157-747: The Vrije Universiteit Brussel ( Dutch: [ˈvrɛiə ʔynivɛrsiˈtɛid ˈbrʏsəl] ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated VUB ) is a Dutch and English-speaking research university in Brussels , Belgium . It has four campuses: Brussels Humanities, Science and Engineering Campus (in Elsene ), Brussels Health Campus (in Jette ), Brussels Technology Campus (in Anderlecht ) and Brussels Photonics Campus (in Gooik ). The Vrije Universiteit Brussel
314-563: A UNESCO World Heritage Site , as part of the square. This site is served by the premetro (underground tram) station Bourse/Beurs (on lines 3 and 4 ), as well as the bus stop Grand-Place / Grote Markt (on line 95). The Town Hall (French: Hôtel de Ville , Dutch: Stadhuis ) of the City of Brussels was erected in stages, between 1401 and 1455, on the south side of the Grand-Place/Grote Markt , transforming
471-467: 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
628-490: 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
785-476: A bachelor's degree is required to subscribe to a master's programme, and a master's degree is required to subscribe to a master after master's or doctoral programme. An exception to this is the admission exam to the bachelor in medicine, which is required following ruling of the Flemish government. Tuition fees are low, and even decreased or eliminated for some students with less financial means. The academic year
942-476: A chapel that would be at the origin of the City of Brussels. On either side of this portal stand statues of the four cardinal virtues: Prudentia (" Prudence ") and Justitia (" Justice ") on the left, Fortitudo (" Fortitude ") and Temperantia (" Temperance ") on the right. The statues of the virtues are supported by very expressive historiated corbels. The tympanum, the statues and the corbels do not date from
1099-524: 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
1256-640: 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
1413-399: A dogma, nor to a party, nor to a passion, nor to an interest, nor to a preconceived idea, nor to anything whatsoever, except to the facts themselves, because for it to submit to anything else would be the end of its existence. This principle is also reflected in the university's motto Scientia vincere tenebras , or Conquering darkness by science , and in its seal. The seal of
1570-661: A faculty, such as Infogroep (computer science), Biotecho (bio-engineering), bru:tecture (previously Pantheon) (architecture) and Promeco, Inisol and Business Club (economics). Last but not least there are organizations centered around a common interest, such as the Society of Weird And Mad People (SWAMP, for all kinds of games), BierKultuur (based on the rich beer culture in Belgium) and Liberaal Vlaams Studentenverbond (LVSV, students interested in classic liberalism). Notable recipients of honorary doctorates (doctor honoris causa ) at
1727-586: 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
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#17327647461751884-501: 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
2041-427: A lavishly pinnacled octagonal openwork. At its summit stands a 2.7-metre-tall (9 ft) gilt metal statue of Saint Michael , the patron saint of the City of Brussels, slaying a dragon or demon. The tower, its front archway and the main building's façade are conspicuously off-centre relative to one another. According to a legend, the architect of the building, upon discovering this "error", leapt to his death from
2198-486: A lesser extent. The main organisational structure of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel is its division into faculties : These faculties benefit a wide autonomy over how they structure their educational programmes and research efforts, although their decisions need to comply with the university's statutes and must be approved by the central administration. The central administration is formed by
2355-484: A member of the freemasonic lodge Les Amis Philantropes . Baron was able to convince Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen , the president of the lodge, to support the idea for a new university. On 24 June 1834, Verhaegen presented his plan to establish a free university. After sufficient funding was collected among advocates, the Université libre de Belgique ("Free University of Belgium") was inaugurated on 20 November 1834, in
2512-527: 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
2669-670: 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
2826-691: A monumental bronze statue of Saint Michael created by Charles van der Stappen in the entrance. The Town Hall not only housed the city's magistrate, but also the States of Brabant until 1795. In 1830, the provisional government operated from there during the Belgian Revolution , which provoked the separation of the Southern Netherlands from the Northern Netherlands , resulting in the formation of Belgium as it
2983-420: 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
3140-495: 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
3297-579: 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
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#17327647461753454-471: A profusion of arcades , parapets and gargoyles , and ends with a remarkable openwork spire enhanced with gilding and surmounted by the statue of Saint Michael , the patron saint of the City of Brussels , slaying a dragon or demon. The statue of Saint Michael is a work by Michel de Martin Van Rode, and was placed on the tower in 1454 or 1455. It was restored several times before being removed in
