Where is flemish the official language

Well, not to intentionally complicate things but they are not actually wrong. Whatever you do with this new-found knowledge, please do not head to Flanders to tell the locals they speak a dialect of Dutch. You are likely to offend them, or at the very least make the conversation rather awkward.

Instead, Flemish should be considered as something between Dutch and its dialects. Researchers in Dutch linguistics will never refer to tussentaal as a dialect, but would not call it proper Dutch either. The Dutch vocabulary and grammar used in the Netherlands used to be considered the norm in both the Netherlands and Belgium. Audrey spoke Dutch, with a Dutch accent.

However, she didn't speak Belgian, as that is not actually a language. Belgium has three official languages: Dutch, French and German. In Flanders, the northern part of Belgium, people speak Dutch. Most of the time, this variant of Dutch is called Flemish. In theory, there is none. There is no such thing as the Flemish language or dialect, and there is no one overall dialect spoken in Belgium, or the Netherlands. Like German, Dutch is a dialect-continuum. The DLU is a trinational organization that has stimulated cooperation in the domains of Dutch language, literature and education.

If we think of literature, the best known literary prizes - like for instance the ECI Literatuurprijs - awards Dutch and Flemish writers. The jury is independent, and its members are from both Flanders and the Netherlands. Television has also played a huge role in the education of Generic Dutch.

The government instigated a Grievance Commission in , the first time the delicate matter was recognized. Some demands were paternalistically met, but any political power was still out of the question. This caused the Flemish Movement to become radicalized.

Ongoing efforts since resulted in in a special commission in Belgium. It standardized the spelling of the Dutch language to unite the Vlaemsch and Hollandsch as the Dutch spoken in the Netherlands was called. The results were published in and accepted in Belgium, to be followed by its adoption by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in In front, we see French nobles being slain by the Flemish weapon, the godendac goedendag.

It could be used both as a pike and a club. A part of it in the north was annexed by the Netherlands and lives on as Zeelandic Flanders. The historical County of Flanders only consists of two of the five provinces that form modern day Flanders. This county became very prosperous with powerful city-states, such as Bruges, Ghent, Ypres, Lille and Douai, which tried to maintain their independence from the count of Flanders. An effort under the French Crown, following revolts, to fully annex the County of Flanders led to the legendary French defeat in the Battle of the Golden Spurs in The French were shocked to discover that in the early morning of 19 May , the people of Bruges murdered every Frenchman found in the city.

Following a further general rebellion, the French intended to punish the Flemish. On 11 July, their cavalry led by overly courageous noblemen were wiped out by the Flemish infantry, which used long pikes in the muddy battlefield.

The Flemish Movement found a welcome inspiration in this famous battle, also due to the renewed interest in the Middle Ages in 19 th and 20 th century Belgium. As with the birth of Belgium, Flemish nationalist historians and authors were quick to write their own history, linking up the County of Flanders to Flanders northern part of Belgium today. However, the parallels with their own cultural struggle were too easily transposed to the feudal conflict between the County of Flanders and medieval France.

To commemorate its importance in Flemish history, the Flemish Community has recognised the date of the battle, 11 July, as its official holiday since Radicalization and counter-reaction. The first wave of the Flemish Movement, apolitical and mostly concerned with the language issue and thus elitist in nature, was followed by a second wave. It gained strong Catholic support by prominent figures such as priest and poet Guido Gezelle in Support by students was spearheaded by Albrecht Rodenbach.

They wanted Dutch Vlaams , but not Hollands to be recognized as an official language in Belgium. Now the Movement went beyond culture and language. It started to concern itself with socio-economic inequality, which gave it a much broader character and support in the nation.

In , the conviction of two Dutch-speaking men, Coucke and Goethals, by a Wallonian court, without the accused being able to understand the judge and without them being properly understood by their lawyer, caused a shock, especially when they were executed and later said to be innocent.

From on, a slew of legislation concerning language followed. Dutch became the primary language in courts in Flanders. Since , primary schooling would be entirely in Dutch and secondary schools were required to provide five complete courses in Dutch. These developments were opposed by the French-speaking elites, also by those in the north of Belgium.

They felt threatened by the recent bursts of Flemish cultural awakening and saw their political and cultural hegemony threatened. It became clear that the government gave further official status to the Dutch language when coins , bank notes and postage stamps were issued in both languages.

The Equality Law of made Dutch still called Vlaamsche taal an official language in Belgium, leading to laws being published in both languages.

These laws were fiercely opposed by the Walloon Movement , as they thought that it spelled the end of unitary Belgium. The majority of the soldiers spoke Dutch, yet their officers gave their orders them in French. Yet Brussels is home to only a minority of Flemish people. This may sound strange, but the reason is simple. For centuries, Brussels was a Dutch-speaking city and today it is still the capital of Flanders.

The nineteen Brussels municipalities together form the Brussels-Capital Region. Brussels-Capital is one of these nineteen municipalities as well as the capital of Flanders and Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region has been officially bilingual since the subdivision of our country into language areas. However, Brussels is enclosed in Flanders, of which it is also the capital.

By making Brussels the capital of Flanders and establishing the Flemish Government, the Flemish Parliament and the administration there, Flanders has opted to emphasise the close relationship between Flanders and Brussels. However, Brussels is also the capital of Belgium and Europe and has consequently grown into a multicultural metropolis.

Thirty per cent of the more than 1 million residents are foreigners. Although Brussels is officially bilingual, in reality it has been multilingual for a long time.

It goes without saying that the Flemish minority including the hundreds of thousands of commuters travelling from Flanders to Brussels each day have the right to be helped in its own language here.