Dutch language

Dutch (<a href="/facts/Endonym/8pyd1nE9">endonym</a>: Nederlands [ˈneːdərlɑnts] ⓘ) is a <a href="/facts/West_Germanic_languages/PbeIH9Jz">West Germanic language</a> of the <a href="/facts/Indo-European_language_family/L34TfgSr">Indo-European language family</a>, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the <a href="/facts/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers/oSMoLVVa">third most spoken</a> Germanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of the population of the <a href="/facts/Netherlands/y8xn5stT">Netherlands</a> and <a href="/facts/Flanders/JDsTRuR4">Flanders</a> (which includes 60% of the population of <a href="/facts/Belgium/YKuMXP5j">Belgium</a>). Dutch was one of the official languages of <a href="/facts/South_Africa/vvXQpLgq">South Africa</a> until 1925, when it was replaced by <a href="/facts/Afrikaans/jYqEPHmA">Afrikaans</a>, a separate but partially <a href="/facts/Mutual_intelligibility/h1SbX0wN">mutually intelligible</a> <a href="/facts/Daughter_language/2vXmDJ4n">daughter language</a> of Dutch. Afrikaans, depending on the definition used, may be considered a <a href="/facts/Sister_language/jmpB4w0H">sister language</a>, spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in <a href="/facts/South_Africa/vvXQpLgq">South Africa</a> and <a href="/facts/Namibia/ahXuaypy">Namibia</a>, and evolving from <a href="/facts/Cape_Dutch/lN9rSpzy">Cape Dutch</a> dialects.
In South America, it is the native language of the majority of the population of <a href="/facts/Suriname/zjwRFBPL">Suriname</a>, and spoken as a second or third language in the <a href="/facts/Multilingualism/WgzhSW6h">polyglot</a> <a href="/facts/Caribbean/zRI9aMCh">Caribbean</a> island countries of <a href="/facts/Aruba/zvI1fUg1">Aruba</a>, <a href="/facts/Cura%C3%A7ao/upV1jGtJ">Curaçao</a> and <a href="/facts/Sint_Maarten/MUFmDfD5">Sint Maarten</a>. All these countries have recognised Dutch as one of their official languages, and are involved in one way or another in the <a href="/facts/Dutch_Language_Union/Pp8rUlWW">Dutch Language Union</a>. The <a href="/facts/Dutch_Caribbean/wgz91CY9">Dutch Caribbean</a> municipalities (<a href="/facts/Sint_Eustatius/YCSuk9Tj">St. Eustatius</a>, <a href="/facts/Saba_(island)/sPfYbeGC">Saba</a> and <a href="/facts/Bonaire/FLs4lUqU">Bonaire</a>) have Dutch as one of the official languages. In Asia, Dutch was used in the <a href="/facts/Dutch_East_Indies/1vl6kw8p">Dutch East Indies</a> (now mostly <a href="/facts/Indonesia/vQnWU3IW">Indonesia</a>) by a limited educated elite of around 2% of the total population, including over 1 million indigenous Indonesians, until it was banned in 1957, but the ban was lifted afterwards. About a fifth of the <a href="/facts/Indonesian_language/J8Q78Ywb">Indonesian language</a> can be traced to Dutch, including many <a href="/facts/List_of_Dutch_loanwords_in_Indonesian/Jyrfs57M">loan words</a>. Indonesia's <a href="/facts/Civil_code/aRH3U7VC">Civil Code</a> has not been officially translated, and the original Dutch language version dating from colonial times remains the authoritative version. Up to half a million native speakers reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined, and historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France and Germany.
Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both <a href="/facts/German_language/oWaQIDA8">German</a> and English, and is colloquially said to be "roughly in between" them. Dutch, like English, has not undergone the <a href="/facts/High_German_consonant_shift/B4LuIgoe">High German consonant shift</a>, does not use <a href="/facts/Germanic_umlaut/wG1CIfBC">Germanic umlaut</a> as a grammatical marker, has largely abandoned the use of the <a href="/facts/Subjunctive_in_Dutch/eV2W3MNB">subjunctive</a>, and has <a href="/facts/Morphological_leveling/EseHhyq7">levelled</a> much of its <a href="/facts/Morphology_(linguistics)/fWkzsYE8">morphology</a>, including most of its <a href="/facts/Case_system/5caTQalU">case system</a>. Features shared with German, however, include the survival of two to three <a href="/facts/Gender_in_Dutch_grammar/5l9rUtLY">grammatical genders</a> – albeit with few grammatical consequences – as well as the use of <a href="/facts/Modal_particle/aTTnmDQw">modal particles</a>, <a href="/facts/Final-obstruent_devoicing/IKphdbIF">final-obstruent devoicing</a>, and (similar) <a href="/facts/V2_word_order/3dT4yw46">word order</a>. Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic; it incorporates slightly more <a href="/facts/Romance_languages/TMK4KHI3">Romance loans</a> than German, but far fewer than English.

Dutch language open-in-new

Dutch language