An early Dutch recorded writing is: "Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan, hinase hic enda tu, wat unbidan we nu" ("All birds have started making nests, except me and you, what are we waiting for"), dating around a season 1100, written by a Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester, England. For an extended instance this phrase was considered to exist as a earliest inside Dutch, however since its discovery possibly older fragments were uncovered, like "Visc flot aftar themo uuatare" ("A fish was swimming in the water") & "Gelobistu in got alamehtigan fadaer" ("Do you believe in God the almighty father"). A latter fragment wwhen written when early as 900. Prof Luc De Grauwe from either a University of Ghent disputes the language one stretches of text, & actually believes the babies to exist as Old English, so there exists however a few disputation surrounding the children.
Hebban olla vogala...

The run of standardization started in the Middle ages, especially under the influence of the Burgundian Ducal Court in Dijon (Brussels fallowing 1477). A accent of Flanders & Brabant were the virtually all influential about this period. A run of standardization became very much stronger in a 16th century, primarily according to the urban idiom of Antwerp. Around 1585 Antwerp fell to a Spanish army: many fled to Holland, strongly influencing the urban accent of that province. Inside 1618 a farther significant step was manufactured towards the unified language, once the foremost major Dutch bible translation was created that people from either terminated a United Provinces could understand. It used elements from either either various (potentially On line Saxon) accent, however was mostly according to a urban idiom from Holland.

A word Dutch comes from either a old Germanic word theodisk'', meaning 'of the humans', 'vulgar' when opposed to official, we.e. Latin or even late French. Theodisk inside modern German has become deutsch & inside Dutch has be them forms: duits, significant German, & diets meaning something closer to Dutch however there are no yearn generally utilise (view a diets article). Theodisk lives when tedesco ("German") around modern Italian.

A English word Dutch has besides changed sustaining period. It was simply in the early 1600s, with growing ethnic contacts & a rise of an independent united states, that a modern meaning arose, we.e., 'designating a humans of the Netherlands or even their language'. Before this, a meaning was additional general & can refer to any German-speaking front yard or even a languages there (including a todays Germany, Austria, and Switzerland also when a Netherlands). For instance:

William Caxton (c.1422-1491) wrote in his Prologue to his Aeneids around 1490 that an old English text was more prefer to Dutche than English. Inside his notes, Prof W.F. Bolton makes clear that this word means German in the main like than Dutch.

Peter Heylyn, Cosmography around foursome books containing a Chronography & History of the altogether globe, Vol. 2 (London, 1677: 154) contains "...the Dutch call Leibnitz," adding that Dutch is spoken in the area of Hungary neighboring to Germany.

To this day, descendent of German settlers within Pennsylvania come referred to as a "Pennsylvania Dutch".

Now a bit of speakers resent a title "Dutch", because of its most common root by having a title "Deutsch", that is, German.

Classification and related languages
Dutch occurs as Germanic language, and in this personal these are the West Germanic language. Since it did non personal experience a High German consonant shift (apart from þ→d), these are for instance classed as a On line German language, & indeed these are virtually all closely related to the Low German dialects of Northern Germany. There exists in point of fact the dialect continuum which blurs any clear boundary between Dutch & Online German, and a Sale Franconian rural accent of the Lower Rhine come very much nearer to Hollandic than to standard German. Dividing a West Germanic languages into sale & high therein way, still, obscures a fact that Dutch is supplementary closely related modern standard (high) German than to English.

Dutch is grammatically similar to German, for instance around syntax & verb morphology. (For the comparison of verb morphology within English, Dutch & German, look at Germanic weak verb and West Germanic strong verb.) Dutch still has grammatical events, however these use at times turn into well-nigh limited to usage inside pronouns & phrase. Technically there exists however the distinction between masculine & feminine, however for virtually all practical purposes in the standard language the gender body has collapsed into a dual body of animate (de) & castrate (het). So the patterns of nouns & noun phrases has been greatly simplified around a manner extra akin to English than German.

Native Dutch vocabulary (when opposed to loan words) is of green West Germanic commodity, & within terms of healthy shifts it may be imagined when occupying the position someplace between English & German.

