Dutch language

Dutch ({{Audio|nl-Nederlands.ogg|Nederlands}}) is a West Germanic, Low German language spoken by around 24 million people, mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium. The varieties of Dutch spoken in Belgium are also informally called Flemish (Vlaams). The language is sometimes colloquially called Hollands by native speakers although this is becoming less common today. Dutch is sometimes called Netherlandic in English.

Classification and related languages

Dutch is a Germanic language, and within this family it is a West Germanic language. Since it did not experience the High German consonant shift (apart from þ→d), it is sometimes classed as a Low German language, and indeed it is most closely related to the Low German dialects of Northern Germany. There is in fact a dialect continuum which blurs any clear boundary between Dutch and Low German, and the Low Franconian rural dialects of the Lower Rhine are much closer to Hollandic than to standard German. Dividing the West Germanic languages into low and high in this way, however, obscures the fact that Dutch is more closely related to modern standard (high) German than to English.

Related Topics:
Germanic language - West Germanic language - High German consonant shift - Low German - Germany - Dialect continuum - Standard German - English

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Dutch is grammatically similar to German, for example in syntax and verb morphology. (For a comparison of verb morphology in English, Dutch and German, see Germanic weak verb and West Germanic strong verb.) Dutch still has grammatical cases, but these have become almost limited to usage in pronouns and set phrases. Technically there is still a distinction between masculine and feminine, but for most practical purposes in the standard language the gender system has collapsed into a dual system of animate (de) and neuter (het). Thus the system of nouns and noun phrases has been greatly simplified in a manner more akin to English than German.

Related Topics:
Germanic weak verb - West Germanic strong verb

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Native Dutch vocabulary (as opposed to loan words) is of common West Germanic stock, and in terms of sound shifts it can be imagined as occupying a position somewhere between English and German.

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Even when written Dutch looks similar to German, however, the pronunciation may be markedly different. This is true especially of the diphthongs and of the letter , which is pronounced as a velar continuant similar to the in Swiss German. The rhotic pronunciation of causes some English-speakers to believe Dutch sounds similar to a Northern English accent; this is the reason for Bill Bryson's famous remark that when one hears Dutch one feels one ought to be able understand it. Dutch pronunciation is however difficult to master for Anglophones, many of its diphthongs and gutturals being the greatest obstacles. Germans seem to have an advantage with the Dutch grammar, but suffer the same difficulties as the English when dealing with pronounciation. An exeption on this all are the North Germans, who can read or understand Dutch after a relatively short period of acclimatisation, speaking however remaining a challenge. Dutch is not on the curriculum of German schools, except in some border cities, such as Aachen.

Related Topics:
Pronunciation - Diphthongs - Rhotic pronunciation - Bill Bryson's - Aachen

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