Brussels

Brussels (Dutch: Brussel, French: Bruxelles, German: Brüssel) is the capital of Belgium and is considered by many to be the headquarters of the European Union, as two of its four main institutions have their headquarters in the city.

Linguistic situation

The original languages of the Brussels area are Brabantic dialects of Dutch. A curiosity is "Marollien", a Brussels dialect heavily influenced by Walloon which was spoken in a central section of the city. Both Dutch and French have been in use for most of the city's history as official languages and were used by the upper classes.

Related Topics:
Brabantic - Walloon

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During the 19th and the 20th century, as literacy progressed, dialects started to lose ground to standardized languages. In Brussels, most of the population adopted French rather than Dutch as its language of culture, since at the time, it was more prestigious and consequently considered more useful. Today, the Brussels dialects are on the verge of extinction, although some try to revive them (see links).

Related Topics:
Literacy - Dialect

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Nowadays, the Brussels Capital Region is officially bilingual French-Dutch. There are no official statistics on the first language of its population, which would be difficult to gather anyway since mixed-language families are not uncommon. Serious estimates of the number of Dutch-speakers among the Belgian population vary between 7.5 % and 15 %, and are based upon the language in which people communicate with the authorities and the election results of Dutch-language political parties (voting is mandatory in Belgium).

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It should be noted that the Brussels periphery, which is officially part of Flanders, has an important French-speaking population. In most of the municipalities immediately bordering the Brussels Capital Region, French-speakers form a large majority. Their linguistic rights and/or the expansion of the Brussels Capital Region are the subject of much heated debate.

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