|Dutch Low Saxon}}
The Dutch Low Saxon dialect area comprises the provinces of [[Groningen (province)|Groningen]], [[Drenthe]] and [[Overijssel]], as well as parts of the provinces of [[Gelderland]], [[Flevoland]], [[Friesland]] and [[Utrecht]]. This group, which is not Low Franconian but instead Low Saxon and close to neighbouring Low German, has been elevated by the Netherlands (and by Germany) to the legal status of {{lang|nl|streektaal}} ([[regional language]]) according to the [[European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]]. It is regarded as Dutch for a number of reasons. From the 14th to 15th century onward, its urban centers ([[Deventer]], [[Zwolle]], [[Kampen, Overijssel|Kampen]], [[Zutphen]] and [[Doesburg]]) have been increasingly influenced by the western written Dutch and became a linguistically mixed area. From the 17th century onward, it was gradually integrated into the Dutch language area.<ref>{{harvp|Willemyns|2013|pp=10}}</ref> Dutch Low Saxon used to be at one end of the Low German [[dialect continuum]]. However, the national border has given way to dialect boundaries coinciding with a political border, because the traditional dialects are strongly influenced by the national standard varieties.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Filppula |editor1-first=Markku |editor2-last=Klemola |editor2-first=Juhani |editor3-last=Palander |editor3-first=Marjatta |editor4-last=Penttilä |editor4-first=Esa |title=Dialects Across Borders: Selected Papers from the 11th International Conference on Methods in Dialectology (Methods XI) |date=2005 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |isbn=978-90-272-4787-2 |page=21 |oclc=981047580 |language=English}}</ref>

====Limburgish====
{{main|Limburgish}}
While a somewhat heterogeneous group of [[Low Franconian languages|Low Franconian]] dialects, Limburgish has received official status as a regional language in the [[Netherlands]] and Germany, but not in Belgium. Due to this official recognition, it receives protection by chapter 2 of the [[European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]].

===Daughter and sister languages===
[[Afrikaans]], although to a significant degree mutually intelligible with Dutch, is usually not considered a dialect but instead a separate [[standard language|standardised language]]. It is spoken in South Africa and Namibia. As a daughter language of 17th-century Dutch dialects, Afrikaans evolved in parallel with modern Dutch, but was influenced by various [[Afrikaans#History|other languages]] in South Africa.

''[[West Frisian language|West Frisian]]'' ({{lang|nl|Westerlauwers Fries}}), along with [[Saterland Frisian language|Saterland Frisian]] and [[North Frisian language|North Frisian]], evolved from the same branch of the [[West Germanic languages]] as [[Old English]] (i.e. [[Anglo-Frisian languages|Anglo-Frisian]]) and are therefore genetically more closely related to English and Scots than to Dutch. The different influences on the respective languages, however, particularly that of Norman French on English and Dutch on West Frisian, have rendered English quite distinct from West Frisian, and West Frisian less distinct from Dutch than from English. Although under heavy influence of the Dutch standard language, it is not mutually intelligible with Dutch and considered a [[sister language]] of Dutch, like English and German.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Phonetics for Dummies |last=Katz |first=William F. |date=2013 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons Inc. |isbn=978-1118505083 |location=Hoboken, N.J. |pages=238}}</ref>

==Geographic distribution==
{{See also|Dutch diaspora|Geographical distribution of Dutch speakers}}
{{Pie chart
|caption=Approximate distribution of native Dutch speakers worldwide:
|value1=70.8
|label1=Netherlands
|color1=Orange
|value2=27.1
|label2=Belgium
|color2=Yellow
|value3=1.7
|label3=Suriname
|color3=Green
|value4=0.1
|label4=Caribbean
|color4=Blue
|other=Other|other-color=Grey}}
{| class="wikitable sortable floatright" style="margin-left:1em"|
|+ Dutch First Language Speakers
|-
! Country
! Speakers
! class="unsortable" | Year
|-
| Netherlands
| style="text-align:right" | {{nts|17,000,000}}<ref name="Feiten"/>
| style="text-align:center" | 2020
|-
| Belgium
| style="text-align:right" | {{nts|6,500,000}}<ref name="Feiten"/>
| style="text-align:center" | 2020
|-
| Suriname
| style="text-align:right" | {{nts|400,000}}<ref name="Feiten">{{Cite web |title=Feiten en cijfers |trans-title=Facts and numbers |url=http://taalunieversum.org/inhoud/feiten-en-cijfers#feitencijfers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006231723/http://taalunieversum.org/inhoud/feiten-en-cijfers |archive-date=Oct 6, 2022 |website=Taalunieversum |language=nl}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center" | 2020
|-
| Curaçao
| style="text-align:right" | {{nts|12,000}}<ref>{{cite web |title=What Languages Are Spoken In Curaçao? |url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-curacao.html |website=World Atlas |date=August 2, 2017 |access-date=December 6, 2019 |archive-date=December 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206191658/https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-curacao.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
| style="text-align:center" | 2011
|-
| Aruba
| style="text-align:right" | {{nts|6,000}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Fifth Population and Housing Census |url=http://cbs.aw/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Fifth-Population-and-Housing-Census-Aruba.pdf |website=Central Bureau of Statistics (Aruba) |access-date=December 7, 2019 |page=110 |date=September 29, 2010 |archive-date=November 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113150931/http://cbs.aw/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Fifth-Population-and-Housing-Census-Aruba.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
| style="text-align:center" | 2010
|-
| [[Caribbean Netherlands]]
| style="text-align:right" | {{nts|3,000}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Caribisch Nederland; gesproken talen en voertaal, persoonskenmerken|url=https://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/nl/dataset/82867NED/table?ts=1575730684156|access-date=December 7, 2019|website=Statline|publisher=CBS.nl|language=nl|archive-date=May 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508053636/https://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/publication/?VW=T&DM=SLNL&PA=70072ned&D1=224&D2=5-16&D3=l&HD=081103-1603&HDR=T&STB=G1,G2#/CBS/nl/dataset/82867NED/table?ts=1575730684156|url-status=live}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center" | 2018
|-
| Sint Maarten
| style="text-align:right" | {{nts|1,500}}<ref>{{cite web |title=What Languages Are Spoken In Sint Maarten? |url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-sint-maarten.html |website=World Atlas |date=September 29, 2017 |access-date=December 6, 2019 |archive-date=December 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206191627/https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-languages-are-spoken-in-sint-maarten.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
| style="text-align:center" | 2011
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Total worldwide
! style="text-align:right" | {{nts|24,000,000}}
! style="text-align:center" | N/A
|}

Dutch is an [[official language]] of the Netherlands proper (not enshrined in the [[Constitution of the Netherlands|constitution]] but in administrative law<ref>{{Cite web |last=Koninkrijksrelaties |first=Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en |title=Algemene wet bestuursrecht |url=https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0005537/2024-01-01/#Hoofdstuk2_Afdeling2.2 |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=wetten.overheid.nl |language=nl |trans-quote=Art 2.6: Administrative authorities and persons working under their responsibility shall use the Dutch language, unless provided otherwise by statutory regulation. |archive-date=April 24, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240424101708/https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0005537/2024-01-01/#Hoofdstuk2_Afdeling2.2 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{efn|name=notconstitution|The Dutch language does have the status of official language in the Netherlands, together with the Dutch Sign Language and West-Frisian (in Friesland). However, it is not legally enshrined in the [[Constitution of the Netherlands|Dutch constitution]], which is uncommon in the European Union.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties |author-link=Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties |date=2016-01-11 |title=Welke erkende talen heeft Nederland? - Rijksoverheid.nl |url=https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/erkende-talen/vraag-en-antwoord/onderwerpen/erkende-talen/vraag-en-antwoord/erkende-talen-nederland |access-date=2023-09-12 |website=www.rijksoverheid.nl |language=nl-NL }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=DBNL |title=Grondwet 'De officiële taal van Nederland is het Nederlands' De taalartikelen in de grondwetten van de EU-landen Els Ruijsendaal Dick Wortel , Neerlandia/Nederlands van Nu. Jaargang 111 |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_nee003200701_01/_nee003200701_01_0061.php |access-date=2023-09-12 |website=DBNL |language=nl |archive-date=October 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231030163036/https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_nee003200701_01/_nee003200701_01_0061.php |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="denederlandsegrondwet.nl-2018">{{Cite web |url=https://www.denederlandsegrondwet.nl/id/viivckl8ibxx/nederlandse_taal_in_de_grondwet |title=Nederlandse taal in de Grondwet |trans-title=Dutch language in the Constitution |author= |work=denederlandsegrondwet.nl |publisher=Montesquieu Instituut |date=2018 |accessdate=21 March 2023 |language=nl |archive-date=June 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607182713/https://www.denederlandsegrondwet.nl/id/viivckl8ibxx/nederlandse_taal_in_de_grondwet |url-status=live }}</ref> There is almost no legally defined status of Dutch stipulated anywhere in legislation.<ref name="denederlandsegrondwet.nl-2018"/> A long series of parliamentary and public discussions in the 2010s on the question whether to enshrine Dutch as the official language of the Netherlands came to nothing, and the proposal was withdrawn again by the government in February 2018.<ref name="denederlandsegrondwet.nl-2018"/>}}), Belgium, Suriname, the Dutch Caribbean municipalities (St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire), [[Aruba]], [[Curaçao]] and [[Sint Maarten]]. Dutch is also an official language of several international organisations, such as the [[European Union]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/eu-languages_en |title=EU languages |website=European Union |date=January 31, 2019 |access-date=October 20, 2019 |archive-date=October 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015093122/https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/eu-languages_en |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Union of South American Nations]]<ref>{{Citation |title=Constitutive Treaty of the Union of South American Nations, Article 23 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitutive_Treaty_of_the_Union_of_South_American_Nations |quote=The official languages of the Union of South American Nations will be English, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. |access-date=October 20, 2019 |archive-date=July 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200710002607/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitutive_Treaty_of_the_Union_of_South_American_Nations |url-status=live }}</ref> and the [[Caribbean Community]]. At an academic level, Dutch is taught in about 175 universities in 40 countries. About 15,000 students worldwide study Dutch at university.<ref name="vraag">{{Cite web |url=http://taalunieversum.org/onderwijs/vragen/antwoord/37/ |title=Hoeveel studenten studeren er jaarlijks Nederlands aan universiteiten buiten het taalgebied? |website=taalunieversum.org |language=nl |trans-title=How many students annually study Dutch at universities outside the language area? |access-date=November 6, 2008 |archive-date=October 29, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121029030929/http://taalunieversum.org/onderwijs/vragen/antwoord/37/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Europe ===
In Europe, Dutch is the majority language in the Netherlands (96%) and Belgium (59%) as well as a minority language in Germany and northern France's [[French Flanders]]. Though Belgium as a whole is multilingual, three of the four [[Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium|language areas]] into which the country is divided ([[Flanders]], francophone [[Wallonia]], and the [[German-speaking Community of Belgium|German-speaking Community]]) are largely monolingual, with [[Brussels]] being bilingual. The Netherlands and Belgium produce the vast majority of [[music]], [[film]]s, [[book]]s and other media written or spoken in Dutch.<ref name="trots">{{Cite web |url=http://taalunieversum.org/taalpeil/2005/hoe_trots_zijn_wij_op_het_nederlands.html |title=Hoe trots zijn wij op het Nederlands? |website=taalunieversum.org |language=nl |trans-title=How proud are we of Dutch? |access-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-date=March 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319200514/http://taalunieversum.org/taalpeil/2005/hoe_trots_zijn_wij_op_het_nederlands.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Dutch is a [[Pluricentric language|monocentric language]], at least what concerns its written form, with all speakers using the same [[standardization|standard form]] (authorised by the [[Dutch Language Union]]) based on a [[Dutch orthography]] defined in the so-called "[[Green Booklet]]" authoritative dictionary and employing the [[Latin alphabet]] when writing; however, pronunciation varies between dialects. Indeed, in stark contrast to its written uniformity, Dutch lacks a unique [[Prestige (sociolinguistics)|prestige dialect]] and has a large dialectal continuum consisting of 28 main dialects, which can themselves be further divided into at least 600 distinguishable varieties.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Geschiedenis van het Nederlands |last=van der Wal |first=M. J. |date=1992 |publisher=Het Spectrum |isbn=90-274-1839-X |location=Utrecht}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Morfologische Atlas van de Nederlandse Dialecten Deel II |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-9053567746 |location=Amsterdam}}</ref> In the Netherlands, the [[Hollandic dialect]] dominates in national [[broadcast media]] while in Flanders [[Brabantian dialect]] dominates in that capacity, making them in turn unofficial [[prestige dialect]]s in their respective countries.