3611-509: 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
3768-665: 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
3925-522: 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
4082-479: 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
4239-424: 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,
4396-436: A staircase, a stone balustrade pierced with quadrilobed motifs and two columns each surmounted by a seated lion bearing the coat of arms of Brussels. These lions were sculpted by G. De Groot in 1869, during the 19th-century restorations. On either side of the steps, the pillars are replaced by historiated corbels representing two tragic scenes involving schepen (aldermen) of the City of Brussels: The various façades of
4553-552: 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
4710-513: 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
4867-537: 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
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5024-436: Is Sranan Tongo , spoken natively by about a fifth of the population. Brussels Town Hall The Town Hall ( French : Hôtel de Ville ; Dutch : Stadhuis [stɑtˈɦœy̯s] ) of the City of Brussels is a landmark building and the seat of the City of Brussels municipality of Brussels , Belgium. It is located on the south side of the famous Grand-Place/Grote Markt (Brussels' main square), opposite
5181-544: 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
5338-791: 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
5495-537: 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
5652-663: Is an independent institution. The members of all its governing entities are elected by the entire academic community – including faculty staff , researchers, personnel, and students. This system guarantees the democratic process of decision-making and the independence from state and outside organisations. Nevertheless, the university receives significant funding from the Flemish government, although less than other Flemish universities . Other important funding sources are grants for research projects (mostly from Belgian and European funding agencies), scholarships of academic members, revenues from cooperation with industry, and tuition fees to
5809-628: Is divided into two semesters, each spanning thirteen course weeks: the first semester lasts from October to January, the second semester from February to June. Students take exams in January and June. Apart from the Christmas and Easter holidays (both lasting two weeks) that are normally used to prepare for the exams, students are free the week between both semesters and during the summer vacations from July to September. The university has implemented several quality control schemes in order to preserve
5966-587: 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
6123-605: Is known presently. At the start of World War I , as refugees flooded Brussels, the Town Hall served as a makeshift hospital. On 20 August 1914, the occupying German army arrived at the Grand-Place and hoisted a German flag at the left side of the Town Hall. The Town Hall was designated a historic monument on 9 March 1936, at the same time as the King's House. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998 as part of
6280-627: 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
6437-403: Is now Wallonia . The French launched a massive bombardment of the mostly defenceless city centre with cannons and mortars , setting it on fire and flattening the majority of the Grand-Place and the surrounding city. The resulting fire completely gutted the Town Hall, destroying the building's archives and art collections, including paintings by Rogier van der Weyden . Only the stone shell of
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6594-491: 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
6751-454: Is organised into 8 faculties that accomplish the three central missions of the university: education, research, and service to the community. The faculties cover a broad range of fields of knowledge including the natural sciences , classics , life sciences, social sciences , humanities , and engineering. The university provides bachelor, master, and doctoral education to about 8,000 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students. The history of
6908-427: Is protected by a large glass awning from the 19th and 20th centuries. The southern façade is pierced, on the ground floor, with a portal with a basket-handle arch framed by semicircular bays, framed by large lanterns like the other doors of the courtyard. Upstairs, a French window topped with a curved pediment is surrounded by rectangular windows whose flat frames are adorned with crossettes. The main rooms are on
7065-569: 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
7222-585: 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
7379-637: 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 ,
7536-563: Is surmounted by a walkway with an openwork parapet. The last level is crowned by a stone spire decorated with foliage and surmounted by a weather vane . The façade is decorated with numerous statues representing the local nobility (such as the Dukes and Duchesses of Brabant and knights of the Noble Houses of Brussels ), saints , and allegorical figures. The present sculptures are mainly 19th- and 20th-century reproductions or creations;
7693-595: 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
7850-414: 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
