152-462: The New Flemish Alliance ( Dutch : Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie [ˌniu ˈvlaːmsə ʔɑliˈjɑnsi] ; N-VA ) is a Flemish nationalist , conservative and Eurosceptic political party in Belgium . The party was established in 2001 by the right-leaning faction of the centrist-nationalist People's Union (VU). The N-VA is a regionalist and confederalist movement that self-identifies with
304-408: A big tent or a catch-all party and a socially liberal nationalist movement that combined left- and right-wing policies but focused on Flemish issues above all else. The N-VA also summed up its initial platform with the motto Evolution, not Revolution, arguing for a more pragmatic and less radical approach to Flemish nationalism. The N-VA first argued that a Flemish nationalist party was needed in
456-561: A common ancestor with languages such as English, German, and the Scandinavian languages . All Germanic languages are subject to 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
608-461: 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
760-584: 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 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
912-470: A Federal Superstate. The party is known for its insistence on the exclusive use of Dutch , Flanders' sole official language, in dealings with government agencies. The N-VA advocates economic liberalism and immediate tax reductions to stimulate the economy. It also supports stricter law and order and controlled immigration policies, with stronger measures to integrate immigrants in Flanders. A leading member of
1064-445: A centrist group opposing the imminent split. An internal referendum was held on the future course of the party. The right wing gained a substantial plurality of 47% and inherited the party infrastructure. Since no faction got an absolute majority, however, the name Volksunie could no longer be used under Belgian constitutional law and the VU was dissolved. The centre-right orientated faction of
1216-470: A coalition between CD&V, Open Vld, MR and N-VA was formed on 7 October 2014, with Walloon MR politician Charles Michel appointed as Prime Minister of Belgium. In December 2018, a political crisis emerged over whether to sign the Global Compact for Migration ; N-VA was against this, whereas the other three parties in the federal government supported it. On 4 December 2018, Charles Michel announced that
1368-559: 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
1520-650: A compulsory "integration contract" for immigrants to learn Dutch and undergo a values and social skills test before receiving Belgian citizenship. The N-VA also argues that dual nationals should be stripped of their citizenship if they are convicted of terrorism and other serious crimes and for the removal of illegal immigrants. On asylum, the N-VA calls for a "humane but strict asylum and migration policy" giving more support for refugees closer to their home region while arguing that anyone who enters European territory illegally will automatically be denied asylum. The party also established
1672-461: 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 the original language of
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#17328371517971824-571: A list of 39 successful radical political parties in Europe. The paper described N-VA as right-wing populist and separatist because it reduces complex political problems to territorial issues. N-VA responded that "foreign media find the party difficult to place, so they just label us as extremists." Some commentators have attributed these shifts as a response to a revival in support for the Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang . In contrast to other Belgian parties,
1976-597: A member of the provincial council of Flemish Brabant . He became chairman of the Volksunie in 1992, serving until 1998. From 1995 to 1999, he sat in the Belgian Senate . Following the 1998 White Marches provoked by the publication of official reports on the Affaire Dutroux , Anciaux founded the think-tank , later political group, iD21 [ nl ] , which aimed to confront the corruption and incompetence which
2128-566: 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
2280-657: 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
2432-504: A new federal government was finally assembled. N-VA did not join this government, but gave its support pending state reform. The cartel ended definitively on 24 September 2008, due to lack of progression in state reform matters and a different strategy on future negotiations. N-VA left the Flemish Government and gave up its support of Leterme at the federal level. In the regional elections of June 2009 , N-VA won an unexpected 13% of
2584-554: A new government position of Minister for Integration in the Flemish Government after becoming the largest party in the Flemish Parliament. In Federal politics, N-VA MP Theo Francken who served as Belgium's Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration sought to tighten laws on family migration and was noted for overseeing a record deportation of illegal immigrants and foreigners with criminal backgrounds. This policy made him
2736-693: A new group and chose the conservative and eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) over the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe . Since 2014, the N-VA has served on the bureau for the ECR group and sits alongside the Czech Civic Democratic Party , the Sweden Democrats , Brothers of Italy , Poland's Law & Justice and formerly the British Conservative Party in