Outside the Netherlands and Belgium, the dialect spoken in and around the German town of [[Kleve]] ([[Kleverlandish]]) is historically and genetically a [[Low Franconian]] variety. In North-Western France, the area around [[Calais]] was historically Dutch-speaking (West Flemish), of which an estimated 20,000 are daily speakers. The cities of [[Dunkirk]], [[Gravelines]] and [[Bourbourg]] only became predominantly French-speaking by the end of the 19th century. In the countryside, until [[World War I]], many elementary schools continued to teach in Dutch, and the Catholic Church continued to preach and teach the [[catechism]] in Dutch in many parishes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ryckeboer |first=Hugo |date=2002 |title=Dutch/Flemish in the North of France |url=http://www.multilingual-matters.net/jmmd/023/0022/jmmd0230022.pdf |journal=Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development |volume=23 |issue=1–2 |pages=22–35 |doi=10.1080/01434630208666452 |s2cid=144987612 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070616055025/http://www.multilingual-matters.net/jmmd/023/0022/jmmd0230022.pdf |archive-date=June 16, 2007}}</ref>

During the second half of the 19th century, Dutch was banned from all levels of education by both [[Prussia]] and France and lost most of its functions as a cultural language. In both Germany and France, the Dutch standard language is largely absent, and speakers of these Dutch dialects will use German or French in everyday speech. Dutch is not afforded legal status in France or Germany, either by the central or regional public authorities, and knowledge of the language is declining among younger generations.<ref>{{cite web|title=Flemish in France|url=http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/document/neerlandes/an/i1/i1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020627114548/http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/document/neerlandes/an/i1/i1.html|archive-date=June 27, 2002|access-date=August 12, 2015|publisher=Uoc.edu}}</ref>

As a [[foreign language]], Dutch is mainly taught in primary and secondary schools in areas adjacent to the Netherlands and [[Flanders]]. In [[French Community of Belgium|French-speaking Belgium]], over 300,000 pupils are enrolled in Dutch courses, followed by over 23,000 in the [[States of Germany|German states]] of [[Lower Saxony]] and [[North Rhine-Westphalia]], and about 7,000 in the [[Regions of France|French region]] of [[Nord-Pas-de-Calais]] (of which 4,550 are in primary school).<ref name="wereldwijd" /> At an academic level, the largest number of faculties of {{lang|nl|neerlandistiek}} can be found in Germany (30 universities), followed by France (20 universities) and the United Kingdom (5 universities).<ref name="wereldwijd">{{Cite web |url=http://taalunieversum.org/taalpeil/2005/nederlands_studeren_wereldwijd.html |title=Nederlands studeren wereldwijd |website=taalunieversum.org |language=nl |trans-title=Study Dutch worldwide |access-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-date=March 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319200601/http://taalunieversum.org/taalpeil/2005/nederlands_studeren_wereldwijd.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Neerlandistiek wereldwijd">{{cite web|title=Neerlandistiek wereldwijd|url=http://neerlandistiek.taalunieversum.org/|access-date=August 12, 2015|publisher=Neerlandistiek.taalunieversum.org|language=nl|archive-date=April 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402084001/http://neerlandistiek.taalunieversum.org/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Asia ===
{{Further|Indonesian Dutch|List of Dutch loanwords in Indonesian}}
[[File:Nederlandsindie.PNG|thumb|In the [[Dutch East Indies]] (present day [[Indonesia]] and [[Malacca]], Malaysia), Dutch was used by only a limited educated elite.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Groeneboer |first=K |title=Weg tot het westen. Het Nederlands voor Indie 1600–1950. |url=http://www.nrcboeken.nl/boek/in-indie-geworteld-druk-1-meijer-h |publisher=KITLEV |year=1993 |location=Leiden |access-date=November 7, 2022 |archive-date=July 18, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718083900/http://www.nrcboeken.nl/boek/in-indie-geworteld-druk-1-meijer-h |url-status=dead }}</ref>]]
[[File:Kantor Pos Indonesia cabang Telanaipura - Telanaipura, Kota Jambi, JA (23 April 2021).jpg|thumb|[[Indonesia]] did not adopt the Dutch language after independence. However, the [[Indonesian language]] is heavily influenced by Dutch. Seen here is ''kantor pos'' (from the Dutch ''postkantoor''), meaning ''[[post office]]''.]]
Despite the Dutch presence in Indonesia for almost 350&nbsp;years, as the Asian bulk of the [[Dutch East Indies]], the Dutch language has no official status there<ref>{{harvp|Baker|Prys Jones|1998|p=302}}</ref> and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation, or employed in the legal profession such as historians, diplomats, lawyers, jurists and linguists/polyglots,<ref>{{harvp|Ammon|Dittmar|Mattheier|Trudgill|2006|p=2017}}</ref> as certain [[law code]]s are still only available in Dutch.<ref>{{harvp|Booij|1999|p=2}}</ref> Dutch is taught in various educational centres in Indonesia, the most important of which is the Erasmus Language Centre (ETC) in [[Jakarta]]. Each year, some 1,500 to 2,000 students take Dutch courses there.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://taalunieversum.org/en/dutch_worldwide/ |title=Dutch worldwide |website=taalunieversum.org |access-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-date=November 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106025815/http://taalunieversum.org/en/dutch_worldwide/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In total, several thousand Indonesians study Dutch as a foreign language.<ref>{{cite web|title=Taalunie &#124; Beleidsorganisatie voor het Nederlands|url=http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/waar_ben_je_nou_nederlands_leren_in_indonesie/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070217170723/http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/waar_ben_je_nou_nederlands_leren_in_indonesie/|archive-date=February 17, 2007|access-date=August 12, 2015|publisher=taalunieversum.org|language=nl}}</ref> Owing to centuries of Dutch rule in Indonesia, many old documents are written in Dutch. Many universities therefore include Dutch as a source language, mainly for law and history students.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Indonesië|trans-title=Indonesia|url=http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/indonesie/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040315205032/http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/indonesie/|archive-date=March 15, 2004|access-date=August 12, 2015|website=taalunieversum.org|language=nl}}</ref> In Indonesia this involves about 35,000 students.<ref name="vraag" />

Unlike other European nations, the Dutch chose not to follow a policy of language expansion amongst the indigenous peoples of their colonies.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-q6gqIOQNAC |title=Language, Identity, and Marginality in Indonesia: The Changing Nature of Ritual Speech on the Island of Sumba |last=Kuipers |first=Joel Corneal |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |page=9 |isbn=9780521624954 |access-date=June 29, 2010 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124338/https://books.google.com/books?id=I-q6gqIOQNAC |url-status=live }}</ref> In the last quarter of the 19th century, however, a local elite gained [[Language proficiency|proficiency]] in Dutch so as to meet the needs of expanding bureaucracy and business.<ref name="kol">{{Cite book|last=Groeneboer|first=Kees|url=http://www.knaw.nl/publicaties/pdf/971136.pdf|title=Westerse koloniale taalpolitiek in Azië: het Nederlands, Portugees, Spaans, Engels en Frans in vergelijkend perspectief|publisher=Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen|year=1998|isbn=90-6984-208-4|location=Amsterdam|language=nl|access-date=August 12, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325104245/http://www.knaw.nl/publicaties/pdf/971136.pdf|archive-date=March 25, 2009}}</ref> Nevertheless, the Dutch government remained reluctant to teach Dutch on a large scale for fear of destabilising the colony. Dutch, the language of power, was supposed to remain in the hands of the leading elite.<ref name="kol" />

After independence, Dutch was dropped as an official language and replaced by [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]], but this does not mean that Dutch has completely disappeared in Indonesia: [[Indonesian Dutch]], a regional variety of the Dutch, was still spoken by about 500,000 half-blood in Indonesia in 1985.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_taa008198501_01/_taa008198501_01_0002.php|title=De Nieuwe Taalgids. Jaargang 78|date=1985|publisher= [tijdschrift] De Nieuwe Taalgids|language=nl|first=M.C.|last=van den Toorn}}</ref> Yet the Indonesian language inherited many words from Dutch: words for everyday life as well as scientific and technological terms.<ref>{{harvp|Sneddon|2003|p=162}}</ref> One scholar argues that 20% of Indonesian words can be traced back to Dutch words,{{sfn|Maier|2005}} many of which are transliterated to reflect phonetic pronunciation e.g. {{lang|nl|{{Wikt-lang|nl|kantoor}}}} "office" in Indonesian is {{lang|id|kantor}}, {{lang|nl|handdoek}} "towel" in Indonesian is {{lang|id|handuk}}, or {{lang|nl|bushalte}} "bus stop" in Indonesian is {{lang|id|halte bus}}. In addition, many Indonesian words are [[calque]]s of Dutch; for example, {{lang|id|rumah sakit}} "hospital" is calqued on the Dutch {{lang|nl|ziekenhuis}} (literally "sickhouse"), {{lang|id|kebun binatang}} "zoo" on {{lang|nl|dierentuin}} (literally "animal garden"), {{lang|id|undang-undang dasar}} "constitution" from {{lang|nl|grondwet}} (literally "ground law"). These account for some of the [[Differences between Malay and Indonesian#Vocabulary differences|differences in vocabulary]] between Indonesian and Malay. Some [[languages of Indonesia|regional language]]s in Indonesia have some Dutch loanwords as well; for example, [[Sundanese language|Sundanese]] word {{lang|su|Katel}} or "frying pan" origin in Dutch is "{{lang|nl|ketel}}". The [[Javanese language|Javanese]] word for "bike/[[bicycle]]" "{{lang|jv|pit}}" can be traced back to its origin in Dutch "{{lang|nl|fiets}}". The [[Malacca]] state of [[Malaysia]] was also colonized by the Dutch in its longest period that Malacca was under foreign control. In the 19th century, the [[Dutch East Indies|East Indies]] trade started to dwindle, and with it the importance of Malacca as a trading post. The Dutch state officially ceded Malacca to the British in 1825. It took until 1957 for Malaya to gain its independence.<ref>{{cite web |date=27 September 2022 |title=Malacca: World Heritage in Malaysia |url=https://www.europeana.eu/en/blog/malacca-world-heritage-in-malaysia |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231019144322/https://www.europeana.eu/en/blog/malacca-world-heritage-in-malaysia |archive-date=October 19, 2023 |access-date=October 18, 2023 |website=europeana}}</ref> Despite this, the Dutch language is rarely spoken in Malacca or Malaysia and only limited to foreign nationals able to speak the language.

=== Oceania ===
After the declaration of independence of Indonesia, [[Western New Guinea]], the "wild east" of the [[Dutch East Indies]], remained a Dutch colony until 1962, known as [[Netherlands New Guinea]].<ref>{{Citation|title=Indonesia: Fight over the Papuans|date=December 29, 1961|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,827197-1,00.html|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526181402/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,827197-1,00.html|access-date=August 12, 2015|archive-date=May 26, 2013}}</ref> Despite prolonged Dutch presence, the Dutch language is not spoken by many Papuans, the colony having been ceded to Indonesia in 1963.

