Perwez ( French pronunciation: [pɛʁwe] ; Walloon : Perwé ; Dutch : Perwijs , Dutch pronunciation: [pɛrˈʋɛis] ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant .
176-574: 1915 1916 1917 1918 Associated articles Associated articles The siege of Antwerp ( Dutch : Beleg van Antwerpen , French: Siège d'Anvers , German: Belagerung von Antwerpen ) was an engagement between the German and the Belgian, British and French armies around the fortified city of Antwerp during the First World War . German troops besieged a garrison of Belgian fortress troops,
352-561: 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
528-461: 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
704-584: 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
880-698: A German attack was expected and the Cavalry Division guarded the river line, to protect the escape route between the Dender and the coast. Early on 29 September, the Belgian Prime Minister, Charles de Broqueville, informed the British that if all the outer forts were lost, the government and field army of 65,000 men would withdraw to Ostend and leave the 80,000 fortress troops to hold Antwerp for as long as possible. The next day, de Broqueville formally appealed to
1056-567: A bridge was built by the evening over which the rest of the Landwehr crossed. The width of the escape route from Antwerp had been reduced to fewer than 12 mi (19 km), which led to the Belgian commanders ordering the field army to retreat behind the Terneuzen Canal , which ran from Ghent northwards to the Dutch border. The 1st and 5th divisions, which had lost most casualties and a brigade each of
1232-511: 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
1408-461: 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
1584-725: A covering line from the Nete to the Scheldt at Mechelen. Behind the covering line, German siege artillery was installed to the east and south of Mechelen, ready to commence a bombardment on Forts Sint-Katelijne-Waver and Walem as the Dorpveld and Bosbeek redoubts, to the north-east of Sint-Katelijne-Waver were engaged by 8 in (200 mm) mortars and the field defences between the forts, the Nete bridges and Antwerp waterworks north of Walem were bombarded by other heavy guns. Work by Belgian engineers to construct field defences around Antwerp had gone on since
1760-604: A deleterious effect on morale, which could only be resisted by first-class troops. A large amount of ammunition and many of the 2,500 guns at Antwerp were captured intact by the Germans. The c. 80,000 surviving men of the Belgian field army escaped westwards, with most of the Royal Naval Division. The British lost 57 killed, 138 wounded, 1,479 interned and 936 taken prisoner. The Belgian forces which had escaped from Antwerp had been in action for two months and
1936-557: A last resort, until the European powers guaranteeing Belgian neutrality could intervene. The national redoubt consisted of a dozen older forts around 5 km (3.1 mi) outside to the city, completed in the 1860s, with an enceinte around the town abutting the Scheldt estuary at either end, with wet ditches around the enceinte and forts. The principal line of resistance comprised a ring of 21 forts, 10–15 km (6.2–9.3 mi) outside
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#17330847697872112-566: 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
2288-657: 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
2464-420: 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
2640-566: 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
2816-448: A position around the northern fringe of Lier, which turned out to be sections of a shallow trench between hedgerows, with one strand of wire in front. Some skirmishing took place in the town and the position was bombarded by German artillery, against which the British had no reply except from an armoured train. German attacks between the Grote and Kleine Nete forced back the defenders and crossed
2992-413: 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
3168-505: 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
3344-464: 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
3520-516: 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
3696-473: 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
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#17330847697873872-424: 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,
4048-571: A ten-hour battle. By 17 August, a huge number of German troops had crossed into Belgium between the Meuse, Demer and Gete, despite the demolitions carried out by the Belgian Army and paramilitary Garde Civique . The Belgian position on the right (southern) flank of the Gete, was threatened by a flanking manoeuvre through Huy. On 18 August the Germans attacked again, captured Halen, entered Tienen and attacked
4224-538: 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
4400-531: 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