8007-404: 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
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#17327647461758164-530: 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,
8321-516: Is the umbrella organisation for all other student organizations and acts as the defender of the moral interests of the students. Together with their French-speaking counterparts ACE at the ULB , they organise the annual St V memorial. These are some of the student organizations at the VUB: Members of these organizations (except VUBMUN) wear a klak (Dutch) or penne (French). Furthermore,
8478-469: Is topped with a finial, also adorned with cabbage leaves, and is surmounted by an arcade of trefoil arches. The arches are supported by pillars adorned with statues of knights and squires of the Noble Houses of Brussels. These statues rest on often very expressive historiated corbels, among which can be noted a vielle and a gittern player. The gallery in the left wing houses a porch made up of
8635-531: 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
8792-455: The Bologna process , the university has implemented the so-called bachelor-master system. It therefore issues four types of degrees : bachelor's, master's, master after master's, and doctoral degrees. Admission to the programmes is generally not restricted; anyone can subscribe to the programme of his/her choice. However, prerequisite degrees may be mandatory for advanced programmes, e.g.,
8949-400: 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
9106-597: The Devil or Satan according to the Apocalypse : The main façade consists of two asymmetrical wings framing the tower and terminated by corner turrets. Each wing consists of arcades, a balcony, two stories pierced by large mullioned windows and is surmounted by a high saddleback roof pierced by numerous hipped dormers . The octagonal corner turrets have several levels whose faces are decorated with trefoil arches . Each level ends with eight gargoyles arranged radially and
9263-481: 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
9420-601: 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
9577-591: 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
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#17327647461759734-603: 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
9891-471: The Netherlands . The university is included in major world university rankings such as Times Higher Education World University Rankings , QS World University Rankings and Academic Ranking of World Universities . The Vrije Universiteit Brussel considers itself an open-minded and tolerant university. Its central principles are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in particular
10048-531: 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
10205-543: 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
10362-461: The States of Brabant Room and their antechamber with tapestries depicting the life of Clovis , the splendid Municipal Council Room, the likewise richly furnished ballroom and the Wedding Room (formerly the courtroom). It was also at this time that most of the Town Hall's statues were made. Indeed, before then, the Town Hall was not adorned like it is today with countless statues, with
10519-471: 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
10676-434: 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
10833-477: The neo-Gothic King's House or Bread House building, housing the Brussels City Museum . Erected between 1401 and 1455, the Town Hall is the only remaining medieval building of the Grand-Place and is considered a masterpiece of civil Gothic architecture and more particularly of Brabantine Gothic . Its three classicist rear wings date from the 18th century. Since 1998, is also listed as
10990-518: 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
11147-476: 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
11304-455: The 1990s and replaced by a copy. The original is kept in the Brussels City Museum , located in the King's House or Bread House building across the Grand-Place. This statue is made of arranged metal plates and not brassware. Up close, it looks clumsy and ill-proportioned, but these distortions disappear when viewed from afar, from which it appears elegantly proportioned. The dragon symbolises
11461-471: The 19th century, first under the direction of the architect Tilman-François Suys , starting in 1840. The interior was later revised by the architect Victor Jamaer [ fr ] from 1860, in the style of his mentor Eugène Viollet-le-Duc . Jamaer was the City of Brussels' architect and also reconstructed the King's House. The interior is now dominated by neo-Gothic : the Maximilian Room,
11618-417: 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
11775-490: 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
11932-548: 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
12089-415: 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
12246-531: 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
12403-408: 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
12560-756: 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
12717-779: The Free University's football team won the bronze medal at the Summer Olympics . After Racing Club de Bruxelles declined to participate, a student selection with players from the university was sent by the Federation. The team was enforced with a few non-students. The Institute of Sociology was founded in 1902, then in 1904 the Solvay School of Commerce, which would later become the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management . In 1911,
