Flemish is a dialect of Dutch that belongs to the Germanic family of Indo-European. It has some 38 million speakers worldwide and emerged after the Eighty Years’ War when the Seventeen Provinces were divided into the United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands, which caused the language to evolve with some distinct features in each area. These differences are mainly geographical rather than linguistic, although Flemish is broadly speaking a milder variant of the language than in the Netherlands and there are only a few linguistic differences.

Dutch, although a language of Germanic origin, also has a wide variety of borrowings from languages such as Latin, German, French and English. However, what makes this language most interesting is undoubtedly the large number of idiomatic expressions, sayings and metaphors it contains, which make it a very visual language.

FLEMISH AND ITS HISTORY

Because of the history of the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the language itself, the names which they themselves use for Dutch and their dialects vary more than for other countries. The term “Flemish” is used to refer to the southern varieties due to the hegemony of Flanders, while the term “Dutch” is used for the northern varieties.

In English, the term “Dutch” is used in academic or official texts and in informal contexts and “Flemish” to refer to the language of Flanders. Therefore, although these three terms are normally used synonymously, the terms “Hollandic” and “Flemish” are also used to refer to the dialect.

FLEMISH IN EUROPE

In the context of Europe, , Flemish is not one of the languages with the largest number of speakers; in fact, it is far from being one of the languages with the largest number of speakers, nor is it relevant in terms of European bodies, since it is not a language that is used in the European Union However, Dutch is of great international relevance in business and professional matters, as it is the official language in Brussels, which is also the seat of the European Council.

In addition, we cannot forget the importance of maritime activity in Belgium and the Netherlands, where ports such as Antwerp and Rotterdam are key to the export and import industry.

FLEMISH AND ITS REGULATION

In 1986, the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union), the body that regulates the Flemish or Dutch language, was created to establish common linguistic standards for the Netherlands and Belgium, joined by Suriname in 2004.

A sister language of Flemish is Afrikaans, which is the only Dutch-based creole language widely used today and one of the eleven official languages of South Africa. The two languages are mutually intelligible, but with many differences. It is also one of the few Creole languages with the status of a standardised language and is used as a literary language.