The County of Flanders was one of the most powerful political entities in the medieval Low Countries , located on the North Sea coast of what is now Belgium . Unlike its neighbours, such as the counties of Brabant and Hainaut , it was within the territory of the Kingdom of France . The counts of Flanders held the most northerly part of the kingdom, and were among the original twelve peers of France. For centuries, the economic activity of the Flemish cities, such as Ghent , Bruges and Ypres , made Flanders one of the most affluent regions in Europe, and also gave them strong international connections to trading partners.
177-544: Ghent ( Dutch : Gent [ɣɛnt] ; French : Gand [ɡɑ̃] ; historically known as Gaunt in English) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium . It is the capital and largest city of the province of East Flanders , and the third largest in the country, after Brussels and Antwerp . It is a port and university city. The city originally started as
354-479: A marine west coast climate , abbreviated "Cfb" on climate maps. Ghent is home to many people of foreign origin and immigrants. The 2020 census revealed that 35.5% of the inhabitants had roots outside of Belgium and 15.3% had a non-Belgian nationality. Many neighbourhoods already have a minority-majority population, primarily in the north, east, and west of the city and some pockets in the south. Some examples are Brugse Poort, Dampoort, Rabot, Ledeberg, Nieuw Gent/UZ and
531-467: A schwa . The Middle Dutch dialect areas were affected by political boundaries. The sphere of political influence of a certain ruler often also created a sphere of linguistic influence, with the language within the area becoming more homogenous. Following the contemporary political divisions they are in order of importance: A process of standardisation started in the Middle Ages , especially under
708-490: A Dutch exonym for the various German dialects used in neighboring German states. Use of Nederduytsch was popular in the 16th century but ultimately lost out over Nederlands during the close of the 18th century, with (Hoog)Duytsch establishing itself as the Dutch exonym for German during this same period. In the 19th century Germany saw the rise of the categorisation of dialects, with German dialectologists terming
885-578: A climbing or rampant black lion on a gold field. In the story about the Battle of the Golden Spurs , the arms and its corresponding battlecry Vlaendr'n den leeuw ("Flanders, the Lion") plays a crucial role in the forming of a Flemish consciousness, which was popularised in the 19th century by the book De Leeuw van Vlaanderen by Hendrik Conscience . As a result, the arms of the county live on as arms of
1062-524: A comparison between the West Germanic languages, see the sections Phonology, Grammar, and Vocabulary. Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are both related with the Dutch language and are spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard language . Although heavily under the influence of the standard language, some of them remain diverse and are found in the Netherlands and in
1239-640: A differentiation with the Central and High Franconian in Germany. The latter would as a consequence evolve (along with Alemannic , Bavarian and Lombardic ) into Old High German. At more or less the same time the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, moving over Western Europe from west to east, led to the development of Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Old Frisian and Old Saxon . Hardly influenced by either development, Old Dutch probably remained relatively close to
1416-669: A fief of the French kingdom. During this period, Flanders experienced a period of relative prosperity with its strong cloth industry and diverse artwork. Trade in Flanders was so extensive that statues of the Madonna and Child were made in Flanders with ivory, which was accessible only by the Indian Ocean trade networks. Flemish prosperity waned in the following century, however, owing to widespread European population decline following
1593-586: A fifth of the Indonesian language can be traced to Dutch, including many loan words . Indonesia's Civil Code has not been officially translated, and the original Dutch language version dating from colonial times remains the authoritative version. Up to half a million native speakers reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined, and historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France and Germany. Dutch
1770-471: A first language and 5 million as a second language and is the third most spoken Germanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of the population of the Netherlands and Flanders (which includes 60% of the population of Belgium ). Dutch was one of the official languages of South Africa until 1925, when it was replaced by Afrikaans , a separate but partially mutually intelligible daughter language of Dutch. Afrikaans, depending on
1947-501: A hypothesis by De Grauwe, In northern West Francia (i.e. modern-day Belgium) the term would take on a new meaning during the Early Middle Ages , when, within the context of a highly dichromatic linguistic landscape, it came to be the antonym of *walhisk (Romance-speakers, specifically Old French ). The word, now rendered as dietsc (Southwestern variant) or duutsc (Central and Northern Variant), could refer to
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#17327918710662124-527: A minority language in Germany and northern France's French Flanders . Though Belgium as a whole is multilingual, three of the four language areas into which the country is divided ( Flanders , francophone Wallonia , and the German-speaking Community ) are largely monolingual, with Brussels being bilingual. The Netherlands and Belgium produce the vast majority of music , films , books and other media written or spoken in Dutch. Dutch
2301-670: A minority) and the province of Walloon Brabant . Brabantian expands into small parts in the west of Limburg while its strong influence on the East Flemish of East Flanders and eastern Zeelandic Flanders weakens towards the west. In a small area in the northwest of North Brabant ( Willemstad ), Hollandic is spoken. Conventionally, the Kleverlandish dialects are distinguished from Brabantian, but there are no objective criteria apart from geography to do so. Over 5 million people live in an area with some form of Brabantian being
2478-420: A number of closely related, mutually intelligible dialects spoken in the former Old Dutch area. Where Old Dutch fragments are very hard to read for untrained Modern Dutch speakers, the various literary works of Middle Dutch are somewhat more accessible. The most notable difference between Old and Middle Dutch is in a feature of speech known as vowel reduction , whereby vowels in unstressed syllables are leveled to
2655-559: A pagan region. From these centers, the conversion of the local populace could be started. In 649 Audomar founded an abbey at Sithiu (the Abbey of Saint Bertin ) and in 680 Aubertus founded the Abbey of St. Vaast near Arras . The Christianisation of the population was mainly the work of missionaries like Amandus ( St. Bavo's Abbey and St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent) and Eligius (coastal region and Antwerp ). In his vita , Eligius makes
2832-495: A perfect West Germanic dialect continuum remained present; the division reflects the contingent future contribution dialect groups would have to the later languages. The early form of Dutch was a set of Franconian dialects spoken by the Salian Franks in the 5th century. These happened to develop through Middle Dutch to Modern Dutch over the course of fifteen centuries. During that period, they forced Old Frisian back from
3009-579: A political border, because the traditional dialects are strongly influenced by the national standard varieties. While a somewhat heterogeneous group of Low Franconian dialects, Limburgish has received official status as a regional language in the Netherlands and Germany, but not in Belgium. Due to this official recognition, it receives protection by chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Afrikaans , although to
3186-474: A public institution known for its radical productions. The theatre company's home base is in the Royal Dutch Theatre [ nl ] (Koninklijke Nederlandse Schouwburg, or KNS), with a secondary location in the city at Minnemeers. The company also tours extensively. In Ghent and other regions of East Flanders , bakeries sell a donut-shaped bun called a "mastel" (plural "mastellen"), which
3363-731: A recreation park (Blaarmeersen, 87 hectares; 215 acres). The port of Ghent , in the north of the city, is the third-largest port of Belgium. It is accessed by the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal , which ends near the Dutch port of Terneuzen on the Western Scheldt . The port houses, among others, large companies like ArcelorMittal , Volvo Cars , Volvo Trucks , Volvo Parts , Honda , and Stora Enso . The Ghent University and several research-oriented companies, such as Ablynx, Innogenetics, Cropdesign, and Bayer Cropscience, are situated in
3540-509: A result, when West Flemings try to talk Standard Dutch, they are often unable to pronounce the g-sound, and pronounce it similar to the h-sound. This leaves, for example, no difference between " held " (hero) and " geld " (money). Or in some cases, they are aware of the problem, and hyper-correct the "h" into a voiced velar fricative or g-sound, again leaving no difference. The West Flemish variety historically spoken in adjacent parts in France
