Languages of Belgium

[Music] [Music] hello everyone welcome to the land focus Channel and my name is Paul today's topic is the languages of Belgium when most people think of Belgium they think of Belgian chocolate Belgian waffles Belgian beer and things like that but there is much more to Belgium than those things including a very interesting linguistic situation first let's get some geographic perspective Belgium is located in Western Europe bordering France to the south and southwest Netherlands to the north and northeast Germany to the east and Luxembourg to the southeast this geographic location is reflected in Belgium's linguistic diversity Belgium has three official languages Dutch which has historically been spoken by the Flemish people French which has historically been spoken by the Walloon people and German these three languages ended up being a part of this one country because of Belgium's history the Low Countries which include Belgium the Netherlands and Luxembourg have been strategically important throughout the ages the Low Countries were ruled by a succession of rulers eventually coming under the rule of the Spanish Empire in 1556 and became referred to as Spanish Netherlands the Dutch Revolt of 1568 to 1581 resulted in the independence of the northern provinces which became the Dutch Republic which separated the Dutch from Belgium even though the northern part of Belgium spoke the same language with different dialects of course in 1713 after the Spanish war of succession the Spanish Netherlands the southern part - the Dutch Republic came under Austrian control then in 1794 it came under French control and soon after that the Dutch Republic was also brought under French control after Napoleon's defeat in the Napoleonic Wars the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was created in 1815 which included present-day Netherlands Belgium as well as Luxembourg after the Belgian revolution of 1830 the kingdom of Belgium was created with the support of France at first belgium was a single state with one official language French even though the majority of people were not French speakers in the 20th century a series of changes resulted in a federal system with three official languages Dutch has spoken as a native language by around fifty five percent of the population and by around 13% of the population as a second language French is spoken as a native language by approximately 36% of the population with about 45% of the population speaking it as a second language German is much less widely spoken as a native language than the other two by less than one percent but around 22% of the population speak it as a Second Language the three official languages are generally concentrated in distinct linguistic areas Dutch is the primary language of the Flanders region in the north French is the primary language of the Wallonia region to the south with German being the primary language of some areas of Eastern Wallonia near the border with Germany the brussels-capital region is officially bilingual with dutch and french being the two languages there are no official statistics about the number of speakers of each language in the capital but it's quite obvious that french is the predominant language the belgian federal state consists of three administrative regions flanders Vilonia and the brussels-capital region as well as three federal communities based on language the Flemish community has authority in the Flemish provinces and in the brussels-capital region the French community has authority and the Walloon provinces with the exception of the german-speaking municipalities as well as in the brussels-capital region alongside the Flemish community and the german-speaking community has authority in the german-speaking municipalities of the province of liège in Wallonia the area is administered by the german-speaking community are the areas given to Belgium by Germany in 1920 under the Treaty of Versailles the federal communities each have their own government and Parliament which are distinct from the regional government and Parliament the governments of the communities have power over matters of culture education health services and social services that's in contrast with the regional governments that have power over matters of economy infrastructure Town Planning and so on and in the brussels-capital region the Flemish and French commune governments and the regional government are merged together into one within the Flanders region most municipalities offer services only in Dutch in in the Wallonia region most municipalities offer services only in French but there are some municipalities with language facilities that also offer public services like schools and courts in another language as well these municipalities are typically those bordering a different linguistic area administered by a different linguistic community or bordering the brussels-capital region there are 12 municipalities in Flanders which offer services in French six of which have a french-speaking majority and in french-speaking Wallonia there are four municipalities offering services in Dutch and two more offering services in German and all of the municipalities in the german-speaking part of Wallonia offer services in French and in the capital region all services are offered in both French and in Dutch and I should note that all federal services are provided in all three official languages at the national level language varieties so we know that there are three official languages with their respective communities and areas but there's more to it than that one of the official languages is Dutch but is it the same as the Dutch spoken in the Netherlands well remember that a language normally consists of a number of different dialects that are usually united by a common standard language the standard form of Dutch used in Belgium is basically the same as the standard form used in the Netherlands but the dialects that people grow up speaking are different than those spoken in the