Dutch Language Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Nederlandse Taalunie**
Official languages	Dutch
Executive Secretariat	Linde van den Bosch (since 2004)
Established	1980
Member states	2 (plus 1 associate member)
Headquarters	The Hague, the Netherlands
Official site	Official site of NTU

The Union's member states

Where Dutch is spoken

The Nederlandse Taalunie (NTU, "Dutch Language Union") is an international institution for discussing issues relating to the Dutch language. It was founded on 9 September 1980 by the Netherlands and Belgium (in respect of the Flemish Community). Surinam has been an associate member of the Taalunie since 2005. The Treaty on the Dutch Language Union foresees the possibility that the Netherlands extend its application to the parts of the Kingdom outside Europe (i.e. the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba) but this has not happened. The organs of the NTU are its Committee of Ministers (composed of the ministers of education and culture of the Dutch and Flemish Governments), its Secretariat-General, an Interparliamentary Committee (composed of members of the States-General of the Netherlands and the Flemish Parliament) and a Dutch Language and Literature Council (composed of twelve independent experts). There are specific arrangements for the participation of Surinam in the organization's organs.

An important accomplishment of the Union has been the modification of the Dutch orthography in 1995. Among the publications of the Union is the well-known Woordenlijst Nederlandse taal, commonly known as the "Groene boekje" ("Green booklet"), because of its distinctive green colour. The green booklet is the official orthographic and grammatical reference of the Dutch language. It is laid out like a dictionary, including plural forms and spelling, but without the actual definitions of the words.

The most recent version of the Green Booklet appeared in 2005, including a controversial 'spelling reform' which was not received well in general. In December 2005, most of the Dutch mainstream media announced a boycott. In August 2006, they released a 'White book' as their own, subtly different guideline. Currently these two spellings are both in use, sometimes confusing people; the 'green' one is used by schools and officials, the 'white' one by papers, magazines and television stations. In Belgium on the other hand the spelling reform was generally accepted without protest.

The Van Dale dictionary is commonly accepted as the official Dutch dictionary. The Van Dale Groot woordenboek der Nederlandse taal, often called Dikke Van Dale ("fat Van Dale", referring to its size) is split into three tomes (A-I, J-R, S-Z) and is usually updated every 7-8 years. The most recent version is the 14th edition from 2005.

The organization is also competent for the external linguistic policy of the Netherlands and Flanders, and is active in Indonesia and South Africa, two countries with historic links with the Dutch language. Nevertheless, cooperation with South Africa is not limited to the Afrikaans language, but aimed at fostering multilingualism.

The purposes of the organization are limited to Dutch language and culture, and are hence not as wide as those of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the Francophonie or the Organization of Ibero-American States.