3717-665: A revolution is when the Dutch standard language emerged and quickly established itself. The development of the Dutch language is illustrated by the following sentence in Old, Middle and Modern Dutch: Among the Indo-European languages , Dutch is grouped within the Germanic languages , meaning it shares a common ancestor with languages such as English, German, and the Scandinavian languages . All Germanic languages are subject to
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#17327918710663894-545: A settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie . In the Late Middle Ages Ghent became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe , with some 50,000 people in 1300. After the late 16th century Ghent became a less important city, resulting in an extremely well-preserved historic centre, that now makes Ghent an important destination of tourism. The municipality comprises
4071-522: A significant degree mutually intelligible with Dutch, is usually not considered a dialect but instead a separate standardised language . It is spoken in South Africa and Namibia. As a daughter language of 17th-century Dutch dialects, Afrikaans evolved in parallel with modern Dutch, but was influenced by various other languages in South Africa. West Frisian ( Westerlauwers Fries ), along with Saterland Frisian and North Frisian , evolved from
4248-813: A small portion of the abbey was spared demolition. The late 16th and 17th centuries brought devastation because of the Eighty Years' War . The war ended the role of Ghent as a centre of international importance. In 1745, the city was captured by French forces during the War of the Austrian Succession before being returned to the Empire of Austria under the House of Habsburg following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. This part of Flanders became known as
4425-479: A somewhat different development since the late Middle Ages. Two dialect groups have been given the official status of regional language (or streektaal ) in the Netherlands. Like several other dialect groups, both are part of a dialect continuum that continues across the national border. The Dutch Low Saxon dialect area comprises the provinces of Groningen , Drenthe and Overijssel , as well as parts of
4602-424: A source language, mainly for law and history students. In Indonesia this involves about 35,000 students. Unlike other European nations, the Dutch chose not to follow a policy of language expansion amongst the indigenous peoples of their colonies. In the last quarter of the 19th century, however, a local elite gained proficiency in Dutch so as to meet the needs of expanding bureaucracy and business. Nevertheless,
4779-552: A unique prestige dialect and has a large dialectal continuum consisting of 28 main dialects, which can themselves be further divided into at least 600 distinguishable varieties. In the Netherlands, the Hollandic dialect dominates in national broadcast media while in Flanders Brabantian dialect dominates in that capacity, making them in turn unofficial prestige dialects in their respective countries. Outside
4956-727: A word related to the English ' marsh ') were ideally suited for herding sheep, the wool of which was used to make cloth. Ghent was the leading city for cloth during the Middle Ages. The wool industry , originally established at Bruges , created the first European industrialized zone in Ghent in the High Middle Ages . The mercantile zone was so highly developed that wool had to be imported from Scotland and England, which led to Flanders' good relationship with them. However, during
5133-462: Is Nederlands (historically Nederlandsch before the Dutch orthographic reforms ). Sometimes Vlaams (" Flemish ") is used as well to describe Standard Dutch in Flanders , whereas Hollands (" Hollandic ") is occasionally used as a colloquial term for the standard language in the central and northwestern parts of the Netherlands. English uses the adjective Dutch as a noun for
5310-537: Is kantor , handdoek "towel" in Indonesian is handuk , or bushalte "bus stop" in Indonesian is halte bus . In addition, many Indonesian words are calques of Dutch; for example, rumah sakit "hospital" is calqued on the Dutch ziekenhuis (literally "sickhouse"), kebun binatang "zoo" on dierentuin (literally "animal garden"), undang-undang dasar "constitution" from grondwet (literally "ground law"). These account for some of
5487-531: Is Sranan Tongo , spoken natively by about a fifth of the population. County of Flanders Up to 1477, the core area under French suzerainty was west of the Scheldt and historians call this "Royal Flanders" (Dutch: Kroon-Vlaanderen , French: Flandre royale ). Aside from this, the counts, from the 11th century onward, held land east of the river as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire , and this
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5664-544: Is a monocentric language , at least what concerns its written form, with all speakers using the same standard form (authorised by the Dutch Language Union ) based on a Dutch orthography defined in the so-called " Green Booklet " authoritative dictionary and employing the Latin alphabet when writing; however, pronunciation varies between dialects. Indeed, in stark contrast to its written uniformity, Dutch lacks
5841-504: Is a famous Catholic burial site of the nobility and artists. One of the more notable pieces of contemporary architecture in Ghent is De Krook , the new central library and media center, a collaboration between local firm Coussée and Goris and Catalan firm RCR Arquitectos. Important museums in Ghent are the Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Museum of Fine Arts), with paintings by Hieronymus Bosch , Peter Paul Rubens , and many Flemish masters;
6018-791: Is a reference to the Low Countries' downriver location at the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta near the North Sea . From 1551, the designation Nederlands received strong competition from the name Nederduytsch (literally "Low Dutch", Dutch being used in its archaic sense covering all continental West Germanic languages). It is a calque of the aforementioned Roman province Germania Inferior and an attempt by early Dutch grammarians to give their language more prestige by linking it to Roman times. Likewise, Hoogduits ("High German") and Overlands ("Upper-landish") came into use as
6195-537: Is also an official language of several international organisations, such as the European Union , Union of South American Nations and the Caribbean Community . At an academic level, Dutch is taught in about 175 universities in 40 countries. About 15,000 students worldwide study Dutch at university. In Europe, Dutch is the majority language in the Netherlands (96%) and Belgium (59%) as well as
6372-645: Is basically a bagel. "Mastellen" are also called " Saint Hubert bread", because, on the Saint's feast day, which is 3 November, the bakers bring their batches to the early Mass to be blessed. Traditionally, it was thought that blessed mastellen immunized against rabies . Other local delicacies are the praline chocolates from local producers such as Leonidas , the cuberdons or 'neuzekes' ('noses'), cone-shaped purple jelly-filled candies (a four-year feud between two local vendors made international news), 'babelutten' ('babblers'), hard butterscotch-like candy, and of course, on
6549-587: Is found in the Salic law . In this Frankish document written around 510 the oldest Dutch sentence has been identified: Maltho thi afrio lito ("I say to you, I free you, serf") used to free a serf. Another old fragment of Dutch is Visc flot aftar themo uuatare ("A fish was swimming in the water"). The oldest conserved larger Dutch text is the Utrecht baptismal vow (776–800) starting with Forsachistu diobolae ... ec forsacho diabolae (litt.: "Forsake you
6726-681: Is linked to the recognition of the detrimental environmental effects of meat production , which the United Nations ' Food and Agriculture Organization has established to represent nearly one-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions . The city is host to some big cultural events such as the Ghent Festival , the International Film Festival of Ghent (with the World Soundtrack Awards ) and
6903-574: Is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and Old Dutch loanwords in French. Old Dutch is regarded as the primary stage in the development of a separate Dutch language. It was spoken by the descendants of the Salian Franks who occupied what is now the southern Netherlands , northern Belgium , part of northern France, and parts of the Lower Rhine regions of Germany. The High German consonant shift, moving over Western Europe from south to west, caused
7080-491: Is one of the closest relatives of both German and English, and is colloquially said to be "roughly in between" them. Dutch, like English, has not undergone the High German consonant shift , does not use Germanic umlaut as a grammatical marker, has largely abandoned the use of the subjunctive , and has levelled much of its morphology , including most of its case system . Features shared with German, however, include
7257-634: Is referred to as "Imperial Flanders" ( Rijks-Vlaanderen or Flandre impériale ). From 1384, the county was politically united to the Duchy of Burgundy , and it formed the starting point for more acquisitions in the area, and the eventual creation of the Burgundian Netherlands . The expansion of Flemish ("Burgundian") power deep into the Holy Roman Empire further complicated the relationship between Flanders and France, but reinforced
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7434-569: Is so distinct that it might be considered as a separate language variant, although the strong significance of language in Belgian politics would prevent the government from classifying them as such. An oddity of the dialect is that, the voiced velar fricative (written as "g" in Dutch) shifts to a voiced glottal fricative (written as "h" in Dutch), while the letter "h" becomes mute (like in French). As