2888-420: 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
3040-566: 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
3192-503: A position which reflected in their tagline: "Necessary in Flanders, useful in Europe." ( Dutch : Nodig in Vlaanderen, nuttig in Europa .) Presently, the N-VA is generally characterised by political scientists and journalists as conservative , conservative liberal , and economically liberal and positioned towards the right-wing of the political spectrum with Flemish nationalism linked to
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#17328371517973344-407: A pragmatic and non-revolutionary image (as opposed to the far-right character of the other main Flemish pro-separatist party Vlaams Belang ) in order to legitimise increased Flemish autonomy. The party also espoused non-interventionalist and pro-individual freedom messages in its original platform. In subsequent years, the N-VA moved to the right and adopted a distinctly conservative identity under
3496-413: A result, Nederduits no longer serves as a synonym for the Dutch language. In the 19th century, 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
3648-505: 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
3800-552: A review into financial transfers from Flanders to Brussels and the Wallonia region, arguing that such a policy threatens solidarity between different linguistic groups and has been a burden on Flemish tax payers. The party calls for more strict immigration policies and reforms to asylum laws on its platform, proritizing knowledge-based immigration similar to the Canadian model while significantly reducing unskilled immigration and including
3952-464: 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 the Dutch Language Union . The Dutch Caribbean municipalities ( St. Eustatius , Saba and Bonaire ) have Dutch as one of the official languages. In Asia, Dutch
4104-516: 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
4256-497: A small number of VB politicians were running as N-VA candidates. The N-VA emerged as the largest party in Antwerp with De Wever being elected as mayor. During the 2014 Belgian federal election , the N-VA again emerged as the largest party in both Flanders and Belgium as a whole. In the aftermath of the election, King Philippe nominated De Wever as informateur tasking him with forming a government. After five months of discussions,
4408-473: 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
4560-424: 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,
4712-528: A statement of principles. The first party congress was held in May 2002, voting on a party program and permanent party structures. Geert Bourgeois was elected chairman. The N-VA initially continued some of the VU's former policies. The party participated in elections for the first time in the 2003 federal elections , but struggled with the election threshold of 5%. This threshold was only reached in West Flanders ,
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4864-458: A total of 6 seats. However, on 21 September 2008 the N-VA lost its faith in the federal government and the following day minister Geert Bourgeois resigned. In a press conference he confirmed the end of the CD&;V/N-VA cartel. In the 2004 European elections , N-VA had one MEP elected as part of the cartel with CD&V. In the 10 June 2007 federal elections , the cartel won 30 out of 150 seats in
5016-538: 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
5168-562: A what it calls a ecorealism stance, arguing for constructive methods and the use of green technology and expanding Belgium's nuclear power stations to mitigate climate change. However, the N-VA voted at European level against the foundations of the European Green Deal , namely against an extension of the European Union Emissions Trading System to more sectors and against a European carbon border tax . At
5320-531: 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
5472-535: Is Sranan Tongo , spoken natively by about a fifth of the population. Bert Anciaux Bert Jozef Herman Vic Anciaux (born 11 September 1959) is a Belgian politician and Vooruit faction leader in the Belgian Senate . He was one of the founders of Spirit (later known as the Flemish Progressives, then the Social Liberal Party , or SLP). Served as Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport in
5624-466: 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 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
5776-469: 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
5928-521: 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
6080-578: 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
6232-513: 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 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 ")
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6384-480: 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 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
6536-556: 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
6688-573: 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
6840-559: 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 ,
6992-575: 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
7144-639: 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 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
7296-404: 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
7448-525: 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,
7600-519: 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