12874-511: The Free University's Faculty of Law began being taught in both French and Dutch as early as 1935. Nevertheless, it was not until 1963 that all faculties offered their courses in both languages. Tensions between French- and Dutch-speaking students in the country came to a head in 1968 when the Catholic University of Leuven split along linguistic lines , becoming the first of several national institutions to do so. On 1 October 1969,
13031-671: The French and Dutch entities of the Free University separated into two distinct sister universities. This splitting became official with the act of 28 May 1970, of the Belgian Parliament , by which the Dutch-speaking Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the French-speaking Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) officially became two separate legal, administrative and scientific entities. The Vrije Universiteit Brussel
13188-407: 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,
13345-542: The Gothic Room of Brussels Town Hall . The date of its establishment is still commemorated annually, by students of its successor institutions, as a holiday called Saint-Verhaegen/Sint-Verhaegen (often shortened to St V ) for Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen. In 1836, the university was renamed the Université libre de Bruxelles (" Free University of Brussels "). After its establishment, the Free University faced difficult times, since it received no subsidies or grants from
13502-528: The Gothic Room. The original chapel had to make way for this. Paintings by Jacques de Lalaing have been applied to the walls and ceilings. Busts of the mayors are lined up along the landing. The Gothic Room in the oldest part of the Town Hall is in fact neo-Gothic . The wooden cladding is the work of Victor Jamaer [ fr ] . Tapestries from the Mechelen studio Braquenié, designed by Willem Geets [ nl ] , have been incorporated into
13659-799: The Gothic Town Hall (on the Grand-Place but also on the courtyard side) are adorned with innumerable very expressive gargoyles depicting human beings, animals or fantastic creatures. Similarly, the octagonal corner turrets feature a series of eight gargoyles on each floor. The interior courtyard has a pavement marked with a star that indicates the geographical centre of Brussels. It is decorated with two marble fountains designed in 1714 by Johannes Andreas Anneessens [ nl ] , surmounted by allegorical figures of The Meuse and The Scheldt rivers, sculpted in 1715 by Jean de Kinder [ nl ] and Pierre-Denis Plumier respectively. The north-western and south-eastern façades of
13816-557: The Gothic period but from the 19th-century restorations. The base of the façade is adorned with a gallery of arcades. These arcades are highly asymmetrical as mentioned above: the left wing has eleven arches (including a blind arch located under the corner turret) while the right wing has only six. These ogival arcades have an outer curve decorated with cabbage leaves, a typical motif of the Brabantine Gothic style. Each of them
13973-714: The Governing Board, which is currently presided by Eddy Van Gelder. It decides the university's long-term vision and must approve all decisions made by the faculties. The Governing Board is supported by three advising bodies: the Research Council, the Education Council, and the Senate. These bodies provide advice to the Governing Board on all issues regarding research, education, and the academic excellence of faculty staff, and may also propose changes to
14130-462: 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
14287-576: 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
14444-412: 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
14601-539: 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,
14758-607: 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
14915-542: The VUB has student organizations for students with a specific regional background. They are: Antverpia ( Antwerp ), Westland ( Westhoek ), WUK ( West Flanders ), KBS ( Brussels and Flemish Brabant ), Campina ( Campine ), Kinneke Baba ( East Flanders ), Limburgia ( Limburg ), VSKM ( Mechelen ), Hesbania ( Haspengouw ) and Ibérica ( Latin America and Iberian peninsula ). There are also several organizations for specific majors within
15072-595: The Vrije Universiteit Brussel displays a beggar's wallet and joined hands on the orange-white-blue (the colours of the Prince of Orange ) escutcheon in the emblem , referring to the struggle of the Protestant Geuzen and the Prince of Orange against the oppressive Spanish rule and the Inquisition in the sixteenth century. Another basic principle of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel – also incorporated in
15229-412: The Vrije Universiteit Brussel include: 50°49′21″N 4°23′45″E / 50.82242°N 4.39573°E / 50.82242; 4.39573 Dutch language Dutch ( endonym : Nederlands [ˈneːdərlɑnts] ) is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family , spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and
15386-533: The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is closely linked with that of Belgium itself. When the Belgian State was formed in 1830 by nine breakaway provinces from the Kingdom of the Netherlands , three state universities existed in the cities of Ghent , Leuven and Liège , but none in the new capital, Brussels. Since the government was reluctant to fund another state university, a group of leading intellectuals in