7611-585: Is sometimes called French Flemish and is listed as a French minority language . However, only a very small and aging minority of the French-Flemish population still speaks and understands West Flemish. Hollandic is spoken in Holland and Utrecht , though the original forms of this dialect (which were heavily influenced by a West Frisian substratum and, from the 16th century on, by Brabantian dialects ) are now relatively rare. The urban dialects of
7788-637: Is spoken in Limburg (Belgium) as well as in the remaining part of Limburg (Netherlands) and extends across the German border. West Flemish ( Westvlaams ) is spoken in West Flanders , the western part of Zeelandic Flanders and also in French Flanders , where it virtually became extinct to make way for French. The West Flemish group of dialects, spoken in West Flanders and Zeeland ,
7965-595: Is taught in various educational centres in Indonesia, the most important of which is the Erasmus Language Centre (ETC) in Jakarta . Each year, some 1,500 to 2,000 students take Dutch courses there. In total, several thousand Indonesians study Dutch as a foreign language. Owing to centuries of Dutch rule in Indonesia, many old documents are written in Dutch. Many universities therefore include Dutch as
8142-404: Is the case with the ( standardised ) West Frisian language . It is spoken alongside Dutch in the province of Friesland . Dutch dialects and regional languages are not spoken as often as they used to be, especially in the Netherlands. Recent research by Geert Driessen shows that the use of dialects and regional languages among both Dutch adults and youth is in heavy decline. In 1995, 27 percent of
8319-530: Is the sole official language, and over 60 percent of the population speaks it as a mother tongue . Dutch is the obligatory medium of instruction in schools in Suriname, even for non-native speakers. A further twenty-four percent of the population speaks Dutch as a second language . Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975 and has been an associate member of the Dutch Language Union since 2004. The lingua franca of Suriname, however,
8496-409: Is usually served nouvelle-cuisine-style and supplemented by a large pot on the side. The city promotes a meat-free day on Thursdays called Donderdag Veggiedag with vegetarian food being promoted in public canteens for civil servants and elected councillors, in all city-funded schools, and promotion of vegetarian eating options in town (through the distribution of "veggie street maps"). This campaign
8673-531: The 2006 New Zealand census , 26,982 people, or 0.70 percent of the total population, reported to speak Dutch to sufficient fluency that they could hold an everyday conversation. In contrast to the colonies in the East Indies , from the second half of the 19th century onwards, the Netherlands envisaged the expansion of Dutch in its colonies in the West Indies . Until 1863, when slavery was abolished in
8850-535: The Atrebates . Julius Caesar conquered the area around 54 BC and the population was partially romanised from the 1st to the 3rd century. The Roman road that connected Cologne with Boulogne-sur-Mer was used as a defense perimeter. In the south the Gallo-Romanic population was able to maintain itself, while the north became a no-mans land that also suffered from regular floods from the North Sea . In
9027-711: The Austrian Netherlands until the exile of the French Emperor Napoleon I , the end of the French Revolutionary and later Napoleonic Wars , and the peace treaties arrived at by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Ghent's textile industry flourished again. Lieven Bauwens , having smuggled the industrial and factory machine plans out of England, introduced the first mechanical weaving machine on
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#17327918710669204-685: The Black Death of 1348, the disruption of trade during the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (1338–1453), and increased English cloth production. Flemish weavers had gone over to Worstead and North Walsham in Norfolk in the 12th century and established the wool industry. Through his marriage with Margaret of Dampierre in 1369, Philip the Bold , duke of Burgundy , made an end to the independence of Flanders. Flanders became
9381-400: The Brussels and Flemish regions of Belgium . The areas in which they are spoken often correspond with former medieval counties and duchies. The Netherlands (but not Belgium) distinguishes between a dialect and a streektaal (" regional language "). Those words are actually more political than linguistic because a regional language unites a large group of very different varieties. Such is
9558-416: The COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium , being held again in the summer of 2022, after a two-year break. The Festival of Flanders had its 50th celebration in 2008. In Ghent, it opens with the OdeGand City festivities that take place on the second Saturday of September. Some 50 concerts take place in diverse locations throughout the medieval inner city and some 250 international artists perform. Ghent co-hosted
9735-400: The Carolingian Mayors of the Palace succeeded in removing the Merovingians from power and obtaining the throne for themselves. The last Merovingian king, Childeric III , was placed in captivity at the later Abbey of Saint Bertinus in St. Omer, and his long hair, a symbol of royal power, was cut off. Charlemagne succeeded his father Pepin the Short in Neustria and Austrasia, and after
9912-474: The Cluniac reform movement and on October 1096 Robert left with an army for the First Crusade . Though the majority of Flemish nobles was absent for four years, law and order was kept thanks to the steady leadership of countess Clementia and the advocacy of bishop Lambert of Arras . For this, the local clergy promoted the Peace and Truce of God movement. The House of Flanders remained in power until 1119, when Baldwin VII of Flanders died heirless, and
10089-414: The Dutch Language Union . The Dutch Caribbean municipalities ( St. Eustatius , Saba and Bonaire ) have Dutch as one of the official languages. In Asia, Dutch was used in the Dutch East Indies (now mostly Indonesia ) by a limited educated elite of around 2% of the total population, including over 1 million indigenous Indonesians, until it was banned in 1957, but the ban was lifted afterwards. About
10266-416: The European continent in 1800. The Treaty of Ghent , negotiated here and adopted on Christmas Eve 1814, formally ended the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States (the North American phase of the Napoleonic Wars). After the Battle of Waterloo , Ghent and Flanders , previously ruled from the House of Habsburg in Vienna as the Austrian Netherlands, became a part of the United Kingdom of
10443-433: The Flemish community . It is said that Philip of Alsace brought the lion flag with him from the Holy Land , where, in 1177, he supposedly conquered it from a Saracen knight, but this is a myth. The simple fact that the lion appeared on his personal seal since 1163, when he had not yet taken one step in the Levant , disproves it. In reality Philip was following a West-European trend. In the same period lions also appeared in
10620-463: The Gent Festival van Vlaanderen [ nl ] . Also, every five years, an extensive botanical exhibition ( Gentse Floraliën ) takes place in Flanders Expo in Ghent, attracting numerous visitors to the city. The Ghent Festival ( Gentse Feesten in Dutch) is an annual festival that lasts for ten days. It has been held for more than 50 years (since 1969) and is attended by about 1–1.5 million visitors. It did not take place in 2020 and 2021 due to
10797-466: The Great Privilege that they wrested from Mary of Burgundy , Charles' daughter and successor. In 1482 this last Burgundian ruler died, making her young son Philip I of Castile of the House of Habsburg the new count, and her husband Maximilian I of Austria the regent. The Flemish cities staged two more revolts , but these were ultimately subdued by the armies of the Holy Roman Empire . The 1493 Treaty of Senlis established peace between France and
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#173279187106610974-487: The Grimm's law and Verner's law sound shifts, which originated in the Proto-Germanic language and define the basic features differentiating them from other Indo-European languages. This is assumed to have taken place in approximately the mid-first millennium BCE in the pre-Roman Northern European Iron Age . The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: East (now extinct), West , and North Germanic. They remained mutually intelligible throughout
11151-434: The Holy Roman Empire . This constitutional act made Flanders part of the Seventeen Provinces , that constituted the Low Countries and from then on would be inherited as a whole. The Low Countries held an important place in the Empire. For Charles personally, they were the region where he spent his childhood. Because of trade and industry and the rich cities, they were also important for the treasury. Lordship transferred to
11328-440: The House of Alsace . Under Thierry (1128–1168) and his successor Philip of Alsace , Flanders' importance and power increased. In the second half of the 12th century, the county went through a period of great prosperity when Philip of Alsace managed to incorporate the County of Vermandois into Flanders through the inheritance of his wife. The territories he controlled now came to within 25 kilometers of Paris, and were larger than
11505-407: The Hundred Years' War , trade with England suffered significantly. Ghent was the birthplace of John of Gaunt , Duke of Lancaster . The city recovered in the 15th century when Flanders was united with neighbouring provinces under the Dukes of Burgundy . High taxes led to a rebellion and eventually to the Battle of Gavere in 1453, in which Ghent suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of Philip