7752-549: The 2019 federal elections , the party remained in first place in the Chamber of Representatives, European Parliament and Flemish Parliament, but saw a decline of their vote share for the first time, obtaining 16.03% of the votes in the Federal Parliament. With a decline of 24.7% of their votes compared to 2014, the N-VA suffered the biggest election defeat of any Flemish government party in the last fifty years. The decline in votes
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#17328371517977904-469: The Belgian Federal Parliament both to represent the Flemish people and to work with politicians from all Belgian communities to redefine Belgium as a confederal rather than a federal state by securing more autonomy and political powers for both the Flemish and Walloon regions of Belgium. This strategy assumed that through successive transfers of powers from the federal level to both regions on
8056-564: 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 the oldest single "Dutch" words, the Bergakker inscription yields the oldest evidence of Dutch morphology. However, interpretations of
8208-450: 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
8360-531: The Chamber of Representatives and 9 out of 40 seats in the Senate . In the regional elections of 11 June 2009 , N-VA (now on its own after the split of the cartel with CD&V ) won an unexpected 13% of the votes, making them the winner of the elections along with their former cartel partner. In the 2009 European elections held on the same day, the N-VA had one MEP elected. In the 2010 federal elections , N-VA became
8512-599: The European Free Alliance (EFA), since the 2014 European Parliament election , the N-VA has sat with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) parliamentary group in the European Parliament . The party announced the creation of a Walloon branch in 2024, although it didn't manage to win any seats in the Belgian elections of that same year. The N-VA stems from the right-leaning faction of
8664-671: The Flemish Government from 2004 until 2009, he was also Minister for relations with the Brussels-Capital Region and the Brussels Parliament ( Dutch : Minister voor Brusselse Aangelegenheden ). Anciaux was born into a political family. His father Vic Anciaux was chairman of the Volksunie (VU) , a nationalist party, from 1979 until 1985. Bert first held office as a councilman in the City of Brussels in 1987, and in 1991, became
8816-548: 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 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
8968-466: The Indo-European language family , spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the third most spoken Germanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of the population of the Netherlands and Flanders (which includes 60% of the population of Belgium ). Dutch was one of the official languages of South Africa until 1925, when it
9120-486: 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 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
9272-579: 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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#17328371517979424-455: The People's Union ( Dutch : Volksunie , VU), a Belgian political party and broad electoral alliance of Flemish nationalists from both sides of the political spectrum with the N-VA's founders largely encompassing the more centre-right and pro-independence wing of the VU. Towards the end of the 20th century, with a steadily declining electorate and the majority of the party's federalist agenda implemented, friction between several wings of
9576-401: The People's Union was a founder member. Since the EFA tends to contain parties on the left, the N-VA stands out due to its more centre-right orientation. During the 7th European Parliament of 2009–2014, the N-VA was a member of The Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) group in the European Parliament. However, following the 2014 European elections , the N-VA announced it was moving to
9728-476: The Randstad , which are Hollandic dialects, do not diverge from standard Dutch very much, but there is a clear difference between the city dialects of Rotterdam , The Hague , Amsterdam and Utrecht . In some rural Hollandic areas more authentic Hollandic dialects are still being used, especially north of Amsterdam. Another group of dialects based on Hollandic is that spoken in the cities and larger towns of Friesland , where it partially displaced West Frisian in
9880-406: 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
10032-464: The Vlaams Blok after becoming disgruntled with direction of the party, prompting a further decline in support. Around this time, VU member Geert Bourgeois , de facto leader of the VU's traditionalist and centre-right nationalist wing, put together the so-called "Oranjehofgroep" (which would go on to become the bedrock of the N-VA) which included fellow VU members Frieda Brepoels , Eric Defoort , Ben Weyts and Bart De Wever . The Oranjehofgroep opposed
10184-431: 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 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
10336-471: 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
10488-434: 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
10640-524: 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 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
10792-411: The regional elections in 2004 and won. Both parties joined the new Flemish government, led by CD&V leader Yves Leterme . Geert Bourgeois became a minister, and Bart De Wever became the new party leader in October 2004. The cartel was briefly broken when the former right-wing liberal Jean-Marie Dedecker left the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) and entered the N-VA on behalf of