Dutch-speaking immigrant communities can also be found in Australia and New Zealand. The [[Census in Australia|2011 Australian census]] showed 37,248 people speaking Dutch at home.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/ABSNavigation//download?format=xls&collection=Census&period=2006&productlabel=Language%20Spoken%20at%20Home%20by%20Sex&producttype=Census%20Tables&method=Place%20of%20Usual%20Residence&areacode=0 |title=Census Home |publisher=Censusdata.abs.gov.au |access-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124405/https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/cowsredirect |url-status=live }}</ref> At the [[2006 New Zealand census]], 26,982 people, or 0.70 percent of the total population, reported to speak Dutch to sufficient fluency that they could hold an everyday conversation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stats.co.nz/~/media/Statistics/Publications/Census/2006-reports/quickstats-subject/Culture-Identity/quickstats-about-culture-and-identity-tables.xls |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330181454/http://www.stats.co.nz/~/media/Statistics/Publications/Census/2006-reports/quickstats-subject/Culture-Identity/quickstats-about-culture-and-identity-tables.xls |archive-date=March 30, 2012 |title= 2006 Census Data – QuickStats About Culture and Identity – Tables |publisher=[[Statistics New Zealand]] |access-date=August 14, 2011}}</ref>

=== Americas ===
[[File:Suriname in its region.svg|thumb|The location of [[Suriname]] in [[South America]]]]
[[File:LocationNetherlandsAntillesWithAruba.png|thumb|The [[Dutch Caribbean]] at both ends of the [[Lesser Antilles]], lining the [[Caribbean Sea]]]]

In contrast to the colonies in the [[Dutch East Indies|East Indies]], from the second half of the 19th century onwards, the Netherlands envisaged the expansion of Dutch in its colonies in the [[Caribbean|West Indies]]. Until 1863, when [[slavery]] was abolished in the West Indies, slaves were forbidden to speak Dutch, with the effect that local creoles such as [[Papiamento]] and [[Sranan Tongo]] which were based not on Dutch but rather other European languages, became common in the Dutch West Indies. However, as most of the people in the [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Colony of Surinam]] (now [[Suriname]]) worked on Dutch plantations, this reinforced the use of Dutch as a means for direct communication.<ref name="kol" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/toelichting_bij_de_overeenkomsttekst/ |title=Associatieovereenkomst Nederlandse Taalunie en de Republiek Suriname |website=taalunieversum.org |language=nl |trans-title=Association Agreement between the Dutch Language Union and the Republic of Suriname |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828214003/http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/toelichting_bij_de_overeenkomsttekst/ |archive-date=August 28, 2008}}</ref>

In [[Suriname]] today, Dutch is the sole official language,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/suriname/ |title=Suriname |work=The World Factbook |publisher=CIA |access-date=August 19, 2012 |archive-date=April 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422145144/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/suriname/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and over 60&nbsp;percent of the population speaks it as a [[First language|mother tongue]].<ref name="taalgebied">{{Cite web |url=http://taalunieversum.org/taalpeil/2005/het_nederlandse_taalgebied.html |title=Het Nederlandse taalgebied |date=2005 |website=taalunieversum.org |language=nl |trans-title=The Dutch language area |access-date=November 4, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081023045519/http://taalunieversum.org/taalpeil/2005/het_nederlandse_taalgebied.html |archive-date=Oct 23, 2008}}</ref> Dutch is the obligatory medium of instruction in schools in Suriname, even for non-native speakers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://taalunieversum.org/onderwijs/suriname/ver_weg_of_dichtbij/ |title=Suriname › Documentaire |website=taalunieversum.org |language=nl |trans-title=Suriname › Documentary |access-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-date=March 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319200629/http://taalunieversum.org/onderwijs/suriname/ver_weg_of_dichtbij/ |url-status=live }}</ref> A further twenty-four percent of the population speaks Dutch as a [[second language]].<ref>Source: Zevende algemene volks- en woningtelling 2004, Algemeen Bureau voor de Statistiek</ref> Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975 and has been an associate member of the [[Dutch Language Union]] since 2004.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://taalunieversum.org/en/about_us/ |title=About us |date=January 26, 2010 |website=taalunieversum.org |access-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-date=November 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106025751/http://taalunieversum.org/en/about_us/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[lingua franca]] of Suriname, however, is [[Sranan Tongo]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sranan |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=srn |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111042022/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=srn |archive-date=January 11, 2012 |access-date=August 19, 2012 |website=Ethnologue}}</ref> spoken natively by about a fifth of the population.<ref name="trots" />{{efn|Recognition of Surinamese-Dutch (''Surinaams-Nederlands'') as an equal natiolect was expressed in 1976 by the publication of the ''Woordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands – een geannoteerde lijst van Surinaams-Nederlandse woorden en uitdrukkingen'' (''Dictionary of Surinam Dutch – an annotated list of Surinam-Dutch words and expressions''), see Johannes van Donselaar ''Woordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands – een geannoteerde lijst van Surinaams-Nederlandse woorden en uitdrukkingen'', Utrecht : Instituut A. W. de Groot voor Algemene Taalwetenschap van de Rijksuniversiteit te Utrecht (1976), Amsterdam, E.T.Rap (1977) {{ISBN|90-6005-125-4}}, published in 1989 as the ''Woordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands'' (''Dictionary of Surinam Dutch''), by Van Donselaar, and later by the publication of the ''Woordenboek Surinaams Nederlands'' (''Dictionary Surinam Dutch'') in 2009 (editor Renata de Bies, in cooperation with lexicologists Willy Martin en Willy Smedts), which was previously published as the ''Woordenboek van de Surinaamse Bijdrage aan het Nederlands'' (''Dictionary of the Surinam Contribution to Dutch"'').}}

In [[Aruba]], [[Bonaire]], [[Curaçao]] and [[Sint Maarten]], all parts of the [[Kingdom of the Netherlands]], Dutch is the official language but spoken as a first language by only 7% to 8% of the population,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/aruba/ |title=Aruba |publisher=CIA |work=The World Factbook |access-date=August 19, 2012 |archive-date=January 9, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109084020/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/aruba |url-status=live }}</ref> although most native-born people on the islands can speak the language since the education system is in Dutch at some or all levels.

In the United States, a now extinct dialect of Dutch, [[Jersey Dutch]], spoken by descendants of 17th-century Dutch settlers in Bergen and Passaic counties, was still spoken as late as 1921.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bartleby.com/185/a12.html |title=Jersey Dutch |publisher=Bartleby.com |access-date=August 19, 2012 |archive-date=July 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702204051/https://www.bartleby.com/185/a12.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Other [[Dutch-based creole languages]] once spoken in the Americas include [[Mohawk Dutch]] (in [[Albany, New York]]), [[Berbice Creole Dutch|Berbice]] (in Guyana), [[Skepi Creole Dutch|Skepi]] (in [[Essequibo (colony)|Essequibo, Guyana]]) and [[Negerhollands]] (in the [[United States Virgin Islands]]). [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] is not a member of the set of Dutch dialects and is less misleadingly called [[Pennsylvania German language|Pennsylvania German]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth07.htm |title=German Myth 7 – Pennsylvania Dutch or German? |date=April 10, 2012 |website=german.about.com |access-date=August 19, 2012 |archive-date=November 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121109181909/http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth07.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Martin Van Buren]], the eighth [[President of the United States]], spoke Dutch natively and is the only U.S. president whose first language was not English. Dutch prevailed for many generations as the dominant language in parts of [[New York (state)|New York]] along the [[Hudson River]]. Another famous American born in this region who spoke Dutch as a first language was [[Sojourner Truth]].

According to the [[2000 United States Census|2000 United States census]], 150,396 people spoke Dutch at home,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mla.org/map_data_results%26mode%3Dlang_tops%26SRVY_YEAR%3D2000%26lang_id%3D610 |title=Dutch |publisher=Mla.org |access-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-date=October 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151023144336/http://www.mla.org/map_data_results%26mode%3Dlang_tops%26SRVY_YEAR%3D2000%26lang_id%3D610 |url-status=live }}</ref> while according to the [[Canada 2006 Census|2006 Canadian census]], this number reaches 160,000 Dutch speakers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/topics/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?ALEVEL=3&APATH=3&CATNO=&DETAIL=0&DIM=&DS=99&FL=0&FREE=0&GAL=0&GC=99&GK=NA&GRP=1&IPS=&METH=0&ORDER=1&PID=89189&PTYPE=88971&RL=0&S=1&ShowAll=No&StartRow=1&SUB=705&Temporal=2006&Theme=70&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=&GID=837928 |title=Statistics Canada 2006 (Dutch and Flemish grouped together) |date=July 4, 2011 |publisher=Statistics Canada |access-date=August 19, 2012 |archive-date=December 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225074451/https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=837928%20&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=89189&PRID=0&PTYPE=88971,97154&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2006&THEME=70&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF= }}</ref> At an academic level, 20 universities offer Dutch studies in the United States.<ref name="wereldwijd" /><ref name="Neerlandistiek wereldwijd"/> In Canada, Dutch is the fourth most spoken language by farmers, after English, French and German,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/081202/dq081202a-eng.htm |title=Agriculture-population linkage data for the 2006 Census. The Daily |date=December 2, 2008 |publisher=Statistics Canada |access-date=August 19, 2012 |archive-date=October 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010205657/http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/081202/dq081202a-eng.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> and the fifth most spoken non-official language overall (by 0.6% of Canadians).<ref>Statistics Canada, ''2006 Census Profile of Federal Electoral Districts (2003 Representation Order): Language, Mobility and Migration and Immigration and Citizenship''. Ottawa, 2007, pp. 6–10.</ref>

=== Africa ===
{{Main|Afrikaans}}
{{See also|Differences between Afrikaans and Dutch}}
[[File:Stuttafords Huisgenoot.jpg|thumb|right|Standard Dutch used in a 1916 ad in South Africa before Afrikaans replaced Dutch for use in media]]
[[File:South Africa Afrikaans speakers proportion map.svg|thumb|The distribution of Afrikaans across South Africa: proportion of the population speaking Afrikaans at home:
{{legend-col
|{{legend|#EDF8E9|0–20%}}
|{{legend|#BAE4B3|20–40%}}
|{{legend|#74C476|40–60%}}
|{{legend|#31A354|60–80%}}
|{{legend|#006D2C|80–100%}}
}}]]

The largest legacy of the Dutch language lies in South Africa, which attracted large numbers of Dutch, Flemish and other northwest European farmer (in Dutch, ''[[boer]]'') settlers, all of whom were quickly assimilated.<ref name="Deumert">{{harvp|Deumert|2004}}</ref> The long isolation from the rest of the Dutch-speaking world made the Dutch as spoken in Southern Africa evolve into what is now Afrikaans.<ref name="coetzee">{{Cite book |url=http://www.dbnl.org/arch/coet003stan01_01/pag/coet003stan01_01.pdf |title=Standaard-Afrikaans |last=Coetzee |first=Abel |publisher=Pers van die Universiteit van die Witwatersrand |year=1948 |access-date=September 17, 2014 |archive-date=July 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702150541/https://www.dbnl.org/arch/coet003stan01_01/pag/coet003stan01_01.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1876, the first Afrikaans newspaper called ''[[Die Afrikaanse Patriot]]'' was published in the Cape Colony.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Die verhaalskat van Ons Klyntji (1896–1905) |last=Coetzee |first=Abel Jacobus |publisher=Voortrekkerpers |year=1940 |location=Johannesburg |language=af |oclc=63430958}}</ref>

European Dutch remained the [[literary language]]<ref name="coetzee" /> until the start of the 1920s, when under pressure of [[Afrikaner nationalism]] the local "African" Dutch was preferred over the written, European-based standard.<ref name="Deumert"/> In 1925, section 137 of the 1909 constitution of the [[Union of South Africa]] was amended by Act 8 of 1925, stating "the word ''Dutch'' in article 137&nbsp;... is hereby declared to include Afrikaans".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.archontology.org/nations/south_africa/01_laws.php |title=South Africa: Legislation: 1910–2015 |website=Archontology.org |access-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-date=July 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709103320/http://www.archontology.org/nations/south_africa/01_laws.php |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite speech |last=Mpati |first=Lex |author-link=Lex Mpati |event=Inaugural Lecture |location=University of the Free State |date=October 6, 2004 |title=Transformation in the Judiciary – A Constitutional Imperative |url=http://www.supremecourtofappeal.gov.za/speeches/mpati.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070816125902/http://www.supremecourtofappeal.gov.za/speeches/mpati.pdf |archive-date=August 16, 2007}}</ref> The constitution of 1983 only listed English and Afrikaans as official languages. It is estimated that between 90% and 95% of Afrikaans vocabulary is ultimately of Dutch origin.<ref>{{harvp|Mesthrie|1995|p=214}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Pierre|1985|p=132}}</ref>

Both languages are still largely mutually intelligible, although this relation can in some fields (such as lexicon, spelling and grammar) be asymmetric, as it is easier for Dutch speakers to understand written Afrikaans than it is for Afrikaans speakers to understand written Dutch.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gooskens |first1=C. |last2=van Bezooijen |first2=R. |date=2006 |title=Mutual Comprehensibility of Written Afrikaans and Dutch: Symmetrical or Asymmetrical? |journal=Literary and Linguistic Computing |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=543–557 |doi=10.1093/llc/fql036 |citeseerx=10.1.1.414.9237 }}</ref> Afrikaans is grammatically far less complex than Dutch, and vocabulary items are generally altered in a clearly patterned manner, e.g. {{lang|nl|vogel}} becomes {{lang|af|voël}} ("bird") and {{lang|nl|regen}} becomes {{lang|af|reën}} ("rain").<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/language/about/afrikaans.html |title=The Afrikaans Language |date=August 14, 2012 |website=Kwintessential.co.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427052706/http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/language/about/afrikaans.html |archive-date=April 27, 2016 |access-date=September 21, 2016 }}</ref> In South Africa, the number of students following Dutch at university is difficult to estimate, since the academic study of Afrikaans inevitably includes the study of Dutch.<ref name="vraag" /> Elsewhere in the world, the number of people learning Dutch is relatively small.