11682-473: The Low Franconian languages, paired with its sister language Limburgish or East Low Franconian. Its closest relative is the mutually intelligible daughter language Afrikaans. Other West Germanic languages related to Dutch are German , English and the un-standardised languages Low German and Yiddish . Dutch stands out in combining some Ingvaeonic characteristics (occurring consistently in English and Frisian and reduced in intensity from west to east over
11859-485: The Migration Period . Dutch is part of the West Germanic group, which also includes English, Scots , Frisian , Low German (Old Saxon) and High German . It is characterised by a number of phonological and morphological innovations not found in North or East Germanic. The West Germanic varieties of the time are generally split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). It appears that
12036-476: The Randstad , which are Hollandic dialects, do not diverge from standard Dutch very much, but there is a clear difference between the city dialects of Rotterdam , The Hague , Amsterdam and Utrecht . In some rural Hollandic areas more authentic Hollandic dialects are still being used, especially north of Amsterdam. Another group of dialects based on Hollandic is that spoken in the cities and larger towns of Friesland , where it partially displaced West Frisian in
12213-437: The Roman period, but archaeological research confirms that the Ghent area continued to be inhabited. When the Franks invaded the Roman territories from the end of the 4th century and well into the 5th century, they brought their language with them, and Celtic and Latin were replaced by Old Dutch . Around 650, Saint Amand founded two abbeys in Ghent: St. Peter's ( Blandinium ) and St. Bavo's Abbey . Around 800, Louis
12390-486: The SMAK or Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (City Museum for Contemporary Art), with works of the 20th century, including Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol ; and the Design Museum Gent with masterpieces of Victor Horta and Le Corbusier . The Huis van Alijn (House of the Alijn family) was originally a beguinage and is now a museum for folk art where theatre and puppet shows for children are presented. The Museum voor Industriële Archeologie en Textiel or MIAT displays
12567-416: The Scheldt river: Ghent , Tournai , Valenciennes , Cambrai and Lambres at Douai on the Scarpe and a number of seaports: Quentovic , Boulogne and Isère portus, a port at the mouth of the Yser . Moreover, the region included a number of rich abbeys, such as Abbey of Saint Bertin , Saint Bavo's Abbey , Saint-Amand Abbey and the Abbey of St. Vaast . Charlemagne was succeeded by his son Louis
12744-590: The Sint-Pieters railway station was completed in 1912. Ghent was occupied by the Germans in both World Wars but escaped severe destruction. The life of the people and the German invaders in Ghent during World War I is described by H. Wandt in "etappenleven te Gent". In World War II the city was liberated by the British 7th "Desert Rats" Armoured Division and local Belgian fighters on 6 September 1944, with
12921-543: The Southern Netherlands (now Belgium and Luxembourg), developments were different. Under subsequent Spanish , Austrian and French rule , the standardisation of Dutch language came to a standstill. The state, law, and increasingly education used French, yet more than half the Belgian population were speaking a variety of Dutch. In the course of the 19th century, the Flemish Movement stood up for
13098-471: The continental West Germanic plane) with dominant Istvaeonic characteristics, some of which are also incorporated in German. Unlike German, Dutch (apart from Limburgish) has not been influenced at all by the south to north movement of the High German consonant shift and had some changes of its own. The cumulation of these changes resulted over time in separate, but related standard languages with various degrees of similarities and differences between them. For
13275-434: The differences in vocabulary between Indonesian and Malay. Some regional languages in Indonesia have some Dutch loanwords as well; for example, Sundanese word Katel or "frying pan" origin in Dutch is " ketel ". The Javanese word for "bike/ bicycle " " pit " can be traced back to its origin in Dutch " fiets ". The Malacca state of Malaysia was also colonized by the Dutch in its longest period that Malacca
13452-443: The pagus Cambracinsis in 663, the pagus Taroanensis from 649 and the pagus Bracbatensis at the end of the century. From the 8th century we know of the pagus Rodaninsis from 707, the pagus Gandao from the first quarter of the 8th century, the pagus Mempiscus from 723 and the pagus Flandrensis from around 745. Lastly, the pagus Austrebatensis and the pagus Curtracensis are also counted as Merovingian gaue . In 751
13629-427: The 12th century, the territory's autonomous urban centres were instrumental in defeating the French invasion attempt, defeating the French at the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302. But finally the French prevailed at the battle of Mons-en-Pévèle and with the subsequent treaty of Athis-sur-Orge (1305) Flanders lost Lille, Douai, and Orchies to France and had to pay exorbitant fines but retained their independence as
13806-518: The 14th to 15th century onward, its urban centers ( Deventer , Zwolle , Kampen , Zutphen and Doesburg ) have been increasingly influenced by the western written Dutch and became a linguistically mixed area. From the 17th century onward, it was gradually integrated into the Dutch language area. Dutch Low Saxon used to be at one end of the Low German dialect continuum . However, the national border has given way to dialect boundaries coinciding with
13983-538: The 16th century and is known as Stadsfries ("Urban Frisian"). Hollandic together with inter alia Kleverlandish and North Brabantian , but without Stadsfries, are the Central Dutch dialects . Brabantian is named after the historical Duchy of Brabant , which corresponded mainly to the provinces of North Brabant and southern Gelderland , the Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant , as well as Brussels (where its native speakers have become
14160-663: The 2021 World Choir Games together with Antwerp . Organised by the Interkultur Foundation , the World Choir Games is the biggest choral competition and festival in the world. Ghent has been chosen as the 2024 European Youth Capital by the European Youth Forum . The numerous parks in the city can also be considered tourist attractions. Most notably, Ghent boasts a nature reserve ( Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen , 230 hectares (570 acres)) and
14337-417: The Dutch adult population spoke a dialect or regional language on a regular basis, but in 2011, that was no more than 11 percent. In 1995, 12 percent of children of primary school age spoke a dialect or regional language, but in 2011, that had declined to four percent. Of the officially recognised regional languages Limburgish is spoken the most (in 2011 among adults 54%, among children 31%) and Dutch Low Saxon
14514-490: The Dutch government remained reluctant to teach Dutch on a large scale for fear of destabilising the colony. Dutch, the language of power, was supposed to remain in the hands of the leading elite. After independence, Dutch was dropped as an official language and replaced by Indonesian , but this does not mean that Dutch has completely disappeared in Indonesia: Indonesian Dutch , a regional variety of
14691-482: The Dutch language itself, as well as a broader Germanic category depending on context. During the High Middle Ages " Dietsc / Duutsc " was increasingly used as an umbrella term for the specific Germanic dialects spoken in the Low Countries , its meaning being largely implicitly provided by the regional orientation of medieval Dutch society: apart from the higher echelons of the clergy and nobility, mobility
14868-415: The Dutch standard language is largely absent, and speakers of these Dutch dialects will use German or French in everyday speech. Dutch is not afforded legal status in France or Germany, either by the central or regional public authorities, and knowledge of the language is declining among younger generations. As a foreign language , Dutch is mainly taught in primary and secondary schools in areas adjacent to
15045-531: The Dutch standard language, it is not mutually intelligible with Dutch and considered a sister language of Dutch, like English and German. Approximate distribution of native Dutch speakers worldwide: Dutch is an official language of the Netherlands proper (not enshrined in the constitution but in administrative law ), Belgium, Suriname, the Dutch Caribbean municipalities (St. Eustatius, Saba and Bonaire), Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten . Dutch
15222-408: The Dutch, was still spoken by about 500,000 half-blood in Indonesia in 1985. Yet the Indonesian language inherited many words from Dutch: words for everyday life as well as scientific and technological terms. One scholar argues that 20% of Indonesian words can be traced back to Dutch words, many of which are transliterated to reflect phonetic pronunciation e.g. kantoor "office" in Indonesian
15399-548: The Forestiers dynasty, who had been appointed by Charlemagne, who had made a small contribution by uniting small feudal territories in the higher parts of the Flemish Valley . The Forestiers dynasty also strengthened the hold of the church on the relatively desolate area. The first Margrave (Count) of Flanders was Baldwin I , who became count in 862, and a romantic anecdote is connected to this: Baldwin eloped with