4576-416: Is Sranan Tongo , spoken natively by about a fifth of the population. Perwez On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 7,487 inhabitants. The total area is 50.81 km , giving a population density of 147 inhabitants per km . The municipality consists of the following districts : Malèves-Sainte-Marie-Wastines, Orbais, Thorembais-les-Béguines, and Thorembais-Saint-Trond. In Roman times, Perwez
4752-499: Is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family , spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and 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
4928-466: 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
5104-469: 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
5280-521: 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
5456-578: 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
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5632-513: 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 ")
5808-480: 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
5984-506: 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
6160-573: 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
6336-614: 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 ,
6512-575: 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
6688-639: 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
6864-404: 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
7040-525: 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,
7216-519: 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
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7392-564: 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
7568-450: 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
7744-548: 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
7920-486: 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
8096-579: 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
8272-526: 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
8448-526: 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
8624-548: The Wanze Sugar Factory . It was located on the Avenue de Rosaraie and closed down in 1959. Some remaining buildings are now used by a high-end restaurant. During World War II Perwez suffered from an accidental disaster. On 13 May 1940, a French ammunition storage or mine in the center of town was hit and exploded. There were 33 casualties. The French then ignited other mines, leading to much destruction. On 6 September 1944 Perwez
8800-489: 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
8976-471: 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
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#17330847697879152-434: 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
9328-630: 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
9504-512: 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
9680-531: 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
9856-594: The 1st Division and the German IX Corps near Tienen, in which the Belgians had 1,630 casualties. Brussels , the Belgian capital, was captured on 20 August, as the Belgian Field Army arrived at Antwerp. Namur fell on 24 August, at the same time that the field army made a sortie from Antwerp towards Brussels. The Belgian government of Charles de Broqueville left Brussels and moved to Antwerp to avoid capture by
10032-541: The 1st Division frontally and on the northern flank, which the 1st Division repulsed only with great difficulty. With information that five German corps and six reserve corps were in Belgium and with no support from the French Army and British Expeditionary Force (BEF) ready, the Belgian Field Army was ordered to withdraw towards Antwerp on the evening of 18 August. It arrived on 20 August, with little interference from German advanced parties, except for an engagement between
10208-689: The 3rd Division from Illies to Aubers and three divisions of the French Cavalry Corps of General Conneau in position from Fromelles to Le Maisnil, the BEF III Corps with the 6th Division from Radinghem to Epinette and the 4th Division from Epinette to Pont Rouge, the BEF Cavalry Corps with the 1st and 2nd Cavalry divisions, from Deulemont to Tenbrielen, the BEF IV Corps with the 7th Division and 3rd Cavalry Division from Zandvoorde to Oostnieuwkirke,
10384-502: The 3rd Sector and the Scheldt, only light forces held the 3rd Sector and the 4th Division held the sector around Dendermonde. The 1st and 2nd divisions were sent to the 3rd Sector and the 5th Division took up reserve positions behind them. The Belgian Army made a first sortie from Antwerp to help French and British troops engaged in fighting at the Sambre and at the Mons Canal . The operation
10560-535: The 3rd and 6th divisions moved first and the remaining troops less the 2nd Division in Antwerp, formed a flank guard on the Scheldt and the Durme. The Belgian army headquarters moved to Zelzate 25 mi (40 km) further west. A Belgian improvised brigade was at Ghent and British troops in the area were requested to move to Ghent, after a German cavalry division was reported to be near Kruishoutem 12 mi (19 km) to