Afrikaans is the third largest language of South Africa in terms of native speakers (~13.5%),<ref name="Key results of the 2011 census">[http://www.statssa.gov.za/Census2011/Products/Census_2011_Key_results.pdf Key results of the 2011 census]{{dead link|date=December 2016|bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Statistics South Africa</ref> of whom 53% are [[Coloureds]] and 42.4% [[White South Africans|Whites]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.statssa.gov.za/census01/html/RSAPrimary.pdf |title=Primary tables: Census '96 and 2001 compared |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061130140908/http://www.statssa.gov.za/census01/html/RSAPrimary.pdf |archive-date=November 30, 2006 |publisher=Statistics South Africa}}</ref> In 1996, 40&nbsp;percent of South Africans reported to know Afrikaans at least at a very basic level of communication.<ref>{{harvp|Webb|2003}}</ref> It is the [[lingua franca]] in Namibia,<ref name="Deumert"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/namibia/ |title=Namibia |work=The World Factbook |publisher=CIA |access-date=August 19, 2012 |archive-date=January 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210110010829/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/namibia |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Adegbija|1994|p=26}}</ref> where it is spoken natively in 11&nbsp;percent of households.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2007|title=About Namibia|url=http://www.grnnet.gov.na/aboutnam.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206042235/http://www.grnnet.gov.na/aboutnam.html|archive-date=December 6, 2008|website=Government of the Republic of Namibia}}</ref> In total, Afrikaans is the [[first language]] in South Africa alone of about 7.1&nbsp;million people<ref name="Key results of the 2011 census" /> and is estimated to be a [[second language]] for at least 10&nbsp;million people worldwide,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=afr |title=Afrikaans |website=Ethnologue |access-date=August 19, 2012 |archive-date=March 4, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100304114859/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=afr |url-status=live }}</ref> compared to over 23&nbsp;million<ref name="taalgebied" /> and 5&nbsp;million respectively, for Dutch.<ref name="Eurobarometer Languages" />

The Dutch colonial presence elsewhere in Africa, notably [[Dutch Gold Coast]], was too ephemeral not to be wiped out by prevailing colonising European successors. Belgian colonial presence in [[Belgian Congo|Congo]] and [[Rwanda-Urundi]] ([[Burundi]] and [[Rwanda]], held under [[League of Nations]] mandate and later a UN trust territory) left little Dutch (Flemish) legacy, as French was the main colonial language.<ref>{{in lang|fr}}[http://archives.lesoir.be/-pasopo-disent-les-ketjes-de-lubumbashi_t-19990928-Z0H9ZJ.html «Pasopo» disent les «ketjes» de Lubumbashi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018010230/http://archives.lesoir.be/-pasopo-disent-les-ketjes-de-lubumbashi_t-19990928-Z0H9ZJ.html |date=October 18, 2016 }} – [[Le Soir]], September 28, 1999</ref>

==Phonology==
{{Main|Dutch phonology}}

[[File:Intel Dutch Spoken.ogg|thumb|Spoken Dutch, with a Netherlands (Brabantian) accent]]
[[File:Brecht Decoene voice nl.ogg|thumb|Spoken Standard Dutch, with a [[West Flemish]] accent]]

For further details on different realisations of phonemes, dialectal differences and example words, see the full article at [[Dutch phonology]].

===Consonants===
Unlike other Germanic languages, Dutch has no phonological [[Aspirated consonants|aspiration of consonants]].<ref>Frans Hinskens, Johan Taeldeman, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=t8jmBQAAQBAJ&dq=frisian%20substrate%20dutch&pg=PA66 Language and space: Dutch] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124348/https://books.google.com/books?id=t8jmBQAAQBAJ&dq=frisian%20substrate%20dutch&pg=PA66 |date=March 24, 2023 }}'', Walter de Gruyter 2014. 3110261332, 9783110261332, p.66</ref> Like most other Germanic languages, the Dutch [[consonant]] system did not undergo the [[High German consonant shift]] and has a [[syllable]] structure that allows fairly-complex [[consonant cluster]]s. Dutch also retains full use of the [[velar consonant|velar]] [[fricative]]s of [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] that were lost or modified in many other Germanic languages. Dutch has [[final-obstruent devoicing]]. At the end of a word, voicing distinction is neutralised and all obstruents are pronounced voiceless. For example, Dutch ''{{lang|nl|goede}}'' (̇'good') is {{IPA|[ˈɣudə]}} but the related form ''{{lang|nl|goed}}'' is {{IPA|[ɣut]}}. Dutch shares this [[final-obstruent devoicing]] with German (the Dutch noun {{lang|nl|goud}} is pronounced {{IPA|[ɣɑut]}}, the adjective {{lang|nl|gouden}} is pronounced {{IPA|[ɣɑudə(n)]}}, like the German noun {{lang|de|Gold}}, pronounced {{IPA|[ɡɔlt]}}, adjective {{lang|de|golden}}, pronounced {{IPA|[ɡɔldn]}} vs English ''gold'' and ''golden'', both pronounced with {{IPA|[d]}}.)

Voicing of pre-vocalic initial [[voiceless alveolar fricative]]s occurs although less in Dutch than in German (Dutch {{lang|nl|zeven}}, German {{lang|de|sieben}} with {{IPA|[z]}} versus English ''seven'' and Low German {{lang|nds|seven}} with {{IPA|[s]}}), and also the shift {{IPA|/θ/}} → {{IPA|/d/}}. Dutch shares only with Low German the development of {{IPA|/xs/}} → {{IPA|/ss/}} (Dutch {{lang|nl|vossen}}, {{lang|nl|ossen}} and Low German {{lang|nds|Vösse}}, {{lang|nds|Ossen}} versus German {{lang|de|Füchse}}, {{lang|de|Ochsen}} and English ''foxes'', ''oxen''), and also the development of {{IPA|/ft/}} → {{IPA|/xt/}} though it is far more common in Dutch (Dutch {{lang|nl|zacht}} and Low German {{lang|nds|sacht}} versus German {{lang|de|sanft}} and English ''soft'', but Dutch {{lang|nl|kracht}} versus German {{lang|de|Kraft}} and English ''craft'').

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|-
!
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]
!|[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]/<br />[[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! {{left}} [[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|n}}
|
| {{IPA link|ŋ}}
|
|-
! {{left}} [[Plosive consonant|Plosive]]
| {{IPA link|p}} {{IPA link|b}}
| {{IPA link|t}} {{IPA link|d}}
| ({{IPA link|tɕ}}) ({{IPA link|dʑ}})
| {{IPA link|k}} ({{IPA link|ɡ}})
| ({{IPA link|ʔ}})
|-
! {{left}} [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
| {{IPA link|f}} {{IPA link|v}}
| {{IPA link|s}} {{IPA link|z}}
| ({{IPA link|ɕ}}) ({{IPA link|ʑ}})
| {{IPA link|x}} {{IPA link|ɣ}}
| {{IPA link|ɦ}}
|-
! {{left}} [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| {{IPA link|ʋ}}
| {{IPA link|l}}
| {{IPA link|j}}
| 
|
|-
! {{left}} [[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
|
| colspan=3 | {{IPA link|r}}
|
|}

Notes:
* {{IPA|[ʔ]}} is not a separate phoneme in Dutch, but is inserted before vowel-initial syllables within words after {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/ə/}} and often also at the beginning of a word.
* The realisation of {{IPA|/r/}} phoneme varies considerably from dialect to dialect and even between speakers in the same dialect area. Common realisations are an [[alveolar trill]] {{IPA|[r]}}, [[alveolar tap]] {{IPA|[ɾ]}}, [[uvular trill]] {{IPA|[ʀ]}}, [[voiced uvular fricative]] {{IPA|[ʁ]}}, and [[alveolar approximant]] {{IPA|[ɹ]}}.
* The realisation of {{IPA|/ʋ/}} also varies somewhat by area and speaker. The main realisation is a [[labiodental approximant]] {{IPA|[ʋ]}}, but some speakers, particularly in the south, use a [[Voiced bilabial fricative|bilabial approximant]] {{IPA|[β̞]}} or a [[Voiced labio-velar approximant|labiovelar approximant]] {{IPA|[w]}}.
* The lateral {{IPA|/l/}} is slightly velarised postvocalically in most dialects, particularly in the north.<ref name="verhoeven2005">{{Harvcoltxt|Verhoeven|2005|p=245}}</ref>
* {{IPA|/x/}} and {{IPA|/ɣ/}} may be true velars {{IPA|[x]}} and {{IPA|[ɣ]}}, uvular {{IPA|[χ]}} and {{IPA|[ʁ]}} or palatal {{IPA|[ç]}} and {{IPA|[ʝ]}}. The more palatal realisations are common in southern areas, and uvulars are common in the north.
* Some northern dialects have a tendency to devoice all fricatives, regardless of environment, which is particularly common with {{IPA|/ɣ/}} but can affect others as well.
* {{IPA|/ɕ/}} and {{IPA|/ʑ/}} are not native phonemes of Dutch and usually occur in borrowed words, like {{lang|nl|show}} and {{lang|nl|bagage}} ('baggage'), but may occur if {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/z/}} are palatalised.
* {{IPA|/ɡ/}} is not a native phoneme of Dutch and occurs only in borrowed words, like {{lang|fr|baguette}}.

===Vowels===
Like English, Dutch did not develop [[i-mutation]] as a morphological marker and shares with most other Germanic languages the lengthening of short [[vowels]] in [[stress (linguistics)|stressed]] open [[syllables]], which has led to contrastive [[vowel length]] being used as a [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] marker. Dutch has an extensive [[vowel]] inventory. Vowels can be grouped as back rounded, front unrounded and front rounded. They are also traditionally distinguished by length or [[tenseness]].

Vowel length is not always considered a distinctive feature in Dutch phonology because it normally occurs with changes in vowel [[formant|quality]]. One feature or the other may be considered redundant, and some phonemic analyses prefer to treat it as an opposition of [[tenseness]]. However, even if it is not considered part of the phonemic opposition, the long/tense vowels are still realised as ''phonetically'' longer than their short counterparts. The changes in vowel quality are also not always the same in all dialects, some of which may be little difference at all, with length remaining the primary distinguishing feature. Although all older words pair vowel length with a change in vowel quality, new loanwords have reintroduced phonemic oppositions of length. Compare {{lang|nl|zonne(n)}} {{IPA|[ˈzɔnə]}} ("suns") versus {{lang|nl|zone}} {{IPA|[ˈzɔːnə]}} ("zone") versus {{lang|nl|zonen}} {{IPA|[ˈzoːnə(n)]}} ("sons"), or {{lang|nl|kroes}} {{IPA|[krus]}} ("mug") versus {{lang|nl|cruise}} {{IPA|[kruːs]}} ("cruise").