15576-756: The Frankish tribes fit primarily into the Istvaeonic dialect group with certain Ingvaeonic influences towards the northwest, which are still seen in modern Dutch. The Frankish language itself is not directly attested, the only possible exception being the Bergakker inscription , found near the Dutch city of Tiel , which may represent a primary record of 5th-century Frankish. Although some place names recorded in Roman texts such as vadam (modern Dutch: wad , English: "mudflat"), could arguably be considered as
15753-407: The German dialects spoken in the mountainous south of Germany as Hochdeutsch ("High German"). Subsequently, German dialects spoken in the north were designated as Niederdeutsch ("Low German"). The names for these dialects were calqued by Dutch linguists as Nederduits and Hoogduits . As a result, Nederduits no longer serves as a synonym for the Dutch language. In the 19th century,
15930-564: The Good . Around this time the centre of political and social importance in the Low Countries started to shift from Flanders (Bruges–Ghent) to Brabant ( Antwerp – Brussels ), although Ghent continued to play an important role. With Bruges, the city led two revolts against Maximilian of Austria , the first monarch of the House of Habsburg to rule Flanders. In 1500, Juana of Castile gave birth to Charles V , who became Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain . Although native to Ghent, he punished
16107-797: The Habsburgs; per the terms of the treaty, Flanders would henceforth be a territory of the Holy Roman Empire. Under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (born in the Flemish city Ghent ), Flanders became a member of the Burgundian Circle . The county was later involved in the Guelders Wars . Through the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 , the County of Flanders was officially detached from France. It became an independent territory of
16284-462: The Low Countries. In fact, Old Frankish could be reconstructed from Old Dutch and Frankish loanwords in Old French. The term Old Dutch or Old Low Franconian refers to the set of Franconian dialects (i.e. West Germanic varieties that are assumed to have evolved from Frankish ) spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages , from around the 5th to the 12th century. Old Dutch
16461-546: The Middle-Frankish kings died out, the rulers of the West and East-Frankish Kingdoms divided the Middle-Frankish kingdom amongst themselves in the treaty of Meerssen in 870. Now Western Europe had been divided into two sides: the solid West Francia (the later France) and the loose confederation of principalities of East Francia , that would become the Holy Roman Empire . In the north these two powers were separated by
16638-500: The Netherlands with the northern Dutch for 15 years. In this period, Ghent established its own university (1816) and a new connection to the sea (1824–27). After the Belgian Revolution , with the loss of port access to the sea for more than a decade, the local economy collapsed, and the first Belgian trade union originated in Ghent. In 1913 there was a world exhibition in Ghent . As a preparation for these festivities,
16815-576: The Netherlands and Flanders . In French-speaking Belgium , over 300,000 pupils are enrolled in Dutch courses, followed by over 23,000 in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia , and about 7,000 in the French region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (of which 4,550 are in primary school). At an academic level, the largest number of faculties of neerlandistiek can be found in Germany (30 universities), followed by France (20 universities) and
16992-412: The Netherlands and Belgium, the dialect spoken in and around the German town of Kleve ( Kleverlandish ) is historically and genetically a Low Franconian variety. In North-Western France, the area around Calais was historically Dutch-speaking (West Flemish), of which an estimated 20,000 are daily speakers. The cities of Dunkirk , Gravelines and Bourbourg only became predominantly French-speaking by
17169-539: The Netherlands, although there are recognisable differences in pronunciation, comparable to the pronunciation differences between standard British and standard American English. In 1980 the Netherlands and Belgium concluded the Language Union Treaty . This treaty lays down the principle that the two countries must gear their language policy to each other, among other things, for a common system of spelling. Dutch belongs to its own West Germanic sub-group,
17346-520: The Pious , son of Charlemagne , appointed Einhard , the biographer of Charlemagne, abbot of both abbeys. The city grew from several nuclei, the abbeys, and a commercial centre. However, in 851 and 879 the city was plundered by Vikings . Under the protection of the County of Flanders the city recovered and flourished from the 11th century, growing to become a small city-state . By the 13th century, Ghent
17523-505: The Pious . Even during Louis' life his three sons started fighting over his heritage. They eventually concluded multiple treaties, of which the Treaty of Verdun , signed in 843, would be the definitive treaty. These treaties created East Francia , Middle Francia and West Francia . West Francia, inherited by Charles the Bald , included the original county of Flanders, that spanned roughly between Oudenburg , Aardenburg and Torhout . After
17700-625: The Romans against the Visigoths . He was also administrator of the province of Belgica Secunda . His son Clovis I conquered from 486 on all of Northern France. The abandoned coast and Scheldt region had been partially repopulated since the 4th century by Saxons and Franks from the east of the Rhine that retained their Germanic culture and language. In the 5th century Salic Franks settled in present-day Northern-France and Wallonia , primarily around
17877-572: The Scheldt river, which had previously separated West Francia from Middle Francia . This separation remained unchanged until the times of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor . Militarily, economically and politically, Europe went through a deep crisis. The Vikings invaded from the north, the Magyar from the east and the Saracens from the south. All left trails of destruction. The central authorities of
18054-847: The Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg with Philip II of Spain , and after 1556 belonged to the Kings of Spain. It was in Steenvoorde (In French Flanders ) in 1566 that the Beeldenstorm broke loose. The Beeldenstorm spread through all of the Low Countries and eventually led to the outbreak of the Eighty Years' War and the secession of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands . Originally Flanders cooperated with
18231-674: The United Kingdom (5 universities). Despite the Dutch presence in Indonesia for almost 350 years, as the Asian bulk of the Dutch East Indies , the Dutch language has no official status there and the small minority that can speak the language fluently are either educated members of the oldest generation, or employed in the legal profession such as historians, diplomats, lawyers, jurists and linguists/polyglots, as certain law codes are still only available in Dutch. Dutch
18408-621: The West Indies, slaves were forbidden to speak Dutch, with the effect that local creoles such as Papiamento and Sranan Tongo which were based not on Dutch but rather other European languages, became common in the Dutch West Indies. However, as most of the people in the Colony of Surinam (now Suriname ) worked on Dutch plantations, this reinforced the use of Dutch as a means for direct communication. In Suriname today, Dutch
18585-528: The area around Sleepstraat (known for its many Turkish restaurants). The composition of the 2018 – 2024 city council: Much of the city's medieval architecture remains intact and is remarkably well preserved and restored. Its centre is a carfree area . Highlights are St. Bavo's Cathedral with the Ghent Altarpiece , the belfry , the Gravensteen castle , and the splendid architecture along
18762-407: The arms of Brabant , Luxembourg , Holland , Limburg and other territories. The lion as a heraldic symbol was mostly used in border territories and neighbouring countries of the Holy Roman Empire . It was in all likelihood a way of showing independence from the emperor, who used an eagle in his personal arms. In Europe the lion had been a well-known figure since Roman times, through works such as
18939-624: The borders of other standard language areas. In most cases, the heavy influence of the standard language has broken the dialect continuum . Examples are the Gronings dialect spoken in Groningen as well as the closely related varieties in adjacent East Frisia (Germany). Kleverlandish is a dialect spoken in southern Gelderland , the northern tip of Limburg , and northeast of North Brabant (Netherlands), but also in adjacent parts of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). Limburgish ( Limburgs )
19116-479: The case with the Gronings dialect , which is considered a variety of the Dutch Low Saxon regional language, but it is relatively distinct from other Dutch Low Saxon varieties. Also, some Dutch dialects are more remote from the Dutch standard language than some varieties of a regional language are. Within the Netherlands, a further distinction is made between a regional language and a separate language, which
19293-485: The central and southern part of the city. As the largest city in East Flanders, Ghent has four large hospitals, numerous schools, and shopping streets. Flanders Expo , the biggest event hall in Flanders and the second biggest in Belgium, is also located in Ghent. Tourism is becoming a major employer in the local area. As one of the largest cities in Belgium, Ghent has a highly developed transport system. By car