15543-621: 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
15700-624: 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 )
15857-479: The building remained standing. That it survived at all is ironic, as it was the principal target of the artillery fire. After the bombardment, the municipal government funded the Town Hall's repair, raising the money by selling houses and land. The interior was soon rebuilt and enlarged by the architect-sculptor Cornelis van Nerven [ fr ] , who added three rear wings in the Louis XIV style over
16014-513: The building was not foreseen, however, the admission of the craft guilds into the traditionally patrician city government apparently spurred interest in providing more room for the building. As a result, a second, somewhat longer wing was built on to the existing structure, with the young Duke Charles the Bold laying its first stone in 1444. The architect of this west wing is unknown. Historians think that it could be Guillaume (Willem) de Voghel who
16171-479: 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
16328-518: The cities of Antwerp , Brussels and Leuven . The wooden benches are arranged in a U-shape. The Maximilian Room next door is named after a 19th-century double portrait of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Mary of Burgundy . The space was intended for the administrators of the States of Brabant and was taken over by the College of Mayors and Aldermen. The walls are covered with four tapestries from
16485-554: The city, which subsequently expanded into a university in its own right. The Free University grew significantly over the following decades. In 1842, it moved to the Granvelle Palace , which it occupied until 1928. It expanded the number of subjects taught and, in 1880, became one of the first institutions in Belgium to allow female students to study in some faculties. In 1893, it received large grants from Ernest and Alfred Solvay and Raoul Warocqué to open new faculties in
16642-470: The city. A disagreement over an invite to the anarchist geographer Élisée Reclus to speak at the university in 1893 led to some of the liberal and socialist faculty splitting away from the Free University to form the New University of Brussels ( Université nouvelle de Bruxelles ) in 1894. The institution failed to displace the Free University, however, and closed definitively in 1919. In 1900 ,
16799-631: 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
16956-477: The courtyard have two levels pierced by large rectangular windows with wooden mullions with a flat frame and drip edge in the shape of an entablature , all surmounted by a high roof pierced with dormer windows surmounted by a triangular pediment (a structure very similar to the façade on the Rue de l'Amigo / Vruntstraat ). On the ground floor, a high door surmounted by a triangular pediment and framed by large lanterns
17113-540: 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
17270-602: 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
17427-474: 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
17584-551: The early 18th century for the States of Brabant and then used by the Brussels City Council. The lavish decoration is the work of the painter Victor Honoré Janssens . He made the ceiling painting with an Assembly of the Gods and also the cartons for three Brussels tapestries with scenes from the history of Brabant . The three paintings between the windows show female figures against a golden background, representing
17741-502: The eight-part series Life of Clovis , after cartons by the French painter Charles Poerson . The other four tapestries decorate the next room. The Grangé Gallery on the side of the courtyard connects all these rooms. It contains 18th-century portraits of monarchs painted around 1718 by Louis Grangé. The mayor's cabinet is located on the side of the Rue Charles Buls / Karel Bulsstraat . The Waiting Room, originally built for
17898-489: 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,
18055-690: The exception of corbels , representations of eight prophets above the portal , and a few statues located at the corner turrets . Jamaer reworked the façade by adding non-existent niches , as well as a gallery and a new portal. Between 1844 and 1902, nearly three hundred statues in Caen and Échaillon stone [ fr ] , created by famous artists, including Charles Geefs , Charles-Auguste Fraikin , Eugène Simonis and George Minne , were executed. The interior rooms were replenished with tapestries , paintings, and sculptures, largely representing subjects of importance in local and regional history, such as
18212-546: The fields of arts, science, and education — amongst whom the study prefect of the Royal Athenaeum of Brussels, Auguste Baron , as well as the astronomer and mathematician Adolphe Quetelet — planned to create a private university , which was permitted under the Belgian Constitution . In 1834, the Belgian episcopate decided to establish a Catholic university in Mechelen with the aim of regaining
18369-507: The first floor, row of statues, then mullioned windows inscribed under a trefoil tympanum on the second floor. This square tower is then extended by two floors, each pierced by a pair of ogival bays on the side facing the Grand-Place . Next comes the finely openwork octagonal lantern tower, supported at its base by four buttressed turrets , also octagonal. It has three levels pierced with elegant openwork ogival bays and adorned with
