Dutch - Language Overview

Dutch is very closely related to German, both in vocabulary and grammar. One of the northern German dialects is even closer to Dutch than to German. I started learning Dutch just for the fun of it and soon found out that I indeed have found another language I really like, and one which is pretty easy to learn for me due to the fact that I'm German native speaker and speak English (another related language) fluenty too.

Dutch

Geographical Extension

Dutch is spoken as official language in the Netherlands, part of Belgium and Suriname. These three countries form the Dutch Language Union. Apart from that, it has official status in the Carribean nations Aruba, Curaçao and Sint-Maarten.

Spoken by

Dutch is spoken by approximately 23 million native speakers in the EU. I didn't find figures for the other countries, sorry.

Language Family and History

Dutch belongs to the Western Germanic languages and is thus closely related to both German and English. It emerged from its preceeding languages Low Saxon, Frisian and English at around 450 AD. The Dutch language development is divided in three epochs: Old Dutch (450-1150), Middle Dutch (1150-1500) and Modern Dutch (1500-present).

The first process of standardisation began after 1477 and was mostly influenced by the dialects of Flanders and Brabant. At the beginning of the 16th century, the urban dialect of Antwerp became the strongest influence. When the Spanish army invaded Antwerp in 1585, many of its inhabitants fled to the Netherlands, especially to Holland (a northern province). The greatest step of standardisation, however, did take place in 1637 when the first Dutch translation of the Bible was created. It was mostly influenced by the Holland dialect but used elements of other dialects as well. The goal was to create a translation everyone from all the Dutch provinces could understand.

Grammar Difficulty

For German natives, the Dutch grammar is very easy to grasp as it is closely related to German grammar. For English natives, however, it will be more difficult as the English language has a completely different syntax, only one definite article (compared to two definite articles in the Dutch language) and doesn't inflect adjectives and adverbs. The Dutch grammar is only slightly easier to learn than the German one.

Pronunciation Difficulty

The Dutch language presents quite some pronunciation difficulties for English native speakers. It contains some sounds which are non-existent in English and can have consonant clusters of up to six or seven different consonant sounds in a row. German native speakers usually have it easier as the Dutch sounds exist in the same or at least a very similar version in the German language.

Special Facts

The language spoken in South Africa, Africaans, is a daughter language of Dutch. It has been brought there by Dutch invadors and has developed into a different yet still very closely related language; Dutch and South African people can usually understand each other if they speak very slowly and clearly, similar to Spanish and Portuguese people.