19470-492: The cities of Courtrai , Tournai and Bavay . They adapted to the local Gallo-Romanic population. From the 6th century on the no-mans-land farther north was filled by Franks from the Rhinelands and other Germanic groups from the Netherlands and Germany. The first wave of immigration in the present day Flemish territory was accompanied by limited Christianisation. In the wake of the immigrants, missionaries tried to convert
19647-474: The city after the 1539 Revolt of Ghent and obliged the city's nobles to walk in front of the Emperor barefoot with a noose (Dutch: "strop" ) around the neck; since this incident, the people of Ghent have been called " Stroppendragers " (noose bearers). St. Bavo's Abbey (not to be confused with the nearby St. Bavo's Cathedral) was abolished, torn down, and replaced with a fortress for Royal Spanish troops. Only
19824-446: The city is accessible via two motorways: In addition, Ghent also has two ringways: Five railway stations can be found in the municipality of Ghent: Ghent has an extensive network of public transport lines, operated by De Lijn . Dutch language Dutch ( endonym : Nederlands [ˈneːdərlɑnts] ) is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family , spoken by about 25 million people as
20001-400: The city of Ghent proper and the surrounding suburbs of Afsnee , Desteldonk , Drongen , Gentbrugge , Ledeberg , Mariakerke , Mendonk , Oostakker , Sint-Amandsberg , Sint-Denijs-Westrem , Sint-Kruis-Winkel , Wondelgem and Zwijnaarde . With 269,191 inhabitants at the end of 2023, Ghent is Belgium's second largest municipality by number of inhabitants. The metropolitan area , including
20178-502: The coastal and Scheldt areas Saxon tribes gradually appeared. For the Romans, Saxon was a general term, and included Angles , Saxons , Jutes and Erules. The coastal defense around Boulogne and Oudenburg , the Litus Saxonicum , remained functional until about 420. These forts were manned by Saxon soldiers. From their base land Toxandria the Salian Franks further expanded into the Roman empire. The first incursion into
20355-631: The common people". The term was used as opposed to Latin , the non -native language of writing and the Catholic Church . It was first recorded in 786, when the Bishop of Ostia writes to Pope Adrian I about a synod taking place in Corbridge , England , where the decisions are being written down " tam Latine quam theodisce " meaning "in Latin as well as common vernacular". According to
20532-682: The confluence of the Scheldt and the Leie going back as far as the Stone Age and the Iron Age . Most historians believe that the older name for Ghent, 'Ganda', is derived from the Celtic word ganda , which means ' confluence ', or 'river mouth', referring to the Leie river debouching into the Scheldt . Other sources connect its name with an obscure deity named Gontia . There are no written records of
20709-666: The connections with Brabant, Hainaut, Holland and other parts of the Low Countries . The link to the empire was strengthened even more when the Burgundian Netherlands came into the hands of the imperial Habsburg dynasty in 1477. Most of Flanders became part of the empire after the Peace of Madrid in 1526 and the Peace of the Ladies in 1529, although it came to be ruled under the Habsburg crown of Spain. The territories of
20886-433: The county was inherited by Charles the Good , of the House of Denmark . He abandoned the title "Marquis of Flanders", which had been used alongside the comital style since the 10th century. The counts of Flanders were the last French lords using the title marquis, which would not be used again in France until 1504. After a short interlude under William Clito of Normandy (1127–1128), the county went to Thierry of Alsace of
21063-421: The daughter of the Frankish king Charles the Bald , Judith of West Francia . Judith, who had previously been married to two English kings, refused her father's command to return to him. After mediation by the pope, the Frankish king reconciled with his son-in-law, and gave him the title of margrave, and the corresponding feudal territories as dowry. Margrave was primarily a military appointment and some versions of
21240-524: The death of his brother Karloman he was able to reunite the entire Frankish Empire. Though he resided in Aachen , he spent much time travelling through his territories. In 811 he inspected the fleet that he had ordered built in Boulogne and Ghent, to protect against Viking invasions. The region comprising future Flanders was, from an economic point of view, a flourishing region, with a series of ports along
21417-540: The declaration of independence of Indonesia, Western New Guinea , the "wild east" of the Dutch East Indies , remained a Dutch colony until 1962, known as Netherlands New Guinea . Despite prolonged Dutch presence, the Dutch language is not spoken by many Papuans, the colony having been ceded to Indonesia in 1963. Dutch-speaking immigrant communities can also be found in Australia and New Zealand. The 2011 Australian census showed 37,248 people speaking Dutch at home. At
21594-602: The definition used, may be considered a sister language , spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia , and evolving from Cape Dutch dialects. In South America, it is the native language of the majority of the population of Suriname , and spoken as a second or third language in the polyglot Caribbean island countries of Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten . All these countries have recognised Dutch as one of their official languages, and are involved in one way or another in
21771-474: The devil? ... I forsake the devil"). If only for its poetic content, the most famous Old Dutch sentence is probably 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"), is dated to around the year 1100, written by a Flemish monk in a convent in Rochester , England . Since the sentence speaks to
21948-610: The dominion of the count of Flanders as a separate title, until it was absorbed by the French crown. In 1071, Robert I became count of Flanders after his successful rebellion against his nephew Arnulf III who died in the battle of Cassel . Flemish knights in the 11th and 12th centuries were some of the most effective and well-respected knights of Europe even before the Crusades . They were known to be chivalrous but lax on enforcing religious norms. Nevertheless, count Robert II and his wife Clementia of Burgundy were supporters of
22125-536: The drapery industry. Aside from this, the grain trade with England and through Holland with Hamburg were also important. Saint-Omer became the most important transit-port for French wine in the 12th century. These were the centuries of the breakthrough of the Flemish merchants, with their trade with England, the Baltic area and South-West France, as well as the land routes to the Rhineland and Italy though later only
22302-489: The end of the 19th century. In the countryside, until World War I , many elementary schools continued to teach in Dutch, and the Catholic Church continued to preach and teach the catechism in Dutch in many parishes. During the second half of the 19th century, Dutch was banned from all levels of education by both Prussia and France and lost most of its functions as a cultural language. In both Germany and France,
22479-728: The fables of Aesop . The future county of Flanders had been inhabited since prehistory. During the Iron Age the Kemmelberg formed an important Celtic settlement. During the times of Julius Caesar, the inhabitants were part of the Belgae , a collective name for all Celtic and Germanic tribes in the north of Gaul . For Flanders in specific these were the Menapii , the Morini , the Nervii and
22656-415: The first mention of the word Flanders , when he toured the area around 650. During the 7th century the first gaue or pagi were created in the Flemish territories. Gaue were administrative subdivisions of the civitates . The gaue from the 7th and 8th centuries would form the basis of the county of Flanders. The pagus Tornacensis dates from c. 580 , and from the 7th century we know of
22833-672: The heathen population, but had little success. The bishoprics were reinstated, usually with the same natural borders of the Late-Roman era; the Silva Carbonaria separated the Bishopric of Cambrai from the Bishopric of Tongeren , while the Scheldt again became the border between the bishoprics of Cambrai and Tournai . Vedast and Eleutherius of Tournai were assigned to reinstate the bishoprics of Arras and Tournai. However, these bishoprics failed to survive independently. In
23010-445: The historic County of Flanders only partially overlaps with the present-day region of Flanders in Belgium, but even there, it extends beyond the present provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders. Some of the historic county is now part of France and the Netherlands. The land covered by the county is spread out over: The arms of the County of Flanders were allegedly created by Philip of Alsace , count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191;
23187-415: The imagination, it is often erroneously stated as the oldest Dutch sentence. Old Dutch naturally evolved into Middle Dutch . The year 1150 is often cited as the time of the discontinuity, but it actually marks a time of profuse Dutch writing; during this period a rich Medieval Dutch literature developed. There was at that time no overarching standard language ; Middle Dutch is rather a collective name for
23364-425: The industrial strength of Ghent with recreations of workshops and stores from the 1800s and original spinning and weaving machines that remain from the time when the building was a weaving mill. The Ghent City Museum (Stadsmuseum, abbreviated STAM), is committed to recording and explaining the city's past and its inhabitants, and to preserving the present for future generations. NTGent is the city theatre of Ghent,