{|
|-
| valign="top" |
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ Short/lax vowels
|-
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]<br />[[Unrounded vowel|unr.]]
! [[Front vowel|Front]]<br />[[Rounded vowel|rnd.]]
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! {{left}} [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|ɪ}}
| {{IPA link|ʏ}}
|
|
|-
! {{left}} [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA link|ɛ}}
|
| {{IPA link|ə}}
| {{IPA link|ɔ}}
|-
! {{left}} [[Open vowel|Open]]
| colspan=3 |
| {{IPA link|ɑ}}
|}
| &nbsp;
| valign="top" |
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ Long/tense vowels
|-
!
! Front<br />unr.
! Front<br />rnd.
! Back
|-
! {{left}} [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|i}} ~ {{IPA link|iː}}
| {{IPA link|y}} ~ {{IPA link|yː}}
| {{IPA link|u}} ~ {{IPA link|uː}}
|-
! {{left}} [[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]
| {{IPA link|eː}}
| {{IPA link|øː}}
| {{IPA link|oː}}
|-
! {{left}} [[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
| ({{IPA link|ɛː}})
| ({{IPA link|œː}})
| ({{IPA link|ɔː}})
|-
! {{left}} [[Open vowel|Open]]
| {{IPA link|aː}}
| colspan=2 |
|}
|}

Notes:
* The distinction between {{IPA|/i y u/}} and {{IPA|/iː yː uː/}} is only slight and may be considered allophonic for most purposes. However, some recent loanwords have introduced distinctively-long {{IPA|/iː yː uː/}}, making the length distinction marginally phonemic.
* The long close-mid vowels {{IPA|/eː øː oː/}} are realised as slightly closing diphthongs {{IPA|[eɪ øʏ oʊ]}} in many northern dialects.
* The long open-mid vowels {{IPA|/ɛː œː ɔː/}} occur only in a handful of loanwords, mostly from French. In certain Belgian Dutch varieties, they may also occur as realisations of {{IPA|/ɛi œy au/}}.<ref name="verhoeven2005" />
* The long close and close-mid vowels are often pronounced more closed or as centering diphthongs before an {{IPA|/r/}} in the syllable coda, which may occur before coda {{IPA|/l/}} as well.

===Diphthongs===
{{See also|IJ (digraph)}}
Unique to the development of Dutch is the collapse of older ''ol''/''ul''/''al'' + [[dental consonant|dental]] into ''ol'' + dental, followed by vocalisation of pre-[[consonant]]al /l/ and after a short vowel. That created the diphthong {{IPA|/ɑu/}}: Dutch {{lang|nl|goud}}, {{lang|nl|zout}} and {{lang|nl|bout}} corresponds with Low German {{lang|nds|Gold}}, {{lang|nds|Solt}}, {{lang|nds|Bolt}}; German {{lang|de|Gold}}, {{lang|de|Salz}}, {{lang|de|Balt}} and English ''gold'', ''salt'', ''bolt''. It is the most common diphthong, along with {{IPA|/ɛi œy/}}. All three are the only ones commonly considered unique phonemes in Dutch. The tendency for native English speakers is to pronounce Dutch names with {{IPA|/ɛi/}} (written as ''ij'' or ''ei'') as {{IPA |/aɪ/}}, (like the English "long i"), which does not normally lead to confusion for native listeners since in a number of dialects (such as in Amsterdam<ref>{{cite web|title=Onderzoek naar de volkstaal in de Jordaan|url=http://www.tussentaalenbeeld.nl/A60bb.htm|website=www.tussentaalenbeeld.nl|language=nl|access-date=February 23, 2016|archive-date=December 8, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208111442/http://www.tussentaalenbeeld.nl/A60bb.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>), the same pronunciation is heard.

In contrast, {{IPA|/ɑi/}} and {{IPA|/ɔi/}} are rare in Dutch. The "long/tense" diphthongs are indeed realised as proper diphthongs but are generally analysed phonemically as a long/tense vowel, followed by a glide {{IPA|/j/}} or {{IPA|/ʋ/}}. All diphthongs end in a close vowel ({{IPA|/i y u/}}) and are grouped here by their first element.
{|
|
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ Short/lax diphthongs
|-
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]<br />[[Unrounded vowel|unr.]]
! [[Front vowel|Front]]<br />[[Rounded vowel|rnd.]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! {{left}} Close
|
|
|
|-
! {{left}} Mid
| {{IPA|ɛi}}
| {{IPA|œy}}
| ({{IPA|ɔi}})
|-
! {{left}} Open
|
|
| {{IPA|ɑu}} ({{IPA|ɑi}})
|}
| &nbsp; ||
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ Long/tense diphthongs
|-
!
! Front<br />unr.
! Front<br />rnd.
! Back
|-
! {{left}} Close
| {{IPA|iu}}
| {{IPA|yu}}
| {{IPA|ui}}
|-
! {{left}} Mid
| {{IPA|eːu}}
|
| {{IPA|oːi}}
|-
! {{left}} Open
| {{IPA|aːi}}
| colspan=2 |
|}
|}

===Phonotactics===
The [[syllable structure]] of Dutch is (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C). Many words, as in English, begin with three consonants: {{lang|nl|straat}} {{IPA|/straːt/}} (street). There are words that end in four consonants: {{lang|nl|herfst}} {{IPA|/ɦɛrfst/}} (autumn), {{lang|nl|ergst}} {{IPA|/ɛrxst/}} (worst), {{lang|nl|interessantst}} {{IPA|/ɪn.tə.rɛ.sɑntst/}} (most interesting), {{lang|nl|sterkst}} {{IPA|/stɛrkst/}} (strongest), the last three of which are [[superlative]] adjectives.

The highest number of consonants in a single cluster is found in the word {{lang|nl|slechtstschrijvend}} {{IPA|/ˈslɛxtstˌsxrɛi̯vənt/|}} (writing worst), with seven consonant phonemes. {{lang|nl|angstschreeuw}} {{Audio-IPA|angstschreeuw.ogg|/ˈɑŋstsxreːu̯/}} (scream in fear) has six in a row.

===Polder Dutch===
A notable change in pronunciation has been occurring in younger generations in the Dutch provinces of [[Utrecht (province)|Utrecht]], [[North Holland|North]] and [[South Holland]], which has been dubbed "Polder Dutch" by Jan Stroop.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cf.hum.uva.nl/poldernederlands/english/stjohnspaper_engels.htm |author=Stroop, Jan |title=Young Women's Farewell to Standard Dutch |date=October 1999 |work=Poldernederlands |access-date=January 2, 2010 |archive-date=March 14, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314161451/http://cf.hum.uva.nl/poldernederlands/english/stjohnspaper_engels.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Such speakers pronounce {{angle bracket|ij/ei}}, {{angle bracket|ou/au}} and {{angle bracket|ui}}, which used to be pronounced respectively as {{IPA|/ɛi/}}, {{IPA|/ɔu/}}, and {{IPA|/œy/}}, as increasingly lowered to {{IPA|[ai]}}, {{IPA|[au]}}, and {{IPA|[ay]}} respectively. In addition, the same speakers pronounce {{IPA|/eː/}}, {{IPA|/oː/}}, and {{IPA|/øː/}} as the [[diphthongs]] {{IPA|[ei]}}, {{IPA|[ou]}}, and {{IPA|[øy]}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=Basisbegrippen Fonetiek en Fonologie|last=Decoster & Smessart|first=Wivine & Hans|publisher=Acco|year=2012|isbn=978-90-334-8576-3|location=Leuven|pages=91}}</ref> respectively, making the change an example of a [[chain shift]].

The change is interesting from a sociolinguistic point of view because it has apparently happened relatively recently, in the 1970s and was pioneered by older well-educated women from the upper middle classes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://neon.niederlandistik.fu-berlin.de/en/nedling/taalgeschiedenis/taalverandering_in_de_19e_en_20e_eeuw/ |title=History of the Dutch Language: Language change in the 19th and 20th century |publisher=Neon.niederlandistik.fu-berlin.de |access-date=August 19, 2012 |archive-date=July 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716064111/http://neon.niederlandistik.fu-berlin.de/en/nedling/taalgeschiedenis/taalverandering_in_de_19e_en_20e_eeuw/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The lowering of the diphthongs has long been current in many Dutch dialects and is comparable to the English [[Great Vowel Shift]] and the diphthongisation of long high vowels in Modern [[German language|High German]], which had centuries earlier reached the state now found in Polder Dutch. Stroop theorises that the lowering of open-mid to open diphthongs is a phonetically "natural" and inevitable development and that Dutch, after it had diphthongised the long high vowels like German and English, "should" have lowered the diphthongs like German and English as well.

Instead, he argues that the development has been artificially frozen in an "intermediate" state by the standardisation of Dutch pronunciation in the 16th century in which lowered diphthongs found in rural dialects were perceived as ugly by the educated classes and were accordingly declared substandard. Now, however, he thinks that the newly-affluent and independent women can afford to let that natural development take place in their speech. Stroop compares the role of Polder Dutch with the urban variety of British English pronunciation called [[Estuary English]].

Among [[Languages of Belgium|Belgian]] and [[Surinamese people|Surinamese]] Dutch-speakers and speakers from other regions in the Netherlands, this vowel shift is not taking place.

==Grammar==
{{Main|Dutch grammar}}
{{See also|DT-Manie}}

Dutch is grammatically similar to [[German grammar|German]], such as in [[syntax]] and verb [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] (for verb morphology in English verbs, Dutch and German, see [[Germanic weak verb]] and [[Germanic strong verb]]). [[Grammatical case]]s have largely become limited to pronouns and many [[set phrase]]s. Inflected forms of the articles are often grace surnames and toponyms.

Standard Dutch uses three [[Gender in Dutch grammar|genders]] across natural and grammatical genders but for most non-Belgian speakers, masculine and feminine have merged to form the common gender (with {{lang|nl|de}} for "the"). The neuter (which uses {{lang|nl|het}}) remains distinct. This is similar to those of most [[North Germanic languages#Classification|Continental Scandinavian tongues]]. Less so than English, inflectional grammar (such as in adjectival and noun endings) has simplified.

===Verbs and tenses===
When grouped according to their conjugational class, Dutch has four main verb types: [[Germanic weak verb|weak verb]]s, [[Germanic strong verb|strong verb]]s, [[irregular verb]]s and mixed verbs.

Weak verbs are most numerous, constituting about 60% of all verbs. In these, the past tense and past participle are formed with a dental suffix:
* Weak verbs with past in {{lang|nl|-de}}
* Weak verbs with past in {{lang|nl|-te}}

Strong verbs are the second most numerous verb group. This group is characterised by a vowel alternation of the stem in the past tense and perfect participle. Dutch distinguishes between 7 classes, comprising almost all strong verbs, with some internal variants. Dutch has many 'half strong verbs': these have a weak past tense and a strong participle or a strong past tense and a weak participle. The following table shows the vowel alternations in more detail. It also shows the number of roots (bare verbs) that belong to each class, variants with a prefix are excluded.

