Flemish/rewrite

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This article is an orientation for general meanings of Flemish. For specific meanings, see Flemish (disambiguation)

Flemish can be:

  • An adjective referring to any of the meanings of either Flanders, its people, or their speech.
  • A noun
    • (preceded by a definite article) for 'the Flemish people',
    • for a dialect group recognized by linguists or for parts of it, or for one of a series of sets of common factors that are perceived as having formed a language or a larger dialect group not recognized by linguists.

The term has several intertwined historical and contemporary meanings, geographically, linguistically and socio-culturally, politically and officially; it is far from rarely used without a very precise distinction in mind, though an indication is usually present by context.

Whereas 'Flemish' was originally derived from historical 'Flanders' and still maintains its meanings, a broadening additional usage of 'Flemish' for several dialect groups and redrawing of borders have led to the more recent circumscriptions of 'Flanders' and an additional contemporary 'Flemish' for the people there.

[edit] The language variety

Main article: Flemish (linguistics)

Though the term 'Flemish' is used often, its different definitions regularly cause ambiguity. It should be noted that

  • Flemish (Vlaams) is not an official designation of a language in the federative regions of Flanders or the bilingual Brussels-Capital in Belgium — Dutch is;
  • the dialectal area extends out of these now mainly or partially Dutch-speaking regions, in bordering areas of France and the Netherlands, and had included the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant that had been part of Belgium's former province of Brabant and is now part of the Francophone federative region;
  • the term 'Flemish' had historically been used, and sometimes still is, for only a part of this dialectal area.

The dialect groups spoken in the present-day Flemish Community (the powers of which are usurped by the Flemish Region, or Flanders) and as such as a whole can be referred to as Flemish, is based on a North/Middle/South separation by countries and institutional linguistic regions.
This is completely different from the historic and linguistic West/Central/East separation extending out of present Belgium according to former counties and duchies of which only the western one as the Countship of Flanders, or Flanders, was referred to as Flemish and, just as only its part in Belgium, may still be intended by Flanders or Flemish today.
The languages in the indicated historic and present areas are:

  1. Dutch, which includes:
    • Standard Dutch, used officially in the Netherlands and in the Belgian regions of Flanders and – besides French – of Brussels-Capital. The standard allows specific variations, some of which are more common while others are absent in Belgium; some people then refer to this standard language as 'Flemish', others prefer to call it 'Dutch' and may consider 'Flemish' as inaccurate, or belittling especially if used by an outsider.
    • West Flemish, used in West Flanders, the westernmost province of the institutional Flemish Region, or Flanders, in Belgium
      • The Zeelandic minor variant, Zeeuws in Dutch language, used in the bordering strip of the southwestern province of Zeeland in the Netherlands that is called Zeeuws Flanders – this dialect is considered to be a transitional dialect between West Flemish and Hollandic.
      • The French Flemish minor variant, used in northeasterly parts of the région Nord-Pas de Calais in France that form what is called French Flanders – this dialect is considered a part of West Flemish, but it is nearly extinct, rapidly replaced by standard French. Note that French Flanders is larger than the Flemish-speaking area (now in only small parts of today's French department of Nord, as near Dunkerque) and includes for example the metropolitan area of Lille (see the official name of the TGV railway station: Lille-Flandres) which has never[citation needed] spoken any Flemish dialect (except in the Belgian part of this now continuous urban area), but rather a dialect of French locally named Ch’timi.
    • East Flemish, used in the province of East Flanders in the western parts of the present Flanders as the Flemish Region, and in bordering small south-southwesterly parts of the Netherlands.
    The term Flemish is sometimes used in its limited sense for the West Flemish and East Flemish dialects, and may include the forementioned variants in the French and Dutch parts of the historic Countship of Flanders. A person of the county was a 'Fleming', plural 'Flemings' or all 'the Flemings'; these terms have become less commonly used in English for modern Flemish people, or 'the Flemish'. Usually 'Flemish' refers to more recent concepts of Flanders that include or are limited to the Belgian areas with native groups of dialects of the same language spoken – such as in the name Flemish Brabant, a province since the late 20th century in contemporary Flanders. This province is located eastwards of East Flanders.
    • Brabantic, corresponds to the historic Duchy of Brabant which is now split into the Dutch-speaking provinces of North Brabant in the Netherlands, of Antwerp and of Flemish Brabant both in the Belgian Dutch-speaking Flemish Region, and into the Brussels-Capital Region, and into the now francophone province of Walloon Brabant in the Belgian French-speaking region named Wallonia. Central Flemish is a rarely used term for the Brabantian and Brabantian influenced easternmost East Flemish dialects limited to Belgium.
    • Limburgish is the group of dialects spoken over three different countries with distinct official languages, and thus includes three subgroups, each one now largely influenced by its current administrative status:
      • the Belgian Limburgish subgroup, which has three variants, and is used in Belgium's northeastern province of Limburg (where it is influenced by Brabantian), in the easternmost part of the province of Flemish Brabant (with strong Brabantian influences and some minor ones by standard French), both in the present Flemish Region, and in the far northeastern part of the province of Walloon Brabant (where it is now considered extinct, mostly replaced by French, the official languagage in the Walloon Region) ;
      • the Dutch Limburgish subgroup, which has a single variant, and is used in Limburg, the southeasternmost province of the Netherlands and often referred to as Dutch Limburg to distinct it from the Belgian province with the same name ;
      • the German Limburgish subgroup, which has two minor variants, and is used in the Western part of Länder in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. There are two dialects: Bergish (to the North of Aachen near the international borders of the Netherlands and Belgium, still influenced by both standard French and standard German; its classification as a Flemish dialect is disputed, as some linguists consider it as a German dialect[citation needed]), and Ripuarian (East of the River Rhine up to Cologne, where it is now largely influenced by standard German). (See also Rhinelandic.)
  2. French (not Flemish in any sense), which includes:
    • Standard French, used legally throughout France as the primary language (including in the geographic area of French Flanders which is part of the historic Flemish-speaking area), and in Belgium in most of the federative region of Wallonia and – besides Dutch – the federative region of Brussels-Capital.
      • The Belgian French minor variant (that linguists consider being the same language as standard French, not very different from regional variants of standard French in France), but it is used very often instead of standard French in the federative region of Wallonia in Belgium (and legally accepted like standard French, in an ongoing process of unification with mutual influences between international or regional minor variants of standard French).
    • Walloon, a traditional regional variant, used as a secondary minority language in Belgium in most of the federative region of Wallonia (but also in a few bordering municipalities of the federative region of Flanders and also in the federative region of Brussels-Capital), with lots of differences with standard French and often considered as a distinct language by linguists. This language is part of the group of oil languages. It tends to be replaced rapidly by Belgian French (the most common language in Wallonia) or increasingly by standard French.
    • Traditional regional variants of Old French, used sometimes in specific regions of France, with many local specificities, but also in the Belgian federative region Wallonia in its West (the Champenois dialect) and South (the Lorrain dialect); they are often considered as languages distinct from standard French by linguists, but still part of the group of oil languages (the Romance dialects in the North of current France and the South of Belgium) from which Old French was originated. These regional variants tend to disappear rapidly, replaced by Belgian French or increasingly by standard French.
  3. German (not Flemish in any sense), which includes:

Since the notion "Flemish" is a container for a number of quite different dialects of Dutch (and sometimes of German, due to the historical cultural continuum from West to East), it has little sense linguistically to treat it as one entity. "The Flemish language" does not exist, although the notion is used as such in everyday language.

However, the Flemish family of languages and dialects still remains strongly attached to a common cultural background throughout the international traditional geographic region of Flanders, independently of the language actually spoken in that area and of its geopolitical status (even in today's French- and German-speaking areas, i.e. in France and Germany).

[edit] See also