10944-754: The "sub-state nationalist" family of parties similar to the Scottish National Party and the Catalan National Call for the Republic and Junts parties with its regionalist platform while also differing from other independence movements in this category like the SNP which tend to hold progressive social and economic agendas since the N-VA promotes more neoliberal policies and stances on immigration and multiculturalism that are more in common with right-leaning European parties. Belgian professor Ico Maly has described
11096-512: 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
11248-531: 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
11400-668: 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 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
11552-477: The Belgian government in protest of its passing. Some commentators have attributed these shifts as a response to a revival in support for the Flemish nationalist Vlaams Belang , which also campaigned against the Migration Compact. The N-VA also supports increased spending and resources for the police and border forces, as well as more resources for counter-terrorism and national security efforts. The party has
11704-485: The Chamber. As a result, N-VA became the dominant political formation in the Flemish political landscape and took the place that CD&V had occupied for decades as the largest Flemish party. After the election, some media commentators attributed the party's result to the style of De Wever while others argued the N-VA was able to win over conservative and Flemish nationalist supporters of the Vlaams Belang who had supported
11856-417: 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
12008-479: 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
12160-415: 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
12312-524: 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
12464-408: 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
12616-496: The Dutroux affair had brought to light. In the 1999 Belgian general election , the combined Volksunie-iD21 list gained 8% of the vote, up from around 5% in 1995 . Anciaux was elected to the European Parliament . With the collapse of the Volksunie in 2001, split between left and right factions led by Anciaux and Geert Bourgeois which became Spirit and New-Flemish Alliance (NV-A) respectively. A number of iD21 members joined Agalev ,
12768-605: The EU and rejecting a Federal EU Superstate, and arguing that economically unstable nations should leave the Eurozone . The party is critical of the EU's stance on illegal immigration (in particular its handling of the migrant crisis) and the role played by NGOs in picking up migrants. The N-VA argues that the EU should emulate the Australian model of border protection to reinforce its external border and work with nations outside of Europe to stem
12920-600: The European Parliament. The N-VA is a member of the International Democracy Union . In the federal elections in 2003, N-VA received 3.1% of the votes, but won only one seat in the federal parliament. In February 2004, they formed an electoral alliance (cartel) with the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V). The cartel won the elections for the Flemish Parliament. The N-VA received
13072-469: The Flemish green party, rather than Spirit. In 2002, Anciaux stepped down as Minister for Culture in the Flemish government. Following the 2003 Federal election , where Anciaux and Spirit ran in a cartel with Socialist Party Different (SP.a), he was appointed Federal transport minister. In July 2004, he resigned this post and returned to his present position as Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport in Flanders. In 2008, he left his party and has expressed
13224-466: The Flemish and Federal Parliaments. It has generally advocated for free-market policies and limits on certain government spending. It also supports increased trade and business investment for Flanders. The N-VA also supports abolishing the Belgian Senate . At European level, the N-VA is part of the European Free Alliance (EFA), a European political party consisting of regionalist , pro- independence and minority interest political parties, of which
13376-409: The Flemish community through compulsory learning of the Dutch language, Flemish history and Western values. In its current mission statement, the party claims that political divides in Belgium are not a xenophobic conflict but due to the political structure, arguing that Belgium has effectively been divided into two separate democracies since the 20th Century. The N-VA believes the solution is to redefine
13528-451: The Flemish level, the N-VA and the Flemish government are in favor of a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030, while the EU is calling for a 47% reduction, an objective for which Brussels and Wallonia do commit. In terms of foreign policy, the N-VA's stance on the European Union began as strongly pro-European in character (which it regarded as an important means of gaining legitimacy for Flemish nationalism on an international stage); in 2010,
13680-551: The Flemish region in the Federal Parliament despite polls indicating it would be overtaken by Vlaams Belang while it finished joint-first with the VB in the Flemish Parliament. The New Flemish Alliance is a relatively young political party, founded in the autumn of 2001. Being one of the successors of the People's Union (Volksunie) party which existed from 1954–2001, it is, however, based on an established political tradition. The N-VA works towards
