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[E263]English To Dutch Language

by Tj Leary, Tj

Dutch began to develop in the fifth century AD from old Frankish, a Germanic tribal language. At around that time, the southern dialects of old Frankish (including the forerunner of modern German) underwent significant phonetic changes (known as the High German shift) whereas the northern dialects (including the forerunner of modern Dutch) did not. As a result, Dutch has more in common in this regard with English and the Scandinavian languages than it does with German. That said, it is grammatically similar to German in terms of syntax and verb usage although its vocabulary is particularly rich and contains an enormous amount of loanwords from the Romance languages, in particular French.

There is a common misconception that the Dutch spoken in Belgium, known locally as Vlaams or Flemish, is either a dialect of Dutch or somehow inferior. To start with, Algemeen Nederlands (Common Dutch, abbreviated to AN) is the standard language taught in schools across the Netherlands and Belgian Dutch-speaking areas. Indeed, both countries share the same language regulator, the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union), together with Suriname. In point of fact, there is no officially recognised Flemish language. That is not to say that there are no differences between the various variants spoken in Belgium and AN, but the same is true of the various dialects found in the Netherlands.

As regards the dialect argument, it is interesting to note that Dutch underwent a process of standardisation in the middle ages, under the influence of the Court of the Duke of Burgundy which was located in Brussels from the late 15th century. During this phase, the "Belgian" dialects of Flanders and Brabant were the most influential. The "Belgian" influence increased after 1585 when Antwerp fell to the Spanish and many inhabitants fled to the Netherlands bringing their local dialect with them.

Related languages
Dutch is closely related to other West Germanic languages such as English, West Frisian and German although it is by no means a dialect of German as is sometimes wrongly believed. Its closest relative, however, is Afrikaans, an official language in South Africa, of which it is the parent language. Dutch and Afrikaans are highly mutually intelligible, although the ease of understanding depends on the speaker's local dialect. Indeed it was only in 1925 that the Dutch colonists in South Africa decided to break away from Dutch spelling and thus written texts can generally be readily understood.

Status today
Dutch is an official language of the European Union and the Union of South American Nations. In addition to the Netherlands and Belgium, Dutch is an official language in Suriname, Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. It is also spoken by small minorities along the French-Belgian border and in northwest Germany. In total, and excluding Afrikaans speakers who are sometimes included in Dutch statistics, there are around 23 million Dutch speakers worldwide with an additional 4 to 5 million non-native speakers.

Before the 17th century the was not yet standardized. There were many dialects in existence that it was beginning to pose a problem.

After the 17th century, after the standardization of the has taken place, it became so much easier to identify the distinctions between the standard and its dialects. But the developments surrounding the Dutch language has continued well into the 19th and 20th century. Because of the influences being exerted by other languages like German, French, and English, the standard is undergoing a change.

One of the more noticeable change in the over the past century is with regards to pronunciation. The voiceless pronunciation of certain letters or syllables are now entering the standard language and is a unique feature that was more commonly heard from a dialect found in a province in Holland. These voiceless pronunciations commonly revolve around ?v? as ?f?, ?z? as ?s? and ?g? as ?x?. This current trend mirrors the desire for a change in spelling Dutch as near to its phonological sound as possible. This would mean that each particular sound is represented by a single letter or that a grapheme is only made in one particular way.

There is also a shift in how three diphthongs are being pronounced. The diphthongs in reference are ei, ui, and ou. The current shift for these are now moving towards aai, ou, and aau. This change was first seen among women who are middle aged and well educated and who come from the upper middle class. These women are identified with the world of the academia, politics, arts and literature.

From these beginnings the practice eventually spread out to women from other demographics. But lately even men have started employing this language change. It is also becoming employed by children, even those under the age of ten years and from very diverse backgrounds.

Already, this change can be heard in large parts of the Netherlands, but most especially among women of Turkish or Moroccan descent.

There are also some changes being seen in the area of morphology. One very significant change is inclusion of plural endings ( -s) even for nouns. This change is mostly seen in words that end in ?e ? for example, hoogte ? de hoogtes, which was usually hoogten.

Even the suffix ?baar is becoming more and more prevalently used in modern Dutch usage more often in the use of neologisms. In turn, the suffix -(e)lijk is becoming less and less used and in fact is being ignored in favor of the aforementioned ?baar.

There is even a rising use of ?concentrations? in modern Dutch. This is most commonly seen when using multi part compound nouns.

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Both Tj Leary & Philip Nicosia are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Tj Leary has sinced written about articles on various topics from Language, Education and Language. Stranslations offers professional services in English, French, Spanish, German and other major European languages.The original version of this arti. Tj Leary's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.

Philip Nicosia has sinced written about articles on various topics from Site Promotion, Site promotion and Phones. delivers a variety of quick language learning programs right to your desktop including. Philip Nicosia's top article generates over 368000 views. to your Favourites.