23541-656: The influence of the Burgundian Ducal Court in Dijon ( Brussels after 1477). The dialects of Flanders and Brabant were the most influential around this time. The process of standardisation became much stronger at the start of the 16th century, mainly based on the urban dialect of Antwerp . The 1585 fall of Antwerp to the Spanish army led to a flight to the northern Netherlands, where the Dutch Republic declared its independence from Spain. This influenced
23718-600: The lands of the Atrebates was turned away in 448 at Vicus Helena. But after the murder of the Roman general Flavius Aëtius in 454 and Roman emperor Valentinianus III in 455, the Salic Franks encountered hardly any resistance. From Duisburg , king Chlodio conquered Cambrai and Tournai , and he reached the Somme . After his death two Salic kingdoms emerged. Childeric is recorded in 463 as king of Tournay and ally of
23895-461: The language of the Netherlands and Flanders. The word is derived from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz . The stem of this word, *þeudō , meant "people" in Proto-Germanic, and *-iskaz was an adjective-forming suffix, of which -ish is the Modern English form. Theodiscus was its Latinised form and used as an adjective referring to the Germanic vernaculars of the Early Middle Ages . In this sense, it meant "the language of
24072-411: The late 6th century the bishopric of Arras was connected to that of Cambrai, and at the start of the 7th century the same was done to the bishoprics of Tournai and Noyon . At the end of the 6th century, the duchy of Dentelinus was created in the north of what would later constitute Neustria . The duchy presumably included the bishoprics of Boulogne, Thérouanne, Arras, Tournai, Cambrai and Noyon: thus,
24249-512: The least (adults 15%, children 1%). The decline of the West Frisian language in Friesland occupies a middle position (adults 44%, children 22%). Dialects are most often spoken in rural areas, but many cities have a distinct city dialect. For example, the city of Ghent has very distinct "g", "e" and "r" sounds that greatly differ from its surrounding villages. The Brussels dialect combines Brabantian with words adopted from Walloon and French . Some dialects had, until recently, extensions across
24426-445: The more fiery side, the famous 'Tierenteyn', a hot but refined mustard that has some affinity to French 'Dijon' mustard. Stoverij is a classic Flemish meat stew, preferably made with a generous addition of brown 'Trappist' (strong abbey beer) and served with French fries. ' Waterzooi ' is a local stew originally made from freshwater fish caught in the rivers and creeks of Ghent, but nowadays often made with chicken instead of fish. It
24603-404: The name of their germanic leader, with -inga haim added. - Inga haim meant 'the settlement of the tribe of X'. For example: Petegem comes from Petta-inga-haim , which meant 'the settlement of the tribe of Petta'. The colonisation and germanisation of Flanders took place primarily in the 6th and 7th centuries. In the 7th century the population-level had risen sufficiently to start rebuilding
24780-458: The northern provinces as a member of the Union of Utrecht , and also signed the Act of Abjuration in 1581, but from 1579 to 1585, in the period known as the " Calvinist Republic of Ghent ", it was reconquered by the Spanish army. Flanders stayed under Spanish control. Through the efforts of the French king Louis XIV , the entire southern part of Flanders was annexed by France, and became known as South-Flanders or French Flanders . This situation
24957-413: The northern suburbs and the industrial area cleared over the following days by the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division . After the fusions of municipalities in 1965 and 1977, the city is made up of following sub-municipalities : The climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Ghent has
25134-433: The northwestern region between the North Sea and the Silva Carbonaria, an area the outlines of which were very similar to the later Flanders. The duchy was primarily intended to serve as a military and strategic deterrent against Frisian and Saxon invasions, and was a cornerstone in the military defense of the Merovingian Empire . In 600, Chlothar II (584–628) was forced to temporarily cede the duchy to Austrasia , but after
25311-399: The old Graslei harbour. Ghent has established a blend between comfort of living and history; it is not a city-museum. The city of Ghent also houses three béguinages and numerous churches including St. Jacob's Church, St. Nicholas' Church , St. Michael's Church and St. Stefanus' Church . In the 19th century Ghent's most famous architect, Louis Roelandt , built the university hall Aula,
25488-411: The old county are now the only part of the late medieval French kingdom outside of modern-day France, Catalonia having been renounced in 1258. By 1795 the entire Austrian Netherlands , the successor of the Spanish Netherlands , was acquired by France under the French First Republic , and this was recognized by treaty in 1797. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, these territories, including most of
25665-410: The old county of Flanders, passed to the newly established United Kingdom of the Netherlands , which was split up between 1830 and 1839 into the modern countries of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Although the French Republic had avoided using the names of the great medieval counties for their administrative départements, the Dutch and Belgian regimes brought back such names, and as a consequence
25842-502: The oldest single "Dutch" words, the Bergakker inscription yields the oldest evidence of Dutch morphology. However, interpretations of the rest of the text lack any consensus. The Franks emerged in the southern Netherlands ( Salian Franks ) and central Germany ( Ripuarian Franks ), and later descended into Gaul . The name of their kingdom survives in that of France. Although they ruled the Gallo-Romans for nearly 300 years, their language, Frankish , became extinct in most of France and
26019-511: The opera house, and the main courthouse. Highlights of modern architecture are the university buildings (the Boekentoren or Book Tower) by Henry Van de Velde . There are also a few theatres from diverse periods. The beguinages, as well as the belfry and adjacent cloth hall, were recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites in 1998 and 1999. The Zebrastraat , a social experiment in which an entirely renovated site unites living, economy, and culture, can also be found in Ghent. Campo Santo
26196-422: The original Flemish pagus over the years over all territories south and west of the Scheldt river , including the lordship of the Four Amts, Zeelandic Flanders , the Burgraviate of Aalst [ nl ] to the east and the County of Artois to the southwest, which remained part of Flanders until it became a separate county in 1237. After that date, the county of Artois at various times still came under
26373-513: The original language of the Franks. However, the language did experience developments of its own, such as very early final-obstruent devoicing . In fact, the find at Bergakker indicates that the language may already have experienced this shift during the Old Frankish period. Attestations of Old Dutch sentences are extremely rare. The language is mostly recorded on fragmentary relics, and words have been reconstructed from Middle Dutch and loan words from Old Dutch in other languages. The oldest recorded
26550-433: The outer commuter zone, covers an area of 1,205 km (465 sq mi) and had a total population of 560,522 as of 1 January 2018, which ranks it as the fourth most populous in Belgium. The current mayor of Ghent is Mathias De Clercq ( Open Vld ). The ten-day-long Ghent Festival ( Gentse Feesten ) is held every year and attended by about 1–1.5 million visitors. Archaeological evidence shows human presence around
26727-418: The possession of the House of Valois-Burgundy , that ruled over the Burgundian State . In 1449 the city of Ghent revolted against duke Philip the Good . In 1453 Philip crushed the rebels at the battle of Gavere , ending the revolt. The cities of Ghent and Bruges had previously operated virtually as city-states, and upon the death of duke Charles the Bold attempted to re-assert this position by means of
26904-415: The predominant colloquial language out of the area's 22 million Dutch-speakers. Limburgish , spoken in both Belgian Limburg and Netherlands Limburg and in adjacent parts in Germany, is considered a dialect in Belgium, while having obtained the official status of regional language in the Netherlands. Limburgish has been influenced by the Ripuarian varieties like the Colognian dialect , and has had
27081-530: The present day. The Christianisation attempts in the 6th century by bishops like Eleutherius and Vedast had largely failed. Thus, in the 8th century a different strategy was chosen. A new Christianisation attempt was made under influence from King Dagobert I . He appointed several devoted missionaries from the southern parts of his kingdom to his royal domains in the northern parts of his kingdom. The missionaries were tasked with founding monasteries and abbeys there, that were to serve as centers of Christianity in
27258-411: The provinces of Gelderland , Flevoland , Friesland and Utrecht . This group, which is not Low Franconian but instead Low Saxon and close to neighbouring Low German, has been elevated by the Netherlands (and by Germany) to the legal status of streektaal ( regional language ) according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . It is regarded as Dutch for a number of reasons. From