{| class="wikitable zebra"
|-
! Verb class !! colspan="2" | Verb !! colspan="2" | Present !! colspan="2" | Past !! colspan="2" | Participle !! Number of roots
|-
| '''1''' || {{Lang|nl|kijken}} || (to watch) || ɛi || {{Lang|nl|k'''ij'''k}} || eː || {{Lang|nl|k'''ee'''k}} || eː || {{Lang|nl|gek'''e'''ken}} || 58
|-
| '''2a''' || {{Lang|nl|bieden}} || (to offer) || i || {{Lang|nl|b'''ie'''d}} || oː || {{Lang|nl|b'''oo'''d}} || oː || {{Lang|nl|geb'''o'''den}} || 17
|-
| '''2b''' || {{Lang|nl|stuiven}} || (to gush) || œy || {{Lang|nl|st'''ui'''f}} || oː || {{Lang|nl|st'''oo'''f}} || oː || {{Lang|nl|gest'''o'''ven}} || 23
|-
| '''3a''' || {{Lang|nl|klimmen}} || (to climb) || ɪ || {{Lang|nl|kl'''i'''m}} || ɔ || {{Lang|nl|kl'''o'''m}} || ɔ || {{Lang|nl|gekl'''o'''mmen}} || 25
|-
| '''3b''' || {{Lang|nl|zenden}} || (to send) || ɛ || {{Lang|nl|z'''e'''nd}} || ɔ || {{Lang|nl|z'''o'''nd}} || ɔ || {{Lang|nl|gez'''o'''nden}} || 18
|-
| '''3 + 7''' || {{Lang|nl|sterven}} || (to die) || ɛ || {{Lang|nl|st'''e'''rf}} || i || {{Lang|nl|st'''ie'''rf}}|| ɔ || {{Lang|nl|gest'''o'''rven}} || 6
|-
| '''4''' || {{Lang|nl|breken}} || (to break) || eː || {{Lang|nl|br'''ee'''k}} || ɑ ~ aː || {{Lang|nl|br'''a'''k ~ br'''a'''ken}} || oː || {{Lang|nl|gebr'''o'''ken}} || 7
|-
| '''4''' irregular || {{Lang|nl|wegen}} || (to weigh) || eː || {{Lang|nl|w'''ee'''g}} || oː || {{Lang|nl|w'''oo'''g}}|| oː || {{Lang|nl|gew'''o'''gen}} || 3
|-
| '''5''' || {{Lang|nl|geven}} || (to give) || eː || {{Lang|nl|g'''ee'''f}} || ɑ ~ aː || {{Lang|nl|g'''a'''f ~ g'''a'''ven}} || eː || {{Lang|nl|geg'''e'''ven}} || 10
|-
| '''5''' irregular || {{Lang|nl|zitten}} || (to sit) || ɪ || {{Lang|nl|z'''i'''t}} || ɑ ~ aː || {{Lang|nl|z'''a'''t ~ z'''a'''ten}} || eː || {{Lang|nl|gez'''e'''ten}} || 3
|-
| '''6''' || {{Lang|nl|dragen}} || (to carry) || aː || {{Lang|nl|dr'''aa'''g}} || u || {{Lang|nl|dr'''oe'''g}} || aː || {{Lang|nl|gedr'''a'''gen}} || 4
|-
| '''7''' || {{Lang|nl|roepen}} || (to call) || X || {{Lang|nl|r'''oe'''p}} || i || {{Lang|nl|r'''ie'''p}} || X || {{Lang|nl|ger'''oe'''pen}} || 8
|-
| '''7''' irregular || {{Lang|nl|vangen}} || (to catch) || X || {{Lang|nl|v'''a'''ng}} || ɪ || {{Lang|nl|v'''i'''ng}} || X || {{Lang|nl|gev'''a'''ngen}} || 3
|-
| Half strong past || {{Lang|nl|vragen}} || (to ask) || || {{Lang|nl|vraag}} || || {{Lang|nl|vroeg}} || || {{Lang|nl|gevraag'''d'''}} || 3
|-
| Half strong perfect || {{Lang|nl|bakken}} || (to bake) || || {{Lang|nl|bak}} || || {{Lang|nl|bak'''te'''}} || || {{Lang|nl|gebakken}} || 19
|-
| Other || {{Lang|nl|scheppen}} || (to create) || || {{Lang|nl|sch'''e'''p}} || || {{Lang|nl|sch'''ie'''p}} || || {{Lang|nl|gesch'''a'''pen}} || 5
|}
There is an ongoing process of "weakening" of strong verbs. The verb "{{lang|nl|ervaren}}" (to experience) used to be strictly a class 6 strong verb, having the past tense "{{lang|nl|ervoer}}" and participle "{{lang|nl|ervaren}}", but the weak form "{{lang|nl|ervaarde}}" for both past tense and participle is currently also in use. Some other verbs that were originally strong such as "{{lang|nl|raden}}" (to guess) and "{{lang|nl|stoten}}" (to bump), have past tense forms "{{lang|nl|ried}}" and "{{lang|nl|stiet}}" that are at present far less common than their weakened forms; "{{lang|nl|raadde}}" and "{{lang|nl|stootte}}".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sterke werkwoorden |url=https://onzetaal.nl/taalloket/sterke-werkwoorden |access-date=2022-12-11 |website=Onze Taal |language=nl |archive-date=December 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211125112/https://onzetaal.nl/taalloket/sterke-werkwoorden |url-status=live }}</ref> In most examples of such weakened verbs that were originally strong, both their strong and weak formations are deemed correct.

===Genders and cases===
As in English, the case system of Dutch and the [[subjunctive]] have largely fallen out of use, and the system has generalised the [[dative]] over the [[accusative]] [[case (linguistics)|case]] for certain [[pronoun]]s (NL: {{lang|nl|me}}, {{lang|nl|je}}; EN: ''me'', ''you''; LI: {{lang|li|mi}}, {{lang|li|di}} vs. DE: {{lang|de|mich/mir}}, {{lang|de|dich/dir}}). While standard Dutch has three [[Gender in Dutch grammar|grammatical genders]], this has few consequences and the masculine and feminine gender are usually merged into a common gender in the Netherlands but not in Belgium (EN: none; NL/LI: common and neuter; in Belgium masculine, feminine and neuter is in use).

Modern Dutch has mostly lost its case system.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.zeergoeddutch.com/cases/en |title=Grammatical Cases in Dutch |publisher=Zeer Goed Dutch |access-date=August 12, 2015 |archive-date=July 7, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150707002135/http://www.zeergoeddutch.com/cases/en |url-status=live }}</ref> However, certain idioms and expressions continue to include now archaic case declensions. The definite article has just two forms, {{lang|nl|de}} and {{lang|nl|het}}, more complex than English, which has only ''the''. The use of the older inflected form {{lang|nl|den}} in the dative and accusative, as well as use of {{lang|nl|der}} in the dative, is restricted to numerous set phrases, surnames and toponyms. But some dialects still use both, particularly "{{lang|nl|der}}" is often used instead of "{{lang|nl|haar}}" (her).

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Masculine singular !! Feminine singular !! Neuter singular !! Plural (any gender)
|-
! Nominative
| {{lang|nl|de}} || {{lang|nl|de}} || {{lang|nl|het}} || {{lang|nl|de}}
|-
! Genitive
| {{lang|nl|van de}} || {{lang|nl|van de}} || {{lang|nl|van het}} || {{lang|nl|van de}}
|-
! Genitive
| {{lang|nl|des}} || {{lang|nl|der}} || {{lang|nl|des}} || {{lang|nl|der}}
|}

In modern Dutch, the genitive articles {{lang|nl|des}} and {{lang|nl|der}} in the bottom line are commonly used in [[idioms]]. Other usage is typically considered archaic, poetic or stylistic. One must know whether a noun is masculine or feminine to use them correctly. In most circumstances, the preposition {{lang|nl|van}}, the middle line, is instead used, followed by the normal article {{lang|nl|de}} or {{lang|nl|het}}, and in that case it makes no difference whether a word is masculine or feminine. For the idiomatic use of the articles in the genitive, see for example:
* Masculine singular: "{{lang|nl|'''des''' duivel'''s'''}}" (''lit'': "of the devil") (common proverbial meaning: Seething with rage)
* Feminine singular: "{{lang|nl|het woordenboek '''der''' Friese taal}}" ("the dictionary of the Frisian language")
* Neuter singular: "{{lang|nl|de vrouw '''des''' huiz'''es'''}}" ("the lady of the house")
* Plural: de voortgang "{{lang|nl|'''der''' werken}}" ("the progress of (public) works")

In contemporary usage, the [[genitive case]] still occurs a little more often with plurals than with singulars, as the plural article is {{lang|nl|der}} for all genders and no special noun inflection must be taken account of. {{lang|nl|Der}} is commonly used in order to avoid reduplication of {{lang|nl|van}}, e.g. {{lang|nl|het merendeel '''der''' gedichten '''van de''' auteur}} instead of {{lang|nl|het merendeel '''van de''' gedichten '''van de''' auteur}} ("the bulk of the author's poems").

There is also a genitive form for the pronoun {{lang|nl|die/dat}} ("that [one], those [ones]"), namely {{lang|nl|diens}} for masculine and neuter singulars (occurrences of {{lang|nl|dier}} for feminine singular and all plurals are extremely rare). Although usually avoided in common speech, this form can be used instead of possessive pronouns to avoid confusion. Compare:

* {{lang|nl|Hij vertelde over zijn zoon en '''zijn''' vrouw.}} – He spoke about his son and '''his (own)''' wife.
* {{lang|nl|Hij vertelde over zijn zoon en '''diens''' vrouw.}} – He spoke about his son and '''the latter's''' wife.

Analogically, the relative and interrogative pronoun {{lang|nl|wie}} ("who") has the genitive forms {{lang|nl|wiens}} and {{lang|nl|wier}} (corresponding to English ''whose'', but less frequent in use).

Dutch also has a range of fixed expressions that make use of the genitive articles, which can be abbreviated using apostrophes. Common examples include "{{lang|nl|'s ochtends}}" (with {{lang|nl|'s}} as abbreviation of {{lang|nl|des}}; "in the morning") and {{lang|nl|desnoods}} (lit: "of the need", translated: "if necessary").

The Dutch written grammar has simplified over the past 100 years: [[grammatical case|cases]] are now mainly used for the pronouns, such as {{lang|nl|ik}} (I), {{lang|nl|mij, me}} (me), {{lang|nl|mijn}} (my), {{lang|nl|wie}} (who), {{lang|nl|wiens}} (whose: masculine or neuter singular), {{lang|nl|wier}} (whose: feminine singular; masculine, feminine or neuter plural). Nouns and adjectives are not case inflected (except for the genitive of proper nouns (names): -s, -'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 many continental West Germanic dialects.

Inflection of adjectives is more complicated. The adjective receives no ending with indefinite neuter nouns in singular (as with {{lang|nl|een}} {{IPA|/ən/}} 'a/an'), and {{lang|nl|-e}} in all other cases. (This was also the case in Middle English, as in "a good'''e''' man".) {{lang|nl|Fiets}} belongs to the masculine/feminine category, while {{lang|nl|water}} and {{lang|nl|huis}} are neuter.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! Masculine singular or feminine singular !! Neuter singular !! Plural (any gender)
|-
! Definite<br />(with definite article<br />or pronoun)
| {{lang|nl|de mooi'''e''' fiets}} ("the beautiful bicycle")<br />{{lang|nl|onze mooi'''e''' fiets}} ("our beautiful bicycle")<br />{{lang|nl|deze mooi'''e''' fiets}} ("this beautiful bicycle")
| {{lang|nl|het mooi'''e''' huis}} ("the beautiful house")<br />{{lang|nl|ons mooi'''e''' huis}} ("our beautiful house")<br />{{lang|nl|dit mooi'''e''' huis}} ("this beautiful house")
| {{lang|nl|de mooi'''e''' fietsen}} ("the beautiful bicycles")<br />{{lang|nl|de mooi'''e''' huizen}} ("the beautiful houses")<br />{{lang|nl|onze mooi'''e''' fietsen}} ("our beautiful bicycles")<br />{{lang|nl|deze mooi'''e''' huizen}} ("these beautiful houses")
|-
! Indefinite<br />(with indefinite article or<br />no article and no pronoun)
| {{lang|nl|een mooi'''e''' fiets}} ("a beautiful bicycle")<br />{{lang|nl|koud'''e''' soep}} ("cold soup") || {{lang|nl|een mooi huis}} ("a beautiful house")<br />{{lang|nl|koud water}} ("cold water") || {{lang|nl|mooi'''e''' fietsen}} ("beautiful bicycles")<br />{{lang|nl|mooi'''e''' huizen}} ("beautiful houses")
|}

An adjective has no '''e''' if it is in the [[Predicative (adjectival or nominal)|predicative]]: {{lang|nl|De soep is koud.}}

More complex inflection is still found in certain lexicalised expressions like {{lang|nl|de heer de'''s''' hui'''zes'''}} (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. {{lang|de|Der Herr des Hauses}}) and other inflections no longer in general use today. In such lexicalised expressions remnants of strong and weak nouns can be found too, e.g. {{lang|nl|in het jaar de'''s''' Her'''en'''}} (Anno Domini), where {{lang|nl|-en}} is actually the genitive ending of the weak noun. Similarly in some place names: {{lang|nl|[[Braine-le-Comte|'''&zwnj;'s'''-Grav'''en'''brakel]], [['s-Hertogenbosch|'''&zwnj;'s'''-Hertog'''en'''bosch]]}}, etc. (with weak genitives of {{lang|nl|graaf}} "count", {{lang|nl|hertog}} "duke"). Also in this case, German [[German grammar#Irregular declensions|retains this feature]].