18526-703: The first floor. Passing the right entrance, visitors enter the vestibule , also known as the Prince's Gallery. Here are portraits of the princes and governors who ruled the Southern Netherlands from 1695 and of the Kings of the Belgians . There is also a group portrait of the intendants of the Willebroek Canal , with a view of Klein Willebroek . In the long rear wing is the States of Brabant Room, built in
18683-499: The government; yearly fundraising events and tuition fees provided the only financial means. Verhaegen, who became a professor and later head of the new university, gave it a mission statement which he summarised in a speech to King Leopold I : "the principle of free inquiry and academic freedom uninfluenced by any political or religious authority." In 1858, the Catholic Church established the Saint-Louis Institute in
18840-561: The high quality of its educational programmes. Each semester, all students evaluate the courses they have followed. All programmes are also regularly assessed by internal panels and by external international visitation committees. Furthermore, all programmes are accredited by the Nederlands-Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie , an independent accreditation organisation charged with the accreditation of higher education programmes in both Flanders and
18997-415: 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
19154-406: The independence of the university and the academic freedom. in Gooik . The Vrije Universiteit Brussel cooperates with several institutions of higher education. They are: Worldwide, on the international level the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has concluded institutional collaboration agreements with 38 universities all over the world, and student exchange agreements with 160 universities. The BSG
19311-711: 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
19468-518: The influence of the Catholic Church on the academic scene in Belgium, and the government had the intent to close the university at Leuven and donate the buildings to the Catholic institution. The country's liberals strongly opposed to this decision, and furthered their ideas for a university in Brussels as a counterbalance to the Catholic institution. At the same time, Auguste Baron had just become
19625-588: 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
19782-629: 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
19939-473: The long sides. They represent the Guilds of Brussels . The two tapestries on the short side relate to the weapons' guilds. Originally, this was the room in which supreme justice was spoken. The long wall opposite Rue Charles Buls was decorated with The Justice of Trajan and Herkinbald , the famous justice panels of Rogier van der Weyden that were lost in the 1695 bombardment. The Wedding Room has been set up on
20096-619: 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
20253-598: The original 15th-century ones are also in the Brussels City Museum. Each of these statues rests on a historiated corbels and is sheltered under a finely chiselled stone canopy surmounted by a pyramid-shaped stone pinnacle decorated with foliage pattern and topped with a finial . The base of the tower is pierced by an ogival portal surmounted by a tympanum depicting Saint Michael surrounded by Saint Sebastian , Saint Christopher , Saint George and Saint Géry (Gaugericus) who, according to legend, erected
20410-627: 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
20567-527: 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
20724-449: The principle of free inquiry for the progress of humanity. The latter includes the dismissal of any argument of authority and the right of free opinion. The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is the only Flemish university that has incorporated such principle in its statutes. The principle of free inquiry is often described by a quotation of the French mathematician and philosopher Henri Poincaré : Thinking must never submit itself, neither to
20881-411: 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
21038-402: The registration of the Grand-Place. The tower is made up of two very different parts that nevertheless form a harmonious ensemble: a square base dating from the first phase of construction and a lantern tower built by Jan van Ruysbroek nearly half a century later. The square base is pierced by an ogival portal surmounted by the same decoration as the left wing: mullioned windows on
21195-423: 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
21352-541: The ruins of the former inner cloth market ( Halle au Drap ), from 1706 to 1717, transforming the L-shaped building into its present configuration: a quadrilateral with an inner courtyard. Until 1795, these wings housed the States of Brabant , the representation of the three estates ( nobility , clergy and commoners ) to the court of the Duke of Brabant . The Town Hall underwent many restoration campaigns throughout
21509-524: 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
21666-461: The secretariat of the States of Brabant, is decorated with paintings by Jean-Baptiste Van Moer [ fr ] . They are incorporated into the oak panelling and show the part of Brussels that was destined for demolition because of the covering of the Senne . The staircase of honour is the result of a late 19th-century renovation to provide direct and monumental access to the mayor's cabinet and