13832-592: 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
13984-400: The N-VA has been described as continuing to move ideologically further to the right under the influence of Bart De Wever and Theo Francken by adopting tougher stances on immigration, integration of minorities, requirements to obtain Belgian citizenship, law and order, national security and repatriation of foreign born criminals and illegal immigrants. In 2015, German weekly Die Zeit published
14136-573: The N-VA is more critical of the cordon sanitaire placed on the Vlaams Belang party and recently has been more open to negotiating with the VB, although accepting former Vlaams Blok/Vlaams Belang members as defectors into the N-VA still remains controversial within some ranks of the party. The N-VA is part of the broader Flemish nationalist movement and describes its beliefs as combining civic and cultural nationalism. The party promotes what it calls inclusive nationalism not defined by revolutionary or racist sentiments in which newcomers can become part of
14288-427: The N-VA's current ideology as drawing on the intellectual beliefs of the party's leader Bart de Wever which he terms as "scientific nationalism" that distances the N-VA from the more far-right nationalism advocated by the Vlaams Belang, but on the other, leads the N-VA to use more cultural arguments compared to parties like the SNP such as defending Western values and an ethnically defined Flemish identity. Since 2014,
14440-568: 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
14592-412: 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
14744-530: 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,
14896-486: The People's Union emerged. In the beginning of the 1990s, Bert Anciaux became party president and led the party in an ever more progressive direction, combining the social-liberal and social democratic ideas of his iD21-movement with the regionalist course of the People's Union. These experiments were opposed by the more traditional right-wing party base. Many of the VU's more ardent national-conservative members defected to
15048-655: 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
15200-599: The VB out of necessity as the main Flemish separatist party but regarded it as extreme by offering a moderate alternative, as well as voters of the Open VLD and CD&V who felt those parties had moved to the left and had not performed well in government. The N-VA also performed strongly during the 2012 Belgian local elections but was criticized by political opponents for featuring former Vlaams Belang and Vlaams Blok politicians such as Jurgen Ceder and Karim Van Overmeire on their local lists. De Wever responded by stating that only
15352-531: The VU went on to found the N-VA while the remaining centre-left faction reorganized itself as Spirit and the centrist-liberal wing mostly folded into the Open VLD . In the autumn of 2001, the New Flemish Alliance ( Dutch : Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie , N-VA) was officially registered. Seven members of parliament from the People's Union joined the new party. The new party council created a party manifesto and
15504-603: 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
15656-652: 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 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
15808-614: 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 )
15960-472: 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
16112-553: 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 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
16264-403: The constituency of Geert Bourgeois . With only one federal representative and no senator, the party lost government funding and faced irrelevance. In February 2004, the N-VA entered into an electoral alliance , commonly known in Belgium as a cartel , with the Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) party, the traditionally largest party, which was then in opposition. They joined forces in
16416-452: The core of its policy ideas and messages. The N-VA initially advocated deepening ties with the European Union but in recent years it has been defined as moderately eurosceptic and growing more EU-critical. During the N-VA's early years, a label for the political orientation for the party was difficult to find. Although the N-VA articulated its ideology as centre-right , it also borrowed from its Volksunie predecessor by presenting itself as
16568-413: The course of fifteen centuries. During that period, they forced Old Frisian back from 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
16720-518: The decade of its founding, the N-VA has shifted from a big tent to a conservative party by basing some of its socio-economic policies on that of the British Conservative Party . Political scientist Glen Duerr has described the N-VA's current position as evolving to somewhere between that of Vlaams Belang and CD&V , defining itself as a small conservative party while rejecting radical populism. The N-VA has also been described as part of
16872-535: 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
17024-585: 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 a differentiation with the Central and High Franconian in Germany. The latter would as
17176-469: 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