===Word order===
Dutch shares much of its word order with German. Dutch exhibits [[subject–object–verb]] word order, but in main clauses the [[Dutch conjugation|conjugated verb]] is moved into the second position in what is known as verb second or [[V2 word order]]. This makes Dutch word order almost identical to that of German, but often different from English, which has [[subject–verb–object]] word order and has since lost the V2 word order that existed in [[Old English]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kroch/omev2-html/omev2-html.html |title=Verb Movement in Old and Middle English: Dialect Variation and Language Contact |publisher=Ling.upenn.edu |date=January 20, 1995 |access-date=August 19, 2012 |archive-date=November 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123122621/http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kroch/omev2-html/omev2-html.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

An example sentence used in some Dutch language courses and textbooks is "{{lang|nl|Ik kan mijn pen niet vinden omdat het veel te donker is}}", which translates into English word for word as "''I can my pen not find because it far too dark is''", but in standard English word order would be written "''I cannot find my pen because it is far too dark''". If the sentence is split into a main and subclause and the verbs highlighted, the logic behind the word order can be seen.

Main clause: "{{lang|nl|Ik '''kan''' mijn pen niet '''vinden'''}}"

Verb infinitives are placed in final position, but the finite, conjugated verb, in this case "{{lang|nl|kan}}" (can), is made the second element of the clause.

In subordinate clauses: "{{lang|nl|omdat het veel te donker '''is'''}}", the verb or verbs always go in the final position.

In an [[interrogative]] main clause the usual word order is: conjugated verb followed by subject; other verbs in final position:
*"{{lang|nl|Kun jij je pen niet vinden?}}" (literally "''Can you your pen not find?''") "''Can't you find your pen?''"
In the Dutch equivalent of a [[wh-question]] the word order is: interrogative pronoun (or expression) + conjugated verb + subject; other verbs in final position:
*"{{lang|nl|Waarom kun jij je pen niet vinden?}}" ("''Why can you your pen not find?''") "''Why can't you find your pen?''"
In a [[tag question]] the word order is the same as in a declarative clause:
*"{{lang|nl|Jij kunt je pen niet vinden?}}" ("''You can your pen not find?''") "''You can't find your pen?''"
A subordinate clause does not change its word order:
*"{{lang|nl|Kun jij je pen niet vinden omdat het veel te donker is?}}" ("''Can you your pen not find because it far too dark is?''") "''Can you not find your pen because it's far too dark?''"

===Diminutives===
{{See also|List of diminutives by language#Dutch}}
In Dutch, the diminutive is used extensively. The nuances of meaning expressed by the diminutive are a distinctive aspect of Dutch, and can be difficult for non-native speakers to master. It is very productive<ref name="Donaldson">{{cite book|first=Bruce|last=Donaldson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aFN9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA61|title=Dutch: A Comprehensive Grammar|publisher=Routledge|year=2008|isbn=9781134082360|access-date=October 2, 2020|archive-date=March 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124339/https://books.google.com/books?id=aFN9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA61|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|61}} and formed by adding one of the [[affix|suffixes]] to the noun in question, depending on the latter's phonological ending:
* {{lang|nl|-je}} for ending in -b, -c, -d, -t, -f, -g, -ch, -k, -p, -v, -x, -z or -s: {{lang|nl|neef|italic=no}} → {{lang|nl|neef|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|je}} (''male cousin'', ''nephew'')
* {{lang|nl|-pje}} for ending in -m: {{lang|nl|boom|italic=no}} (''tree'') → {{lang|nl|boom|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|pje}}
* {{lang|nl|-kje}} for ending in -ing if the preceding syllable carries the stress: {{lang|nl|koning|italic=no}} ({{lang|nl|king}}) → {{lang|nl|konin|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|kje}} (the 'ng'-sound transforms into 'nk'); but {{lang|nl|ring|italic=no}} → {{lang|nl|ring|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|etje}} (''ring''), and {{lang|nl|vondeling|italic=no}} → {{lang|nl|vondeling|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|etje}} (''foundling'') without this stress pattern
* {{Not a typo|{{lang|nl|-tje}}}} for ending in -h, -j, -l, -n, -r, -w, or a vowel other than -y: {{lang|nl|zoen|italic=no}} → {{lang|nl|zoen|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|{{Not a typo|tje}}}} (''kiss''). A single open vowel is doubled when adding "{{lang|nl|-{{Not a typo|tje}}|italic=no}}" would change the pronunciation: {{lang|nl|aut|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|o}} → {{lang|nl|aut|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|oo}}{{lang|nl|{{Not a typo|tje}}|italic=no}} (''car'').
*{{lang|nl|-′tje}} for ending in -y and for abbreviations: {{lang|nl|baby|italic=no}} → {{lang|nl|baby'{{Not a typo|tje}}|italic=no}}, {{lang|nl|cd|italic=no}} → {{lang|nl|cd'{{Not a typo|tje}}|italic=no}}, {{lang|nl|[[A4 paper|A4]]|italic=no}} → {{lang|nl|A4'{{Not a typo|tje}}|italic=no}}
* {{lang|nl|-etje}} for ending in -b, -l, -n, -ng or -r preceded by a "short" (lax) vowel: {{lang|nl|bal|italic=no}} → {{lang|nl|ball|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|etje}} (''ball''). Final consonant is doubled (except for -ng) to preserve the vowel's shortness.

The diminutive suffixes {{lang|nl|-ke}} (from which {{lang|nl|-{{Not a typo|tje}}}} has derived by [[palatalization (sound change)|palatalisation]]), {{lang|nl|-eke}}, {{lang|nl|-ske}}, {{lang|nl|-{{Not a typo|ie}}}} (only for words ending -ch, -k, -p, or -s), {{lang|nl|-kie}} (instead of {{lang|nl|-kje|italic=no}}), and {{lang|nl|-pie}} (instead of {{lang|nl|-pje|italic=no}}) are used in southern dialects, and the forms ending on {{lang|nl|-{{not a typo|ie}}|italic=no}} as well in northern urban dialects. Some of these form part of expressions that became standard language, like {{lang|nl|een makkie}}, from {{lang|nl|ge|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|mak}} = ''ease''). The noun {{lang|nl|joch|italic=no}} (''young boy'') has, exceptionally, only the diminutive form {{lang|nl|jochie|italic=no}}, also in standard Dutch. The form -ke is also found in many women's given names: Janneke, Marieke, Marijke, Mieke, Meike etc.

In Dutch, the diminutive is not restricted to nouns, but can be applied to [[numeral (linguistics)|numerals]] ({{lang|nl|met z'n tweetjes}}, "the two of us"), [[pronoun]]s ({{lang|nl|onderonsje}}, "tête-à-tête"), [[verb|verbal particle]]s ({{lang|nl|moetje}}, "shotgun marriage"), and even [[preposition]]s ({{lang|nl|toetje}}, "dessert").<ref name="Donaldson"/>{{rp|64–65}} [[Adjective]]s and [[adverbs]] commonly take diminutive forms; the former take a diminutive ending and thus function as nouns, while the latter remain adverbs and always have the diminutive with the {{lang|nl|-s}} appended, e.g. adjective: {{lang|nl|groen|italic=no}} ("green") → noun: {{lang|nl|groen|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|{{Not a typo|tje}}}} ("rookie"); adverb: {{lang|nl|even|italic=no}} ("a while") → adverb: {{lang|nl|even|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|tjes}} ("a little while").

Some nouns have two different diminutives, each with a different meaning: {{lang|nl|bloem|italic=no}} (''flower'') → {{lang|nl|bloem|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|pje}} (lit. "small flower"), but {{lang|nl|bloem|italic=no}}{{lang|nl|etje}} (lit. also "small flower", meaning ''[[flower bouquet|bouquet]]''). A few nouns exist solely in a diminutive form, e.g. {{lang|nl|zeepaardje|italic=no}} (''[[seahorse]]''), while many, e.g. {{lang|nl|meisje|italic=no}} (''girl''), originally a diminutive of {{lang|nl|meid|italic=no}} (''maid''), have acquired a meaning [[:nl:wikt:Categorie:Zelfstandig verkleinwoord|independent of their non-diminutive forms]]. A diminutive can sometimes be added to an uncountable noun to refer to a single portion: {{lang|nl|ijs|italic=no}} (''ice'', ''ice cream'') → {{lang|nl|ijsje|italic=no}} (''ice cream treat'', ''cone of ice cream''), {{lang|nl|bier|italic=no}} (''beer'') → {{lang|nl|biertje|italic=no}}. Some diminutive forms only exist in the plural, e.g. {{lang|nl|kleertjes|italic=no}} (''clothing'').

When used to refer to time, the Dutch diminutive form can indicate whether the person in question found it pleasant or not: {{lang|nl|een uur}}tje{{lang|nl| kletsen}} (''chatting for a "little" hour.'') The diminutive can, however, also be used pejoratively: {{lang|nl|Hij was weer eens het "mannetje"}}. (''He acted as if he was the "little" man.'')

All diminutives (even lexicalised ones like "{{lang|nl|meisje|italic=no}}" ''(girl)'') have neuter gender and take neuter concords: "{{lang|nl|dit}} {{lang|nl|kleine meisje|italic=no}}", not "{{lang|nl|deze}} {{lang|nl|kleine meisje|italic=no}}".

===Pronouns and determiners===
There are two series of personal pronouns, subject and objects pronouns. The forms on the right-hand sides within each column are the unemphatic forms; those not normally written are given in brackets. Only {{lang|nl|ons}} and {{lang|nl|u}} do not have an unemphatic form. The distinction between emphatic and unemphatic pronouns is very important in Dutch.<ref name="Donaldson"/>{{rp|67}} [[Emphatic pronoun]]s in English use the [[reflexive pronoun]] form, but are used to emphasise the subject, not to indicate a direct or indirect object. For example, "I gave (to) myself the money" is reflexive but "I myself gave the money (to someone else) " is emphatic. 
{| class="wikitable"
! [[Grammatical person|person]] !! [[subject (grammar)|subject]] !! [[object (grammar)|object]]
|-
| 1st person singular || {{lang|nl|ik – ('k)}} || {{lang|nl|mij – me}}
|-
| 2nd person singular, informal || {{lang|nl|jij – je}} || {{lang|nl|jou – je}}
|-
| 2nd person singular, formal || {{lang|nl|u}} || {{lang|nl|u}}
|-
| 3rd person singular, masculine || {{lang|nl|hij – ({{not a typo|ie}})}} || {{lang|nl|hem – ('m)}}
|-
| 3rd person singular, feminine || {{lang|nl|zij – ze}} || {{lang|nl|haar – ('r, d'r)}}
|-
| 3rd person singular, neuter || {{lang|nl|het – ('t)}} || {{lang|nl|het – ('t)}}
|-
! colspan="3" |
|-
| 1st person plural || {{lang|nl|wij – we}} || {{lang|nl|ons}}
|-
| 2nd person plural, informal || {{lang|nl|jullie – je}} || {{lang|nl|jullie – je}}
|-
| 2nd person plural, formal || {{lang|nl|u}} || {{lang|nl|u}}
|-
| 3rd person plural, for a person || {{lang|nl|zij – ze}} || {{lang|nl|hun, hen – ze}}
|-
| 3rd person plural, for an object || {{lang|nl|zij – ze}} || {{lang|nl|die – ze}}
|}
Like English, Dutch has generalised the dative over the accusative case for all pronouns, e.g. NL '{{lang|nl|me}}', '{{lang|nl|je}}', EN 'me', 'you', vs. DE '{{lang|de|mich}}'/'{{lang|de|mir}}' '{{lang|de|dich}}'/'{{lang|de|dir}}'. There is one exception: the standard language prescribes that in the third person plural, {{lang|nl|hen}} is to be used for the direct object, and {{lang|nl|hun}} for the indirect object. This distinction was artificially introduced in the 17th century by grammarians, and is largely ignored in spoken language and not well understood by Dutch speakers. Consequently, the third person plural forms {{lang|nl|hun}} and {{lang|nl|hen}} are interchangeable in normal usage, with {{lang|nl|hun}} being more common. The shared unstressed form {{lang|nl|ze}} is also often used as both direct and indirect objects and is a useful avoidance strategy when people are unsure which form to use.<ref>{{Cite web|title=''Hun'' of ''hen''?|url=http://www.onzetaal.nl/advies/hunhen.php|access-date=May 23, 2007|website=Genootschap Onze Taal – Taaladviesdienst|language=nl|archive-date=June 6, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070606193859/http://www.onzetaal.nl/advies/hunhen.php|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Dutch also shares with English the presence of h- pronouns, e.g. NL {{lang|nl|hij}}, {{lang|nl|hem}}, {{lang|nl|haar}}, {{lang|nl|hen}}, {{lang|nl|hun}} and EN ''he'', ''him'', ''her'' vs. DE {{lang|de|er}}, {{lang|de|ihn}}, {{lang|de|ihr}}, {{lang|de|ihnen}}.