Netherlands and they differ quite a lot from each other as well the dialects of Dutch spoken and Flanders are often collectively referred to as Flemish the main dialect groups are Brabant e'en and east flemish and west flemish and limburgish are sometimes included as well though these are often considered distinct enough to be separate regional languages limburgish for example has some features that are closer to German than other Dutch dialects for example personal pronouns that are similar to the German ones like if myth dick and so on exactly where to draw the boundaries of a language and deciding which dialects are included in that language is often a tricky question there's no black and white distinction between Dutch and Germans but rather there's a West Germanic dialect continuum spanning a wide area and language features gradually change as you move along the continuum and the standard language that a dialect is paired with often for political reasons is a big factor in what language a dialect is considered to belong to of course the promotion of standard Dutch has caused Flemish dialects to fade to some extent but some differences in vocabulary and pronunciation remain there's also a new variety of Dutch that has arisen called - Chantal it's basically a middle ground between standard Dutch and Flemish dialects but from a lot of comments I've seen online it seems like a lot of people dislike this variety of Dutch they think it sounds artificial the situation with French is also interesting standard French is learned by everyone in the french-speaking areas but it's paired with traditional dialects like Walloon or Malone Piku Sean Penn Juan and loja which are arguably separate regional languages they belong to the long gooey in the branch of the gallo-romance languages as standard French does but they are distinct from it these regional languages have for the most part been replaced by standard French and are mainly spoken by an aging population particularly in the countryside these lungs oil in Wallonia have not remained in use as much as the flemish dialects in flanders have why is that I think that's partly because during the period of French rule when the use of French was highly encouraged speakers of closely related regional languages found it much easier to adapt to French than the speakers of Flemish dialects in the north did and maybe because those languages are so closely related to French their speakers felt that they were just making a small adjustment rather than giving up something but that's my speculation as is the case with Dutch and French belgium has a number of dialects that are considered to be a part of the german language alongside standard german the german dialects of the officially german-speaking areas are central german dialects including ripuarian in the northern part of the area at Moselle franconian in the south part of the area these dialects differ significantly from standard German but standard German has had an influence on them resulting in some dialect leveling meaning that the dialects are not as different from standard German anymore and not as different from each other anymore and speakers of those dialects use some French vocabulary in their speech because of the influence of the surrounding French speakers in the Wallonia region and I believe the majority of German speakers are bilingual and can speak French as well because Belgium is part of a Germanic dialect continuum there are a number of dialects that don't clearly fall under any of the three official languages one such language is low dietsch which is a number of transitional dialects between limburgish which is often considered a flemish dialect and the ripuarian dialect of german it's spoken in a few towns and villages in the municipality of upin in the german-speaking part of liege but rather than simply being considered a dialect of german it's unique enough to be considered its own regional language certain varieties of low dietsch are very close to certain varieties of limburgish which is sometimes considered a flemish dialect a Dutch dialect but other varieties of low dietsch are very close to certain varieties of riparian which are considered varieties of German classifying these very similar dialects as different languages is one of those confusing and mystifying aspects of linguistics then there's Luxembourgish it's spoken in the belgian province of luxembourg which has the same name as the neighbouring country even though it's closely related to the surrounding Moselle franconi and German dialects it's not normally considered a dialect of German that's partly because it has its own standardised written form and its speakers are not considered members of the german-speaking community but rather speakers of a regional language the area in which Luxembourgish is spoken is inside french-speaking Wallonia where Luxembourgish is recognized as a regional language but the use of Luxembourgish has declined in favour of French much of what I say in this section will be based on comments that I've read online written by a Belgian people and comments I've heard from Belgian people face-to-face as you can see from the statistics we looked at earlier most Belgians can speak at least two of the official languages at least to some extent in particular Dutch speakers can usually speak some French but according to a lot of comments that I've read some Dutch speakers are reluctant to speak French especially in a Dutch speaking area it's quite common in bilingual places for speakers of one language to resent having to speak the other language if they feel that their own language isn't being given equal status French has traditionally been the higher status language in Belgium and Dutch speakers had to learn it in order to advance in life or to get a better job and that kind of thing so maybe because of this sort of historical rivalry there might be some resistance to speaking French that's just my impression based on things I've heard or read and I can't exactly