17328-408: The direction in which the party was being taken by Anciaux and wanted the VU to pursue a more conservative, Flemish nationalist and separatist direction, while the wing helmed by Anciaux was looking to merge the Volksunie with its progressive programme with another political party. Tension rose towards the end of the decade, as Geert Bourgeois was elected chairman by party members, in preference to
17480-482: 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,
17632-519: The federal Belgian state as a confederal union by means of transferring powers separately to both communities with a smaller government in Brussels that handles core issues like defense and security, while the Flemish and Walloon regions are given more decision making abilities. The N-VA argues that Flanders should pursue more independent economic, taxation and foreign policies which it believes will lead to gradual Flemish secessionism. The party also supports
17784-539: The flow of illegal migrants arriving by sea. The N-VA supports continued Belgian participation in NATO and for military cooperation between European states. The party has supported sending military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and sent a delegation of members to meet with Ukrainian officials in 2022. On economic policy, the N-VA calls for reduced national debts and balanced budget in
17936-497: The health and education systems. De Wever also called on all the Flemish parties to work together to push for confederalism and campaigned for the idea that no government formation in Belgium should exclude a Flemish majority. The N-VA made a major breakthrough and won the elections with just under 28% of the Flemish votes in the Chamber (31% in the Senate), making it the largest party in Flanders and Belgium. The party acquired 27 seats in
18088-415: 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
18240-493: The incumbent and progressive Patrik Vankrunkelsven who belonged to the iD21 wing. Factions subsequently clashed multiple times, over the future course of the party and possible support for current state reform negotiations . On 13 October 2001, the party openly split into three factions: the progressive wing around Bert Anciaux , which would later become the Spirit party; the conservative nationalist wing around Geert Bourgeois ; and
18392-685: 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
18544-399: The issue would be taken to parliament for a vote. On 5 December, parliament voted 106 to 36 in favor of backing the agreement. Michel stated that he would endorse the pact on behalf of parliament, not on behalf of the divided government. Consequently, N-VA quit the federal government; the other three parties continued as a minority government ( Michel II ). During the 2019 federal elections ,
18696-548: 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 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
18848-462: The largest party of Flanders and of Belgium altogether. In the 2014 federal elections , N-VA increased their dominant position, taking votes and seats from the far-right Flemish Interest . In the simultaneous 2014 regional elections and 2014 European elections , the N-VA also became the largest party in the Flemish Parliament and in the Belgian delegation to the European Parliament . In
19000-413: The leadership of Bart De Wever , who succeeded the founding leader Geert Bourgeois . The party used to be pro-Europeanist , and previously advocated deepening ties with the European Union (EU) which the N-VA regarded as an important means to give Flanders more international influence, but has since shifted to a "Eurorealist" or "Eurocritical" stance by calling for democratic reform of the EU and opposing
19152-618: 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
19304-473: The main objective of working towards furthering Flemish autonomy and redefining Belgium as a confederal country through gradually obtaining more powers for both Belgian communities separately with the belief that this will pave the way for eventual Flemish independence. During its early years, the N-VA mostly followed the platform of the former VU by characterising itself as a big tent party with Flemish nationalism as its central theme. Furthermore, it emphasized
19456-437: The modern standard languages . In this age no standard languages had yet developed, while 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
19608-496: The most popular politician in public opinion polls. The party is also critical of multiculturalism , arguing that it prevents inclusiveness and social cohesion among the population, and has accused French-speaking parties of pushing mass immigration and multicultural policies onto Flanders through Belgian state politics. In 2018, the party opposed the UN Global Compact for Migration and subsequently withdrew its participation in
19760-805: The one hand, and the European Union on the other, the Belgian state will gradually become obsolete. In its 2009 election programme, the N-VA described itself as economically liberal and ecologically green . The party supported public transport , open source software , renewable energy and taxing cars by the number of kilometres driven. It wanted more aid for developing countries and more compulsory measures to require that immigrants learn Dutch. The party has generally been supportive of LGBT rights and backed same-sex marriage in Belgium. It calls for measures to protect weaker members of society but also robust welfare reform and limits to welfare benefits to encourage people back into work and reduce unemployment. Within