===Compounds===
[[File:Bord Hemelwaterinfiltratiegebied.JPG|thumb|The 27-letter compound ''hemelwaterinfiltratiegebied'' ([[Permeable paving|rainwater infiltration area]]) on a traffic sign in [[Zwolle]], Netherlands]]
Like most Germanic languages, Dutch forms noun [[compound (linguistics)|compounds]], where the first noun modifies the category given by the second ({{lang|nl|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 ({{lang|nl|boomhut}} = tree house) or inserts a hyphen ({{lang|nl|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 {{Audio|Nl-BE-Wapenstilstandsonderhandeling.oga|''wapenstilstandsonderhandeling''}} (ceasefire negotiation). Leafing through the articles of association (Statuten) one may come across a 30-letter {{Audio|Nl-BE-Vertegenwoordigingsbevoegdheid.oga|''vertegenwoordigingsbevoegdheid''}} (authorisation of representation). An even longer word cropping up in official documents is  {{Audio|Nl-ziektekostenverzekeringsmaatschappij.ogg|"ziektekostenverzekeringsmaatschappij"}}(health insurance company) though the shorter {{lang|nl|zorgverzekeraar}} (health insurer) is more common.

Notwithstanding official spelling rules, some Dutch-speaking people, like some Scandinavians and German speakers, nowadays tend to write the parts of a compound separately, a practice sometimes dubbed {{lang|nl|de Engelse ziekte}} (the English disease).<ref>{{cite web|title=SOS – Signalering Onjuist Spatiegebruik|url=http://www.spatiegebruik.nl/|access-date=August 12, 2015|publisher=Spatiegebruik.nl|language=nl|archive-date=August 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150810073756/http://www.spatiegebruik.nl/|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Vocabulary ==
Dutch vocabulary is predominantly Germanic in origin, with loanwords accounting for 20%.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PP1 |title=Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PA349 349] |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2009 |isbn=9783110218442 |access-date=January 1, 2022 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124339/https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PP1 |url-status=live }}</ref> The main foreign influence on Dutch vocabulary since the 12th century and culminating in the [[French period]] has been French and (northern) [[Langues d'oïl|Oïl languages]], accounting for an estimated 6.8% of all words, or more than a third of all loanwords. [[Latin]], which was spoken in the southern Low Countries for centuries and then played a major role as the language of science and religion, follows with 6.1%. High German and Low German were influential until the mid-20th century and account for 2.7%, but they are mostly unrecognisable since many have been "Dutchified": German {{lang|de|Fremdling}} → Dutch {{lang|nl|vreemdeling}}. Dutch has borrowed words from English since the mid-19th century, as a consequence of the increasing power and influence of Britain and the United States. English loanwords are about 1.5%, but continue to increase.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PP1 |title=Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PA352 352] |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2009 |isbn=9783110218442 |access-date=January 1, 2022 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124339/https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PP1 |url-status=live }}</ref> Many English loanwords become less visible over time as they are either gradually replaced by calques (''skyscraper'' became Dutch {{lang|nl|wolkenkrabber}}) or neologisms (''bucket list'' became {{lang|nl|loodjeslijst}}). Conversely, Dutch contributed many loanwords to English, accounting for 1.3% of its lexicon.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PP1 |title=Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PA370 370] |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2009 |isbn=9783110218442 |access-date=January 1, 2022 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124339/https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PP1 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The main Dutch dictionary is the ''[[Van Dale|Van Dale groot woordenboek der Nederlandse taal]]'', which contains some 268,826 [[headword]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vandale.nl/ |title=Home &#124; Van Dale |publisher=Vandale.nl |access-date=August 12, 2015 |language=nl |archive-date=February 18, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218235414/http://www.vandale.nl/opzoeken/woordenboek/?zoekwoord=stroopwafel |url-status=live }}</ref> In the field of [[linguistics]], the 45,000-page {{lang|nl|[[Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal]]}} is also widely used. That scholarly endeavour took 147 years to complete and contains all recorded Dutch words from the [[Early Middle Ages]] onward.

==Spelling and writing system==
{{Main|Dutch orthography|History of Dutch orthography|Dutch Braille}}
[[File:Amsterdamse tram - De Red Crosser - from Flickr 2838709455 cropped lijnbus.jpg|thumb|Dutch uses the [[digraph (orthography)|digraph]] {{vr|[[IJ (digraph)|ij]]}} as a single letter and it can be seen in several variations. Here, a marking saying {{wikt-lang|nl|lijnbus}} ("line/route" + "bus"; the tram lane also serves as bus road).]]

Dutch is written using the [[Latin script]]. Dutch uses one additional character beyond the standard alphabet, the [[digraph (orthography)|digraph]] {{vr|[[IJ (digraph)|ij]]}}. It has a relatively high proportion of doubled letters, both vowels and consonants, due to the formation of compound words and also to the spelling devices for distinguishing the many vowel sounds in the Dutch language. An example of five consecutive doubled letters is the word {{lang|nl|voorraaddoos}} ([[food storage container]]). The [[Diaeresis (diacritic)|diaeresis]] (Dutch: {{lang|nl|trema}}) is used to mark vowels that are pronounced separately when involving a pre- or suffix, and a [[hyphen]] is used when the problem occurs in compound words, e.g {{lang|nl|beïnvloed}} (influenced), {{lang|nl|de zeeën}} (the seas) but {{lang|nl|zee-eend}} (scoter; lit. sea duck). Generally, other [[diacritic|diacritical marks]] occur only in loanwords. However, the [[acute accent]] can also be used for emphasis or to differentiate between two forms, and its most common use is to differentiate between the indefinite [[article (grammar)|article]] {{lang|nl|een}} {{IPA|/ən/}} "a, an" and the numeral {{lang|nl|één}} {{IPA|/eːn/}} "one".

Since the 1980s, the Dutch Language Union has been given the mandate to review and make recommendations on the official spelling of Dutch. Spelling reforms undertaken by the union occurred in 1995 and 2005. In the Netherlands, the official spelling is currently given legal basis by the Spelling Act of September 15, 2005.{{efn|See {{Citation |title=Spellingwet |url=https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0018784/2010-10-10 |language=nl |access-date=October 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191024063848/https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0018784/2010-10-10/ |url-status=live }}}}{{efn|This came into force on February 22, 2006, replacing the Act on the Spelling of the Dutch Language of February 14, 1947. see {{Citation |title=Wet voorschriften schrijfwijze Nederlandsche taal |url=https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0002027/ |language=nl |access-date=October 24, 2019 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124407/https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0002027/1997-02-21 |url-status=live }}}} The Spelling Act gives the Committee of Ministers of the Dutch Language Union the authority to determine the spelling of Dutch by ministerial decision. In addition, the law requires that this spelling be followed "at the governmental bodies, at educational institutions funded from the public purse, as well as at the exams for which legal requirements have been established". In other cases, it is recommended, but it is not mandatory to follow the official spelling. The Decree on the Spelling Regulations 2005 of 2006 contains the annexed spelling rules decided by the Committee of Ministers on April 25, 2005.{{efn|see {{Citation |title=Besluit bekendmaking spellingvoorschriften 2005 |url=https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0019422/ |language=nl |access-date=October 24, 2019 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124856/https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0019422/2006-05-01 |url-status=live }}}}{{efn|This decree entered into force on August 1, 2006, replacing the Spelling Decree of June 19, 1996. see {{Citation |title=Spellingbesluit |url=https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0008116/ |language=nl |access-date=October 24, 2019 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324124856/https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0008116/1996-08-01 |url-status=live }}}} In Flanders, the same spelling rules are currently applied by the Decree of the Flemish Government Establishing the Rules of the Official Spelling and Grammar of the Dutch language of June 30, 2006.{{efn|See {{Citation |title=Besluit van de Vlaamse Regering tot vaststelling van de regels van de officiële spelling en spraakkunst van de Nederlandse taal |url=http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/besluit/2006/06/30/2009036011/staatsblad |language=nl |access-date=October 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027075933/http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/besluit/2006/06/30/2009036011/staatsblad |url-status=live }}}}

The {{lang|nl|[[Word list of the Dutch language|Woordenlijst Nederlandse taal]]}}, more commonly known as {{lang|nl|het groene boekje}} (i.e. "the green booklet", because of its colour), is the authoritative orthographic word list (without definitions) of the Dutch Language Union; a version with definitions can be had as {{lang|nl|Het Groene Woordenboek}}; both are published by [[Sdu (publishing company)|Sdu]].

== Example text ==
[[File:Universal Declaration of Human Rights - dut - aw - Art1.ogg|thumb|Dutch pronunciation]]
Article 1 of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] in Dutch:

:{{lang|nl|Alle mensen worden vrij en gelijk in waardigheid en rechten geboren. Zij zijn begiftigd met verstand en geweten, en behoren zich jegens elkander in een geest van broederschap te gedragen.}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights|website=ohchr.org|url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/udhr/pages/Language.aspx?LangID=dut|access-date=January 7, 2022|archive-date=July 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725112643/https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Pages/Language.aspx?LangID=dut|url-status=live}}</ref>

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

:All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights|title=Universal Declaration of Human Rights|website=United Nations|access-date=January 7, 2022|archive-date=March 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316050452/https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights|url-status=live}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Div col}}<!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order ♦♦♦--->
* [[Bargoens]]
* [[Dutch Braille]]
* [[Dutch grammar]]
* [[Dutch Language Union]]
* [[Dutch literature]]
* [[Dutch name]]
* [[Dutch orthography]]
* [[Dutch-based creole languages]]
* [[Flemish dialects|Flemish]]
* [[French Flemish]]
* [[Grand Dictation of the Dutch Language]]
* [[Indo-European languages]]
* [[Istvaeones]]
* [[List of English words of Dutch origin]]
* [[List of countries and territories where Afrikaans or Dutch are official languages]]
* [[Low Franconian]]
* [[Meuse-Rhenish]]
* [[Middle Dutch]]
* [[Old Frankish]]
* [[Surinamese Dutch]]
{{Div col end}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== General references ==
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* {{Citation |title=Dutch: Biography of a Language |first=Roland |last=Willemyns |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2013 |isbn=9780199858712}}
* {{Citation |url=http://www.grnnet.gov.na/aboutnam.html |title=Languages Spoken in Namibia |access-date=May 28, 2010 |year=2001 |last=Namibian Population Census |publisher=Government of Namibia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100516114611/http://www.grnnet.gov.na/aboutnam.html |archive-date=May 16, 2010 }}
* {{Citation |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/namibia/ |title=The World Factbook (CIA) — Namibia |last=CIA |year=2010 |access-date=May 28, 2010 |publisher=[[Central Intelligence Agency]] |archive-date=January 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210110010829/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/namibia |url-status=live }}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{InterWiki|code=nl}}
* [https://taalunie.org/ The Nederlandse Taalunie], Dutch language union
* [https://dutchgrammar.group.shef.ac.uk/ The Dutch Learner's Grammar] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929221815/https://dutchgrammar.group.shef.ac.uk/ |date=September 29, 2019 }}, from The [[University of Sheffield]]
* [https://kdutch.ivdnt.org/ K-Dutch CLARIN Knowledge Centre for Dutch], hosted by the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal (Dutch Language Institute)

{{subject bar|d=Q7411|wikt=Dutch|commons=category:Dutch language|v=Introduction to the Dutch language|voy=Dutch phrasebook}}
{{Languages of the Netherlands}}
{{Languages of Belgium}}
{{Languages of the Benelux}}
{{Germanic languages}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutch Language}}
[[Category:Dutch language| ]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Germanic languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Belgium]]
[[Category:Languages of Saint Martin (island)]]
[[Category:Languages of the Dutch Caribbean]]
[[Category:Languages of the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Low Franconian languages]]
[[Category:Stress-timed languages]]
[[Category:Subject–object–verb languages]]
[[Category:Standard languages]]
[[Category:Verb-second languages]]