! English ! Dutch ! German ! Remark |----- | eat
cat
town || eten
qat
tuin (garden) || essen
Katze
Zaun (fence) || English & Dutch use at times saved Germanic t; German has shifted t→s/z/tz |- | apple
pipe
Scunthorpe||appel
pijp
dorp (village)||Apfel
Pfeife
Dorf|| English & Dutch use at times saved Germanic p; German has shifted p→f/pf |- | believe
brother
thorn|| denken
broeder
doorn|| denken
Bruder
Dorn || English has saved Germanic þ; Dutch, such as German, has shifted þ→d |- |yesterday
yarn
day||gisteren
garen
dag||gestern
Garn
Tag||Dutch has shifted Germanic g to voiced affricative /γ/; English has shifted farther: g→y |----- |}

Possibly whenever written Dutch looks similar to German, but, a pronunciation may be markedly different. This is avowedly especially of the diphthongs and of the letter , which is pronounced as a velar continuant similar to the in Swiss German. A rhotic pronunciation of causes the bit of English-speakers to suppose Dutch sounds similar to a Northern English accent; this is the cause for Bill Bryson's famous remark that when one hears Dutch one feels one ought to be able understand it. Dutch pronunciation is all a same hard to master for Anglophones, numbers of of its diphthongs & pharyngeal consonant existence the greatest obstacles. Germans seem to keep close at hand an benefit by having a Dutch grammar, however suffer a equivalent difficulties whilst a English when treating sustaining pronounciation. An exeption on this 100% come the Northerly Germans, world health organization may review or even know Dutch when the comparatively short period of acclimation, speaking notwithstanding remaining a challenge. Dutch is usually non on the course of study of German schools, except around occasionally border cities, like Aachen and Oldenburg.

Geographic distribution
Dutch is spoken by virtually all denizen of the Netherlands. These are as well spoken by virtually all in the Flemish northern half of Belgium, with a exception of Brussels, where these are spoken by the minority of the people, French being the dominant language. (This minority is often forecasted between 10% & 15%.) In the northmost a portion of France, Dutch is spoken by a minority & a language is commonly known as Vlemsch. On the Caribbean islands of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, Dutch is used however less thus than Papiamento. Dutch is spoken inside Suriname, and there are a few speakers of Dutch within Indonesia. Inside South Africa and Namibia a language related to Dutch called Afrikaans is spoken.

Official status
Dutch is an official language of a Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, and the Netherlands Antilles. A Dutch, Flemish & Surinamese governments coordinate their language activities in the Dutch Language Union. Afrikaans is an official language around South Africa.

Algemeen Nederlands ('general Dutch', abbreviated to AN) is the standard language as taught in schools & utilized by authorities in a Netherlands, Flanders, Suriname & the Netherlands Antilles. A Dutch Language Union defines what is AN & what is does'nt, for instance within terms of writing system.

Algemeen Nederlands replaced a older title Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands (general civilised Dutch, abbreviated to ABN) while it was there are no yearn considered politically right. Standaardnederlands (standard Dutch) is as well ordinarily utilized instead of Algemeen Nederlands.

Dialects
Flemish is the collective term often utilized for the Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium. These come non a separate language (though a term is typically as well wont to distinguish a standard Dutch spoken around Flanders from either that of the Netherlands) nor are the accent inside Belgium extra closely related to both more than to the accent in The Netherlands. A standard form of Netherlandic Dutch differs somewhat from either Belgium Dutch or even Flemish: Flemish favours older words & is likewise perceived when "softer" within pronunciation & discourse than Netherlandic Dutch, & a bit of Dutch call for it quaint. Within direct contrast, Netherlandic Dutch is perceived when coarse & croaking to Belgians, & a few Belgians perceive it when excessively self-asserting, hostile & potentially somewhat self-important. a single could draw a parallel using the American and British English differences. Americans & a English utilize slightly diverging vocabularies, though two officially right. Even so, when U.s. is considered by the bit of a poorer derivative of English, Flemish & northern Dutch come historically equal.

Inside Flanders, there are roughly foursome accent groups: West Flemish, East Flemish, Brabantian and Limburgish. It use at times completely incorporated French loan around everyday language. An lesson is fourchette around various forms (originally the French word meaning fork), instead of vork. Brussels, especially, is heavy influenced by French because about 75% of the denizen of Brussels speak French. A Limburgish inside Belgium is closely related Dutch Limburgish. An oddity of West Flemish (& less, East Flemish) is that a pronunciation of the "soft g" healthy (a voiced velar fricative) is almost monovular thereto of the "h" healthy (a voiced glottal fricative), thus, a words held (hero) & geld (money) healthy about a equivalent. A select few Flemish dialects come therefore distinct that it may exist when considered as separate language variants. West Flemish in particular has sometimes been considered intrinsically. It should too exist as noted that a idiom borders one accent don't correspond to present geopolitical boundaries. It reflect very much older mediaeval divisions. A Brabantian dialect group, for example, besides reach lot of the south of the Netherlands, then does Limburgish. West-Flemish is too spoken inside the Dutch province of Zeel&, withwithin the variant known as Zeeuws (or possibly Zealandic, in English) and even in the little a portion touching Dunkirk, France, bordering on Belgium.

