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[edit] "Flemish language"

Main articles: Dutch language and 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:
    • 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 absent in Belgium, while others are precisely more typical there; some people then refer to the latter variant of the standard language as 'Flemish', others prefer to call it 'Dutch' and may consider 'Flemish' as inaccurate, or belittling especially if used by an outsider.
  • 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 (which obtained the powers of the Flemish Region, or Flanders by the procedure in art. 137 of the Belgian Constitution) 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 dialect groups of Dutch in the indicated historic and present areas are:
    • West Flemish, used in West Flanders, the westernmost province of the institutional Flemish Region, or Flanders, in Belgium
      • A minor variant in the northeasternly bordering strip of the province of Zeeland in the southwest of the Netherlands. This strip south of the Western Scheldt estuary including its eastward stretch is called Zeeuws Flanders.
      • 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, towards its eastern parts more influenced by Brabantic, used in the province of East Flanders in a western part of the present Flanders as the Flemish Region.
      • A minor variant in the northernly bordering stretch of Zeeuws Flanders. The Zeelandic dialect group, Zeeuws in Dutch language, used in Zeeland north of the Western Scheldt is considered a transitional dialect between (West and East) Flemish and Hollandic.
    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 two distinct official languages, and thus includes three subgroups, each one now largely influenced by its current administrative status:
      • the Belgian Limburgish subgroup, used in Belgium's northeastern province of Limburg and 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 formerly 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, 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, used in the Western part of Länder in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It has two minor variants: Bergish (to the North of Aachen near the international borders of the Netherlands and Belgium, still influenced by both standard Dutch 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, independantly 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).