27435-415: The religious, military and administrative infrastructure. In the area of linguistics, the situation stabilised so that a large, bilingual region with a linear language border could emerge in the 8th century. In Pas-de-Calais , which had been densely populated a long time, a language barrier had emerged in the 6th–7th century, but in the 9th century a romanisation -movement started that has continued until
27612-453: The restoration of the Austrasian dual-monarchy in 622–623, the duchy was returned. At the end of the 6th and the 7th century a new inflow emerged from the western Pas-de-Calais . This area had been germanised in the 5th century and descendants of the Saxons and Franks had settled in future Flanders and the Duchy of Brabant . New groups of germanic settlers also came in from the Netherlands and Germany. Their new settlements often received
27789-423: The rights of Dutch speakers, mostly referred to as "Flemish". However, the dialect variation was a serious disadvantage in the face of the standardised francophony . Since standardisation is a lengthy process, Dutch-speaking Belgium associated itself with the standard language that had already developed in the Netherlands over the centuries. Therefore, the situation in Belgium is essentially no different from that in
27966-486: The rivers Aa , Yser and Zwin , which were endangering the accessibility of Saint-Omer , Ypres and Bruges . Biervliet also served as a counter to Hollandic influence. Trade partners included England, the Baltic countries and France over sea, and the Rhineland and Italy over land. The wool trade with England was of special importance to the rising cloth industry in Flanders. The wealth of many Flemish cities (as their Belltowers and cloth halls testify) came from
28143-462: The same branch of the West Germanic languages as Old English (i.e. Anglo-Frisian ) and are therefore genetically more closely related to English and Scots than to Dutch. The different influences on the respective languages, however, particularly that of Norman French on English and Dutch on West Frisian, have rendered English quite distinct from West Frisian, and West Frisian less distinct from Dutch than from English. Although under heavy influence of
28320-401: The story theorize that King Charles made Baldwin Margrave in the hope that he would be killed by the Vikings. Initially the French kings meant to secure the safety of the northern French border from Viking invasions with this act. The counts, however, made good use of the crisis situation by incorporating the surrounding plundered territories into the county. The counts expanded the influence of
28497-468: The strength of this proposal is that it would describe the salt marshes and mud flats of this low-lying coastal region. It was regularly inundated, before the development of dykes which started around 1050. However, a weak point of the proposal is that the Germanic wordforms which it requires are not found in any records of Dutch or its dialects. Comparison was instead based upon Old High German flewen and flouwen , and Old Norse flaumr . The geography of
28674-410: The survival of two to three grammatical genders – albeit with few grammatical consequences – as well as the use of modal particles , final-obstruent devoicing , and (similar) word order . Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic; it incorporates slightly more Romance loans than German, but far fewer than English. In Belgium, the Netherlands and Suriname, the native official name for Dutch
28851-404: The term " Diets " was revived by Dutch linguists and historians as well, as a poetic name for Middle Dutch and its literature . Old Dutch can be discerned more or less around the same time as Old English (Anglo-Saxon), Old High German , Old Frisian , and Old Saxon . These names are derived from the modern standard languages . In this age no standard languages had yet developed, while
29028-460: The territories given back by France to the Emperor, were two of the founding members of the United States of Belgium . Just like the other parts of the Austrian Netherlands, the county of Flanders declared its independence. This took place on the Friday-market at Ghent on 4 January 1790. The "Manifest van Vlaenderen" was drawn up by Charles-Joseph de Graeve and Jean-Joseph Raepsaet . The county of Flanders officially ceased to exist in 1795, when it
29205-402: The territories his feudal lord, the French king, directly controlled. During the rule of the House of Alsace, cities developed and new institutions were formed. The ports of Gravelines , Nieuwpoort , Damme , Biervliet , Dunkirk , and Mardijk were founded, as well as Calais by Philip's brother Matthew of Alsace . Aside from colonisation, the ports also functioned to reduce the silting of
29382-453: The two Frankish kingdoms were unable to organise an effective defensive, causing the population to lose faith and trust in their far-removed rulers. In the wake of this power vacuum, local powerful individuals saw their chance. Often these individuals were the descendants of people associated with Charlemagne . The county of Flanders originated from the Gau or Pagus Flandrensis (Dutch: Vlaanderengouw [ nl ] ), led by
29559-507: The two westernmost provinces of the Flanders region of modern Belgium are now called West Flanders and East Flanders . The term Flanders originally referred to the area around Bruges . It is first mentioned in the biography of Saint Eligius ( c. 590 –660), the Vita sancti Eligii . The work was written before 684 but has been known only since 725. This work mentions only the place "in Flandris". A Germanic etymology for Flanders and Flemish (Dutch: Vlaanderen , Vlaams )
29736-420: The urban dialects of the province of Holland . In 1637, a further important step was made towards a unified language, when the Statenvertaling , the first major Bible translation into Dutch, was created that people from all over the new republic could understand. It used elements from various, even Dutch Low Saxon , dialects but was predominantly based on the urban dialects of Holland of post 16th century. In
29913-435: The western coast to the north of the Low Countries, and influenced or even replaced Old Saxon spoken in the east (contiguous with the Low German area). On the other hand, Dutch has been replaced in adjacent lands in present-day France and Germany. The division into Old, Middle and Modern Dutch is mostly conventional, since the transition between them was very gradual. One of the few moments when linguists can detect something of
30090-437: The yearly fairs of Champagne. Flanders's flourishing trading towns made it one of the most urbanised parts of Europe. In 1194, Baldwin I of Constantinople of the House of Hainaut , succeeded the House of Alsace. In 1278 Guy of Dampierre , of the House of Dampierre , became count of Flanders. The king of France wanted to definitively conquer Flanders, and started the Franco-Flemish War (1297–1305) . Increasingly powerful in
30267-410: Was formalised in 1678 at the Treaty of Nijmegen . After the extinction of the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs became counts of Flanders. Under Maria Theresa of Austria , the Austrian Netherlands flourished. In 1789 a revolution broke out against emperor Joseph II . In 1790 the county of Flanders and a separate province called West Flanders , which constituted
30444-416: Was gradually replaced by the Dutch endonym Nederlands . This designation (first attested in 1482) started at the Burgundian court in the 15th century, although the use of neder , laag , bas , and inferior ("nether" or "low") to refer to the area known as the Low Countries goes back further in time, with the Romans referring to the region as Germania Inferior ("Lower" Germania). It
30621-413: Was largely static and hence while "Dutch" could by extension also be used in its earlier sense, referring to what today would be called Germanic dialects as opposed to Romance dialects , in many cases it was understood or meant to refer to the language now known as Dutch. In the Low Countries Dietsch or its Early Modern Dutch form Duytsch as an endonym for Dutch gradually went out of common use and
30798-412: Was proposed by Maurits Gysseling in 1948, based upon an article by René Verdeyen in 1943. According to this proposal, the terms Flanders and Flemish are likely derived from words derived from Proto-Germanic * flaumaz , meaning stream, current, flood or eddy. Based on this, it is proposed that there was a proto-Germanic term *flaumdra which referred to waterlogged land. According to Toorians,
30975-413: Was replaced by later forms of the language throughout Luxembourg and Germany in around the 7th century. It was replaced in France by Old French (a Romance language with a considerable Old Frankish influence). However, the Old Franconian language did not die out at large, as it continued to be spoken in the Low Countries, and subsequently evolved into what is now called Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch in
31152-413: Was the biggest city in Europe north of the Alps after Paris ; it was bigger than Cologne or Moscow . Up to 65,000 people lived within the city walls. The belfry and the towers of the St. Bavo's Cathedral and St. Nicholas' Church are just a few examples of the skyline of the period. The rivers flowed in an area where much land was periodically flooded. These rich grass 'meersen' (" water-meadows ":
31329-417: Was under foreign control. In the 19th century, the East Indies trade started to dwindle, and with it the importance of Malacca as a trading post. The Dutch state officially ceded Malacca to the British in 1825. It took until 1957 for Malaya to gain its independence. Despite this, the Dutch language is rarely spoken in Malacca or Malaysia and only limited to foreign nationals able to speak the language. After
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