A Netherlands too has different idiom regions. In the east there exists an extensive Low Saxon dialect area: a provinces of Groningen (Gronings), Drenthe and Overijssel are almost only Online Saxon. Zuid-Gelders is a dialect besides spoken in the German land of North Rhine-Westphalia. Limburgish (Limburg (Netherlands)) and Brabantian (Noord-Brabant) fade into the accent spoken in the conterminous provinces of Belgium.

Zealandic of most of Zeeland is a transitional regional language between West Flemish and Hollandic, by having a exception of the eastern section of Zealandic Flanders where East Flemish is spoken. Around Holland proper, Hollandic is spoken, though the original forms of this accent, heavy influenced by the Frisian substrate, are today comparatively uncommon; a urban accent of the Randstad, which are Hollandic accent, don't vary from either standard Dutch a good deal, however there is a clear difference between a city accent of Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam or Utrecht.

Within a few rural Hollandic areas supplementary authentic Hollandic idiom come however existence utilized, especially to the north of Amsterdam. Limburgish & Low Saxon have been elevated by the European Union to the legal status of streektaal (regional language), which causes occasionally native speakers to assume the children separate languages. A few accent come opaque to a bit of speakers of Hollandic.

Dutch accent are non spoken when typically when it wont to become. Present in a Netherlands single older population speak these accent in the little villages, by owning the exception of the Online Saxon & Limburgish streektalen, which are then actively promoted by a select few provinces & however within most common apply. Virtually all towns & cities stick to standard Dutch - although numerous cities use their have city idiom, which continues to prosper. Within Belgium idiom may be great deal alive still; numerous golden ager there are unable to speak standard Dutch. Within each a Netherlands & Belgium, many big cities as well use at times several distinct little accent.

By numerous native speakers of Dutch, two around Belgium & a Netherlands, Afrikaans and Frisian are often assumed to exist as super deviate accent of Dutch. In point of fact, it is ii different languages, Afrikaans getting evolved primarily from either Dutch. No idiom continuum between a Frisian & neighboring On line Saxon. The Frisian standard language has been developed.

Until a early 20th century, variants of Dutch were still spoken by occasionally descendent of Dutch colonies in the United States. New Jersey in particular had an active Dutch community by having a extremely diverging accent that wwhen spoken when recently as the 1950s. Look at Jersey Dutch for more on this idiom.

Accents
Additionally to the several accent of the Dutch language numerous provinces & big cities develop their have accents, which sometimes come likewise known as idiom. Ethnic communities tend to stand variable accents: e.g. numerous humans from either the Dutch Antilles or even Suriname speak by owning a "Surinaams" accent, & the Dutch-Moroccan & Dutch-Turkish youth use at times besides developed their have accents, which within a few lawsuits come enhanced by a debased Dutch slang with Arabic or Turkish words thrown inside, which serves in making their speech about opaque to a bit of older speakers of standard Dutch.

Derived languages
Afrikaans, a language spoken around South Africa and Namibia, is derived primarily from 17th century Dutch dialects, & much of reciprocal intelligibility however is. Of these world health organization could speak Dutch is commonly super breathe to review & realize Afrikaans.

Sounds
Vowels
A vowel inventory of Dutch is large, by having Xiv elementary vowels & iv diphthongs. A vowelscome involved on a diphthong chart because it is actually produced when narrow closing diphthongs around a few idiom, however behave phonologically prefer the more elementary vowels.

|+ Dutch Vowels sustaining Lesson Words |align=center|Symbol |colspan=Triplet align=center|Example |- !IPA !IPA !orthography !English |- | ||bit |'bit' |- |i ||biet |'beetroot' |- | ||hut |'cabin' |- |y ||fuut |'grebe' |- | ||bed |'bed' |- | ||beet |'bite' |- | || de |'a' |- | ||neus |'nose' |- | ||bad |'bath' |- | ||zaad |'seed' |- | ||bot |'bone' |- | ||boot |'boat' |- |u ||hoed |'hat' |- |||ei |'egg' |- |||ui |'onion' |- |||zout |'salt' |}

Consonants
|+ IPA chart Dutch consonants |- | |Bilabial |Labio-
dental |Alveolar |Post-
alveolar |Palatal |Velar |Uvular |Glottal |- |Plosive | | | | | | ¹ | | ² |- |Nasal | | | | | | | | |- |Fricative | | ³ | ³ | ⁴ | | ³ | ⁵ | |- |Approximant | | ⁶ | | | | | | |- |Lateral | | | | | | | | |}

within which symbols for consonants occur in pairs, a left is a voiceless consonant and a right represents the voiced consonant.