say for certain and these days English is becoming much more widely used as a second language in Flanders while French has declined some young people who speak mostly Dutch in Flanders might speak English when they encounter a French speaker or when they visit the bilingual city of Brussels education in Belgium is different depending on the linguistic community that administers that area in Flanders students begin learning French in the fifth grade of elementary school and then begin learning English in seventh grade and some students take German or another language later but there are students who complained that the teaching methods emphasize grammar and literacy rather than communication which leaves them without enough conversational confidence Vilonia some French speakers are also bilingual French Dutch speakers but not as many of them but in recent decades more French speakers are learning Dutch because of the growing economic influence of Flanders the education system in Wallonia offers a choice between Dutch and English many choose Dutch but again they don't necessarily learn to communicate that well in the language a smaller but significant number learn German but outside of the border areas a few of them learn it to an advanced level from what I hear and as in Flanders English is growing in popularity in Brussels even though it's an enclave inside Flanders Brussels is officially bilingual and while there are no official counts of who speaks which language it's an overwhelmingly french-speaking city with many estimates saying it's over 90% francophone both French and Dutch schools are available and each family can choose which type of school to send their children to regardless of what language they speak at home and at shops and restaurants staff should be able to speak both languages at least in theory but that's a major capital as the de facto capital of the European Union Brussels is a very international and linguistically diverse place many languages are spoken among the expat communities with English serving as a lingua franca alongside French there are also many immigrants in 2010 about 18% of the population of Belgium was foreign-born while in Brussels the number was around 33% many of these people and their children are native speakers of languages other than Dutch French and German from what I understand many of these people speak a foreign language at home one of Belgium's official languages probably Dutch or French and in many cases English as well the german-speaking community because of their proximity to french-speaking Wallonia and because french is a required subject in schools in the german-speaking community areas most German speakers can speak French as well as German and from what I understand many speak Dutch as well which is probably helped by the fact that Dutch and German are closely related media in Belgium the media in each linguistic area is dominated by the language of that region each of the three linguistic communities has its own public broadcasting organization which is responsible for creating content and administering radio and TV stations and so on the result is that the members of each linguistic community are primarily exposed to only their own language through the media the notable exception is brussels where both the flemish community and the french-speaking communities public broadcasting organizations operate belgium is an interesting case because in some ways it operates like three separate countries administered by three different linguistic communities with their own governments and the generally limited interaction between Flanders and Wallonia reinforces a kind of linguistic divide or separation but the majority of people speak two official languages at least to some extent in some of them speak three with a lot of people learning English these days as in many multilingual Federation's some people speculate about whether the country will fracture in two separate countries and there are disagreements about how to handle the complex governing of a federation with three regional governments and three community governments based on language in addition to a federal government I can't claim to speak for Belgians but just from the comments that I've read and heard it seems to me that Belgian people ID to find more as Flemish or Walloon or as german-speaking than as Belgian but they generally have no strong objection to this federal system from what I can see but this kind of situation reminds us that languages are not just systems of communication they are also part of people's identities and of tremendous importance to people a question of the day for people from Belgium what's your native language and to what extent do you speak to the other official languages and for other people let me ask a more general question to what extent do you see your native language as part of your identity for me as an English speaker from Canada my language is not really a strong part of my identity it just feels like the default but I know it's different for a lot of people around the world how about you be sure to follow Lange focus on Facebook Twitter and Instagram and once again thank you to my amazing patreon supporters especially these ones right here on the screen who are my top tier patreon supporters thank you for watching and have a nice [Music]

Channel: Langfocus

Views: 551,983

Rating: 4.9324765 out of 5

Keywords: polyglot, foreign language, travel, linguist, linguistics, dialects, dialectology, dutch language, flemish language, flemish dialects, west flemish, east flemish, brabants, brabantian, limburgish, limburgs, vlaams, french language, Langue française, française, French dialects, walloon, picard, champenois, Lorrain, belgium history, belgian history, belgian dialects, belgian culture, german language, ripuarian, moselle franconian, luxembourgish, low dietsch, European languages, European culture

Id: dwjhfxFyhxk

Length: 16min 30sec (990 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 03 2017