10736-472: The 4th Division had been reduced to 4,800 infantry. The Belgian commanders ordered the left flank of the army to withdraw to another line of defence north of the Nete, which covered the gap in the outer defences and kept the city out of range of German super-heavy artillery. Proclamations warning the inhabitants that King Albert I and his Government would leave Antwerp, were put up during the day. Fort Sint-Katelijne-Waver and Dorpveld redoubt were taken during
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#173308476978710912-438: The 7th Division moved to join the French and Belgian forces at Ghent, as the 3rd Cavalry Division and the rest of the 7th Division assembled at Bruges; the French 87th Territorial Division was ordered to stop its move to Antwerp at Poperinghe. The British forces came under the command of the BEF as IV Corps, with the 8th Division once it arrived from England (11 November). The BEF II Corps was assembling at Abbeville and Rawlinson,
11088-502: 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
11264-543: The Belgian 2nd Division, the Royal Naval Division and the fortress garrison held the line of the inner forts at Antwerp, the Belgian field army was moving west between Ghent and the coast, a French naval brigade was en route to Ghent and the British 7th Division had concentrated at Bruges. Further west in a gap 50 mi (80 km) wide to the south-west of Ghent, Allied cavalry covered the ground between Lens and Hazebrouck, against three German cavalry divisions probing westwards. On 8 October at Antwerp, Landwehr Brigade 37
11440-455: The Belgian field army and the British Royal Naval Division in the Antwerp area, after the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914. The city, which was ringed by forts known as the National Redoubt , was besieged to the south and east by German forces. The Belgian forces in Antwerp conducted three sorties in late September and early October, which interrupted German plans to send troops to France, where reinforcements were needed to counter
11616-424: The Belgians to retire towards Liège. By the evening it was clear to the Belgian High Command that the 3rd Division and the Liège garrison were in the path of a very large invasion force. On 5 August the Battle of Liège began, when the Germans tried to capture the fortified city of Liège by a coup de main and then attempted a night attack, which collapsed in confusion until General Erich Ludendorff rallied
11792-466: The Belgians, French and British at Ostend on 10 October, decided to hold Ghent as the Belgian field army continued its retirement. By nightfall the 1st, 3rd and 4th divisions were at Ostend, the 5th and 6th divisions were at Torhout and Diksmuide and the Antwerp garrison troops were in an area north-west of Ghent. The German besiegers had not discovered the retirement and the 4th Ersatz Division and Landwehr troops at Lokeren and Moerbeke , turned east towards
11968-519: The British and French governments for help. On 1 October the German attack began on Forts Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Walem and the Bosbeek and Dorpveld redoubts by the 5th Reserve and Marine divisions. By 11:00 a.m. Fort Walem was severely damaged, Fort Lier had been hit by a 16 in (410 mm) shell, Fort Koningshooikt and the Tallabert and Bosbeek redoubts were mostly intact and the intervening ground between Fort Sint-Katelijne-Waver and Dorpveld redoubt had been captured. A counter-attack had failed and
12144-435: The Dender; attempts were made to cross the Scheldt at Schoonaarde and Dendermonde. At dawn on 5 October, two German battalions of Reserve Infantry Regiment 26 crossed the Nete at Anderstad farm, 1 mi (1.6 km) below Lier, under cover of enfilade fire from the outskirts of Lier, using a trestle bridge built in a creek nearby. The crossing-point was screened from view by vegetation and the two battalions were able to hold
12320-403: The Duffel redoubt. The Belgian 2nd Division at the east side of the 3rd Sector, began to retire across the Nete at noon and an hour later the 1st Division began to withdraw to an unfinished intermediate position, from Rumst 2 mi (3.2 km) north-west of Fort Walem to Duffel and Lisp, 1 mi (1.6 km) above Lier, which had bridgeheads at Duffel , Anderstad and Lier. The 2nd Division
12496-417: 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
12672-479: 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
12848-415: 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
13024-524: 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
13200-408: 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
13376-592: 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
13552-654: The French Groupe Bidon and the de Mitry Cavalry Corps from Roulers to Cortemarck, the French 87th and 89th Territorial Divisions from Passchendaele to Boesinghe and then the Belgian Field Army and fortress troops from Boesinghe to Nieuport (including the Fusilier Marin brigade at Dixmude). The Battle of the Yser began on 16 October. Dutch language Dutch ( endonym : Nederlands [ˈneːdərlɑnts] )
