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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
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