Notes:

Ace) is non the native phoneme of Dutch & merely occurs within borrowed words, rather goal.

Two) .

Deuce-ace) Around occasionally idiom, a sonant fricative consonant use at times all but entirely merged by using a voiceless ones, & .

Quaternion) .

Little phoebe) A realization of the .

Hexad) A realization of the .

Sevener) A "standard" Dutch equally spoken around Amsterdam is non a Amsterdams accent. Amsterdams idiom is different from either standard Dutch therein within 100% lawsuits. A standard Dutch is sir thomwhen more accurately described as a Dutch that is spoken by virtually all humans around Amsterdam, & is the dominating accent utilized in television.

|+ Dutch Consonants by using Lesson Words |colspan=Single align=center|Symbol |colspan=Quaternary align=center|Example |- !IPA !IPA !orthography !English |- |p ||pen |'pen' |- |b ||biet |'beetroot' |- |t ||tak |'branch' |- |d ||dak |'roof' |- |k ||kat |'cat' |- |g ||goal |'goal' (sports) |- |m ||mens |'human' |- |n ||nek |'neck' |- | ||eng |'shuddery' |- |f ||fiets |'bike' |- |v ||oven |'oven' |- |s ||sok |'sock' |- |z ||zeep |'detergent' |- | ||chef |'boss, chief' |- | ||jury |'jury' |- |x ||acht |'eight' |- | ||gaan |'to last' |- | ||rat |'rat' |- | ||hoed |'hat' |- | ||wang |'cheek' |- |j ||jas |'coat' |- |l ||land |'land / united states' |- | ||beamen |'to confirm' |}

Phonology
Dutch devoices all consonants at the ends of words (e.g. the final five hundred healthy becomes the t healthy; to turn into 'ents of worts'), which presents the condition for Dutch speakers once learning English.

Because of assimilation, typically a initial consonant of the next word is besides devoiced, e.g. het vee (a kine) is . Around Flanders the direct contrast is potentially greater because a g becomes a palatal. ('easy g').

A final 'north' of the plural ending -enorth is unremarkably non pronounced (when within Afrikaans), except north East (Sale Saxon) & a In the south West (West Flemish) in which the ending becomes a syllabic n healthy.

Dutch occurs as stress language, a stress position of words matters. Stress may occur within any syllable position in the word. There is a tendency for stress to become at a beginning of words. Around composite words, secondary stress is typically present. There are a select few events in which stress is the exclusively difference between words. E.g. vóórkomen (occur) & voorkómen (check).

Historical sound changes
Dutch (using a exception of the Limburg idiom) did non participate in the 2nd (High German) healthy shifting - compare German machen Dutch maken, English produce,

German Pfanne , Dutch dainty, English 2.

It besides underwent two or three changes of its have. For even instance, words within -old or -olt misplaced the l in favour of a diphthong. Compare English old, German altitude, Dutch oud. The word such as jan hus by having , or the soft palatal continuant (south: Flanders, Limburg).

Grammar
Prefer totally more continental West Germanic languages, Dutch has the word the correct sequence that is markedly different from either English, which presents the condition for a few Anglophones learning Dutch.

A Dutch written grammar has simplified across a preceding C years: subjects come okay, primarily utilized for the pronouns, like ik (I personally), mij, pine tree state (maine), mijn (our), wie (world health organization), wiens, wier (whose). Nouns & adjectives are non example inflected (except for the genitive case of nouns: -'s or even -'). within a spoken language shells & pack inflections got already bit by bit disappeared from either the great deal earliest date in (probably the 15th century) when in several continental West Germanic accent.

Inflection of adjectives occurs as little extra complicated: nothing by owning indefinite alter nouns inside singular & -e all told more events: Additional complex inflection is however witnessed within certain lexicalized expressions rather diamond state heer first states huizes (litt.: a human of the home), etc. Which are actually ordinarily remnants of legal actions (within that out break, a genitive case which is however utilized in German, cf. Der Herr des Hauses) & more inflections there are no yearn generally apply now.