13728-487: The French 87th Territorial Division around Ypres. The German IV Cavalry Corps had moved south four days previously, except for several Uhlan who were disturbed by a party arranging billets and captured by the 10th Hussars. By 18 October the Belgian, British and French troops in northern France and Belgium had formed a line with the BEF II Corps in position with the 5th Division from La Bassée Canal north to Beau Puits,
13904-531: The French Fusiliers Marins brigade moved on to Dixmude. At Thielt on the night of 12/13 October, General Capper, the 7th Division commander was informed that German cavalry near Hazebrouck had retired on the approach of the British II Corps, leaving the country west of the 7th Division clear of German forces. The division reached Roulers on 13/14 October, met BEF cavalry near Kemmel and linked with
14080-480: The French armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). A German bombardment of the Belgian fortifications with heavy and super-heavy artillery began on 28 September. The Belgian garrison had no hope of victory without relief; despite the arrival of the Royal Naval Division beginning on 3 October, the Germans penetrated the outer ring of forts. When the German advance began to compress a corridor from
14256-412: The French army, did not intend to attack immediately and the Belgian forces returned to Antwerp. On the night of 25/26 August, the city was bombed by a German Zeppelin airship. Ten Belgian civilians were killed but the bombing failed to undermine the morale of the garrison. By 27 August reports to OHL led Moltke to believe that the Belgian army had lost its offensive capacity and ordered the brigade of
14432-507: The German attack had reached a line within 5–6 mi (8.0–9.7 km) of the city, which would be in range of the German guns as soon as they were brought across the Nete. The 6th Division was moved through Temse to reinforce the 4th Division and the Cavalry Division, which was guarding the escape corridor to the west. Two British naval brigades had arrived early on 6 October to reinforce the Marine Brigade but were diverted to forts 1–8 of
14608-631: The Germans, who detached the III Reserve Corps from the First Army to mask the city from positions either side of the Dyle Canal. A brigade of the IV Reserve Corps was sent to occupy Brussels. The IX Reserve Corps was ordered to move to Antwerp on 22 August. As part of the war planning conducted by Schlieffen and then Moltke between 1898 and 1914, a plan had been made to isolate Antwerp, to counter
14784-519: The IV Reserve Corps at Brussels, to move south to rejoin the corps at Péronne. On 2 September German intelligence sources in Brussels reported that c. 40,000 British troops had landed at Ostend, occupied the coast westwards to Boulogne and reinforced the Belgian Army in Antwerp. Beseler attacked on 4 September, with three divisions on either side of the Scheldt towards Termonde, which captured
14960-452: The King planned to withdraw west of a line from St Omer–Calais to rest the army, incorporate recruits and train replacements but was persuaded to assemble the army on a line from Dixmude, north to the port of Nieuport and Furnes 5 mi (8.0 km) to the south-west of the port to maintain occupation of Belgian territory. The Belgian Army continued its retirement on 11 and 12 October, covered by
15136-560: The Military Governor, General Deguise to surrender. As German parlementaires made their way to Antwerp, four civilian representatives, including the Mayor of Antwerp, Jan De Vos , reached Beseler at Kontich, to request an end to the bombardment of the city. During the afternoon, under threat of a resumption of the bombardment, the civilian representatives signed a capitulation of the city and such fortresses which continued to hold out. On
15312-463: The Nete and the inner forts, from Vremde 5 mi (8.0 km) south-east of the centre of Antwerp, to the Lier–Antwerp road and then south-west around Kontich during the day. The Marine Brigade moved to trenches north of the Lier–Antwerp road, under command of the Belgian 2nd Division. On the western flank at Dendermonde on the Scheldt, 18 mi (29 km) south of Antwerp, Landwehr Brigade 37
15488-520: 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
15664-412: 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
15840-622: The Netherlands and France; most returned after the siege but a sizeable number of the refugees in the Netherlands remained after 1918. Several Belgian military refugees are nowadays buried or commemorated at the Belgian Military Field of Honour 1914–1918 in Harderwijk . In the History of the Great War (1915–1948), the official British account of World War I, James Edmonds wrote that although
16016-530: 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,
16192-469: The Netherlands, where they were interned for the rest of the war, as far as possible from the Belgian border, for fear of compromising Dutch neutrality. The British troops were interned at Groningen and the Belgians were accommodated at Zeist , Gaasterland, Amersfoort , and Oldebroek . The internees were employed in various industries. Germans who crossed the frontier were interned at Bergen. About one million civilian refugees left in 1914 for Great Britain,