21823-475: The side of the Grand-Place. Here too, in the past, justice was spoken and a neo-Gothic transformation has been carried out. A Middle Dutch poem has been reproduced on the roof beams, which, as early as the 15th century, recalled the way to properly govern the city. The corbels show the coats of arms of the Seven Noble Houses of Brussels , and the ceiling those of the guilds. Brussels' Town Hall
21980-457: The square into the seat of municipal power. Due to the square's tumultuous history (see details below), it is also its only remaining medieval building . The oldest part of the present building is its east wing (to the left when facing the front). This wing, together with a shorter tower, was built between 1401 and 1421. The architect and designer is probably Jacob van Thienen with whom Jean Bornoy collaborated. Initially, future expansion of
22137-410: 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
22294-404: 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
22451-533: The tower. More likely, the asymmetry of the Town Hall was an accepted consequence of the scattered construction history and space constraints. On 13 August 1695, during the Nine Years' War , a 70,000-strong French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy , began a bombardment of Brussels in an effort to draw the League of Augsburg 's forces away from their siege on French-held Namur in what
22608-439: The university is pluralistic – it is open to all students on the basis of equality regardless of their ideological, political, cultural or social background – and it is managed using democratic structures, which means that all members – from students to faculty – participate in the decision-making processes. The university's research articles are on average more cited than articles by any other Flemish university . The university
22765-406: The university obtained its legal personality under the name Université libre de Bruxelles - Vrije Hogeschool te Brussel . The German occupation during World War I led to the suspension of classes for four years in 1914–1918. In the aftermath of the war, the Free University moved its principle activities to the Solbosch in the southern suburb of Ixelles and a purpose-built university campus
22922-436: The university's statutes – is that the institution must be managed according to the model of democracy. Practically, this means that all members of the academic community — faculty staff , researchers, personnel, and students – are represented in all governing bodies. In this way, the university ensures that everyone has a voice in its decision-making processes and participates in its management. This principle must also guarantee
23079-741: The university's strategy. The daily management of the university is the responsibility of the Rector and three Vice-Rectors. As of 2022 the rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel is Jan Danckaert , who succeeded Caroline Pauwels (1964-2022), who resigned in 2022 for health reasons. The Vrije Universiteit Brussel offers courses in a large variety of modern disciplines: law, economics, social sciences , management, psychology , physical sciences , life sciences , medical sciences , pharmaceutical sciences , humanities , engineering, physical education . About 22,000 students follow one of its 128 educational programmes . All programmes are taught in Dutch , but 59 are also taught in English. In agreement with
23236-420: 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
23393-435: 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
23550-439: Was created, funded by the Belgian American Educational Foundation . The university was again closed by the German occupiers during World War II on 25 November 1941. Students from the university were involved in the Belgian Resistance , notably establishing the sabotage-orientated network Groupe G . Courses at the Free University were taught exclusively in French until the early 20th century. After Belgian independence, French
23707-523: Was formed in 1970 by the splitting of the Free University of Brussels , which was founded in 1834 by the lawyer and liberal politician Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen . The founder aimed to establish a university independent from state and church, where academic freedom would be prevalent. This is today still reflected in the university's motto Scientia vincere tenebras , or "Conquering darkness by science", and in its more recent slogan Redelijk eigenzinnig , or "A reasonable mind of its own". Accordingly,
23864-416: 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
24021-413: 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
24178-413: 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
24335-422: Was the architect of the City of Brussels in 1452, and who was also, at that time, the designer of the Aula Magna at the Palace of Coudenberg . The 96-metre-high (315 ft) tower in Brabantine Gothic style is the work of Jan van Ruysbroek , the court architect of Philip the Good . By 1455, this tower, replacing the older one, was complete. Above the roof of the Town Hall, the square tower body narrows to
24492-417: 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
24649-452: Was widely accepted as the language of the bourgeoisie and upper classes and was the only medium in law and academia . As the Flemish Movement gained prominence among the Dutch-speaking majority in Flanders over the late 19th century, the lack of provision for Dutch speakers in higher education became a major source of political contention. Ghent University became the first institution in 1930 to teach exclusively in Dutch. Some courses at
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