19912-526: 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 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
20064-584: The other Belgian parties distanced themselves from the N-VA resulting in De Wever accusing the Belgian political establishment of plotting a new cordon sanitaire against his party. In its election program, the N-VA advocated confederalism for Belgium maximum authority and responsibility for the different regions of the country, whereby the Flemish and Walloon regions and communities are rewarded for good policies and punished for bad policies. The party also campaigned for revisions to Belgium's finance laws and reforms to
20216-571: The party again polled in first place in the Flemish region. However, it also saw a decline in vote share for the first time, falling to 25.6% of the Flemish vote with commentators arguing this was due to a revival of the Vlaams Belang. Ahead of the 2024 federal elections , the N-VA announced it would run candidates in Wallonia for the first time. The party did not see any candidates elected in French-speaking districts, but it remained in first place in
20368-475: The party board afterwards. In the Belgian federal election of 2007, the CD&V/N-VA cartel won a major victory again, with a campaign focusing on good governance, state reform and the division of the electoral district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde . The N-VA won five seats in the Chamber of Representatives and two seats in the Senate . Yves Leterme initiated coalition talks, which repeatedly stalled (see 2007–2008 Belgian government formation ). On 20 March 2008,
20520-423: The party called for "an ever stronger and more united Europe." However, the party has since moved in a Eurocritical direction and takes an opposition stance towards EU integration by arguing EU member states should have the right to self-determination. The N-VA calls for less interference at national decision making levels and for the right for EU members to maintain their cultural identity, more democratic reform of
20672-406: The party executive. However, the party congress did not put Dedecker on the election list, instead preferring to continue the cartel with CD&V, who had strongly opposed placing him on a joint cartel list. Dedecker saw this as a vote of no confidence, and left the party after only 10 days, to form his own party, List Dedecker (LDD). Deputy leader Brepoels, who supported Dedecker, stepped down from
20824-517: 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
20976-458: The promotion of civic nationalism . Within the Flemish Movement, the party strives for the peaceful and gradual transformation of Belgium into a confederal country. In recent years it has become the largest party of Flanders as well as of Belgium as a whole, and it participated in the 2014–18 Belgian Government until 9 December 2018. The N-VA was established as a centre-right party with
21128-411: 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
21280-509: 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 was replaced by later forms of the language throughout Luxembourg and Germany in around
21432-423: 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
21584-517: 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
21736-485: The same goal as its Volksunie predecessor: to redefine Flemish nationalism in a contemporary setting. The N-VA's leader Bart De Wever calls himself a conservative and a nationalist. In its early years, the N-VA argued for a Flemish Republic as a member state of a democratic European confederation . In its initial mission statement, the party stated that the challenges of the 21st century can best be answered by strong communities and by well-developed international co-operation,
21888-451: 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 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
22040-534: The time are generally split into three dialect groups: Ingvaeonic (North Sea Germanic), Istvaeonic (Weser–Rhine Germanic) and Irminonic (Elbe Germanic). It appears that 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
22192-463: The transition between them was very gradual. One of the few moments when linguists can detect something of 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
22344-477: 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
22496-426: The votes, making them the winner of the elections, along with their old cartel partner CD&V. N-VA subsequently joined the government, led by Kris Peeters (CD&V). Bart De Wever chose to remain party leader and appointed Geert Bourgeois and Philippe Muyters as ministers in the Flemish Government and Jan Peumans as speaker of the Flemish Parliament . Ahead of the 2010 Belgian federal election , all of
22648-521: Was in part due to a sudden upsurge in support for the Flemish Interest . N-VA holds three seats in the tenth European Parliament ( 2024-2029 ) for the Dutch-speaking electoral college . [REDACTED] Media related to Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie at Wikimedia Commons Dutch language Dutch ( endonym : Nederlands [ˈneːdərlɑnts] ) is a West Germanic language of
22800-494: Was replaced by Afrikaans , a separate but partially mutually intelligible daughter language of Dutch. Afrikaans, depending on 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
22952-517: 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
23104-455: 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 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
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