16368-588: The Scheldt at Dendermonde . The Belgian commanders had received reports that the IX Reserve Corps and the 6th Division of the III Reserve Corps, were being relieved by the Marine Division and Landwehr troops. The Germans had received agent reports of an imminent sortie from Antwerp, troops concentrations in western Belgium and northern France and the arrival of more British troops at Ostend. With
16544-406: The Scheldt by 11:30 p.m. The British began to retire at 7:00 p.m. but the orders failed to reach all of the 1st Naval Brigade, only one battalion of which withdrew. At 9:30 p.m. the mistake was realised as the rest of the division began to cross the river from 10:00–11:30 p.m. and moved west parallel to the Dutch frontier. The 1st Naval Brigade reached the Scheldt at midnight, only to find that
16720-655: 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
16896-603: 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
17072-412: The approach of four German corps towards Ypres, which caused delays to all the German manoeuvres in the north. Edmonds wrote that it had been a mistake to assume that second line troops were sufficient to hold fortifications and that the effect on recruits and over-aged reservists of being subjected to heavy artillery-fire, which destroyed "impregnable" defences as the field forces retreated to safety, had
17248-708: 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
17424-420: The beginning of the war, building positions in the intervals between the forts, inundations formed and the foreground cleared of obstructions. The clearances proved unwise, since they made the forts visible, trenches could only be dug 1 ft (0.30 m) deep, because of the high water-table and had no overhead cover. During the German advance to Mechelen, most of the Belgian Army occupied the 4th Sector between
17600-614: 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 )
17776-413: The bridges were being demolished and under a German shrapnel bombardment. The troops crossed using barges and boats and set out for a rendezvous at Zwijndrecht , which was reached at 4:00 a.m. on 9 October. The British moved on to Sint-Gillis-Waas , where information arrived that the Germans had cut the railway at Moerbeke. The British commander Commodore Henderson, decided to head for the Dutch border to
17952-472: 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
18128-419: The city before the withdrawal was discovered. The III Reserve Corps and the 4th Ersatz Division were then ordered to turn west and advance on Kortrijk . The move was to prolong the main German front, before being sent towards Ghent and Bruges, with orders to reach Blankenberge and Ostend on the coast. On 11 October, German troops were detected advancing on Ghent but by then the Belgian fortress troops had joined
18304-530: The city crossed the Scheldt on two narrow pontoon bridges at the city centre and at Burcht . Trains had to run south along the right bank, cross the Rupel near German infantry positions only 10,000 yd (5.7 mi; 9.1 km) from the siege guns at Mechelen and then cross the railway bridge at Temse 12 mi (19 km) away. From 29 September – 7 October trains with lights extinguished, ran each night unopposed. The 4th Division assembled at Dendermonde, where
18480-424: The city, which had been built after 1882. A group of two forts and three coastal batteries defended the Scheldt and there were a small number of prepared inundations. Forts built at Liège and Namur on the Meuse were of similar construction and intended to be "barrier forts and bridgeheads", a first line of defence in the event of an invasion from the east or south-east. On 2 August 1914, the Belgian government refused
18656-553: 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
18832-516: The command of Major-General Archibald Paris , were ordered by First Lord of the Admiralty , Winston Churchill , to continue the defence for as long as possible and to be ready to cross to the west bank rather than participate in a surrender. Early on 7 October, two battalions of Landwehr Regiment 37 were able to cross the Scheldt at Schoonaerde by boat, during a thick fog. The Belgian 6th Division made several counter-attacks which were repulsed and
19008-424: The commander of the new IV Corps, was instructed to hold on at Ghent for as long as possible. The retirement from Antwerp proceeded satisfactorily and no German troops were seen west of Aalst, 15 mi (24 km) south-east of Ghent. A German force encountered at Melle 4 mi (6.4 km) from Ghent on the night of 9/10 October was driven off with many casualties by the French marines. A conference between
19184-430: The concentration of more troops and Landsturm at Brussels underway, the reports caused no alarm. The Belgian Army Command considered that the German attack on 4 September was a feint and began to plan another sortie, to induce the Germans to recall the troops being transferred to France and to disrupt German communications in central Belgium. German troop withdrawals were observed from 5–7 September. A frontal attack