Dutch nouns potty require endings for size: -je for singular diminutive and -jes for plural diminutive. Between these suffixes and a radical may are more letters based on the ending of the word: Prefer virtually all Germanic languages, Dutch forms left-branching noun compounds, where a number one noun modifies a category from a 2nd, for instance: hondenhok (doghouse). Unsuch as English, within which freshly compounds or even combinations of hanker nouns come typically written in open form by owning separating spaces, Dutch (like a more Germanic languages) universally utilizes a closed form forgoing spaces, e.g.: boomhuis (eng. tree home). Rather English, Dutch allows every which way hanker compounds, however which are actually uncommon. A yearn good entry in the Van Dale lexicon is wapenstilstandsonderhandeling (ceasefire negotiation).

Vocabulary
Dutch has further French loanwords than German, but lot fewer than English. A total of English loan inside Dutch is real & steadily increasing, especially on the streets & occasionally professions. Fresh loan come nearly never pronounced when a original English word, or even come spelled other than. Prefer English, Dutch has prominent statistics words of Greek & Latin origin. There are as well a few German loan, prefer überhaupt & sowieso. Potentially though couple of admittedly loan come present, German has experienced a considerable consequence upon the lexicon of the language, in the main per vary of German words into words that seem Dutch (then known as germanisme), the run probably to exist as ascribed to the likeness of the deuce languages. Virtually all one forms develop be and then integral to Dutch that pack Dutch notice the babies; it include words such as opname (from either German Aufnahme), aanstalten (Anstalten) & numerous thomas more.

Writing system
Dutch is written using the Latin alphabet, see Dutch alphabet. A diaeresis is used to mark vowels that are pronounced individually, & known as trema. inside a virtually all recent spelling reform, the dash has replaced the genus trema in two or three words in which it got been antecedently utilized: zeeëend (seaduck) is currently spelled zee-eend. A acute accent (accent aigu) occurs mainly in loan rather café, however can likewise become utilized for even emphasis or to differentiate between 2 forms. Its usual apply is to differentiate between a indefinite article 'een' (a, an) & a numeric 'één' (of these). A grave accent (accent grave) is used to clarify pronunciation ('hè' (what?, what a ...?), 'appèl' (require), 'bèta') & within loan ('caissière' (cashier), 'après-ski'). In a recent spelling reform, the accent grave wwhen dropped as stress sign up short vowels in favor of the accent aigu (e.g. 'wèl' was changed to 'wél'). More diacritical marks such as the circumflex only occur on two or three words, virtually all of the two loan from either French.

A first lexicon of the modern Dutch language is the Van Dale groot woordenboek 500 Nederlandse taal[http://www.vandale.nl], sir thomas more normally known as a Dikke van Dale ("dik" is Dutch for "fat" or even "thick"), or even when linguists nicknamed it: De Vandaal (a vandal). Yet, these are dwarfed per "Woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal", the scholarly endeavour that took 147 years from either initial idea to foremost edition, following within terminated 45,000 web sites.

A semi-official spelling is from a Woordenlijst Nederlandse taal, thomas more usually called "het groene boekje" (we.e. "the green booklet", because of its colour.)

Dutch as a foreign language

A total of not native speakers of Dutch world health organization voluntarily study a language is little. This is partially because Dutch is non geographically far flung & part because inside its at home united states very much of the people is skilful inside more European languages. German is widely (in case occasionally reluctantly) spoken (particularly in the area bordering onto Germany). English, which is taught around schools from either the immature age, is likewise spoken inside several area of the united states by owning members of the immature generation typically existence fluent speakers. the bit of yearn term not Dutch residents of a Netherlands develop never learnt the language, possibly put dispatch by its croaky healthy or even by a perception of its difficulties. There exists likewise the condition that because a Dutch themselves come typically & so linguistically practiced it may try and facilitate a struggling Dutch speaker by addressing him around his have language! (Numerous English-speaking students of German have a similar complaint just about Germans.)

the Dutch typically jest at of their have language - for instance Tom Meyer, a radio commentator, utilized to say in air that "Dutch isn't a language; it's a disease of the throat." Pronunciation can be a challenge when several of the Dutch vowel sounds come hard for not native speakers. A "ui" healthy around such words when "huis" (home) & "muis" (mouse) & a "ij" healthy around words rather "fijn" (mulct) or even "wijn" (wine) present difficulties & possibly though these words come superficially rather their English equivalents the correct healthy is very different. Native speakers of German normally buy Dutch convenient from either a grammar & vocabulary point of review however as well struggle by having the pronunciation. Still humans residents or even visitant world health organization wash view a select few Dutch is rewarded, non merely per additional bonus this gives to their understanding of Dutch history & culture, however likewise because it may enable a babies to converse sustaining people around areas out of the large cities in which more languages come less normally spoken.