19360-522: The confluence of the Dender and the Scheldt rivers at Dendermonde, through which the defenders of Antwerp retained contact with western Belgium and the Allied forces operating on the coast and in northern France. After the Siege of Maubeuge in France, German super-heavy artillery was moved towards Antwerp which like Liège and Namur, would be untenable unless it could be incorporated into the main Allied front line, like
19536-413: 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
19712-521: The danger of being trapped on the east bank. On the night of 6/7 October the 1st, 3rd and 5th divisions crossed the river and joined the Cavalry, 4th and 6th divisions, as the eight forts of the inner ring were taken over by fortress troops. Intervening trenches between forts 2 and 7 were occupied by the two British naval brigades and the 4th and 7th Fortress regiments, with the Belgian 2nd Division and British Marine Brigade in reserve. The British forces under
19888-535: 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
20064-485: The defence of Antwerp with the garrison troops and move the Belgian 2nd Division and the British troops across the Scheldt, when the erroneous report was corrected and it was decided that if forts 1 and 2 were lost, the Royal Naval Division would withdraw at dusk. News arrived that the forts had fallen at 5:00 p.m. and orders were sent to the Belgian 2nd Division and the British to retire. The Belgian division withdrew in stages between 6:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. and crossed
20240-660: The defences on the west side of the National Redoubt at Dendermonde and the Waasland , attacked German troops moving westward from Aalst . Although they succeeded in making a small advance, a counter-attack by Landwehr Brigade 37, supported by heavy artillery, led to the cancelling of the assault. On 28 September, the German bombardment of the Antwerp fortresses began. The German bombardment began on 28 September, with German siege guns directed by observation balloons on gun emplacements, flanking positions and magazines , which were
20416-585: 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
20592-469: 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
20768-550: The duration of the war. Belgian troops from Antwerp withdrew to the Yser river, close to the French border and dug in, to begin the defence of the last unoccupied part of Belgium and fought the Battle of the Yser against the German 4th Army in October and November 1914. The Belgian Army held the area until late in 1918, when it participated in the Allied liberation of Belgium. The city of Antwerp (military governor general, Victor Deguise )
20944-464: The east bank from Dixmude to the sea, in the Battle of the Yser (16–31 October). The Allied forces around Ghent withdrew on the approach of German forces on 11 October. The British 7th Division moved to Aeltre 10 mi (16 km) to the west, made rendezvous with British detachments, which had moved inland from Bruges and began to march to Ypres. The southern flank was covered by the 3rd Cavalry Division, which had moved from Thourout to Roulers and
21120-482: 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,
21296-496: The escape route and at Antwerp, German heavy artillery had been moved across the Nete to bombard forts 3–5 of the inner ring and the city. Fires could not be put out after the waterworks had been hit; rampart gates on the enceinte (main defensive wall) where the wet ditches were bridged were also bombarded. The shelling of forts 3–5 caused little damage but forts 1 and 2 facing east, were attacked by Landwehr Brigade 26 to outflank forts 8–5, which faced south to cut off
21472-412: The field army and a staged withdrawal from Ghent from 3:00–10:00 p.m. had begun, after which German troops entered the city. Several bridges were demolished during the retirement, although crowds of civilians on the main road and rail bridges led to those not being destroyed. Early on 9 October German troops found some of the forts of the inner ring empty; Beseler had the bombardment stopped and summoned
21648-472: The fortified regions of Verdun and Belfort in France. On 25 September the French General Staff (GQG) requested another sortie from Antwerp. The Belgian General Staff began to plan another operation. Signs of German preparations for a general attack on Antwerp, led to the forces intended for the sortie being reduced. The 5th Division, elements of the 4th Division and the Cavalry Division, which held
21824-411: The fortress and blew the bridges to the north. After the end of the first sortie, the Belgian field army joined the fortress troops in improving the defences between the forts, while the German besiegers consolidated their positions on an east–west line, about 8 mi (13 km) north of Brussels and 4–5 mi (6.4–8.0 km) away from the outer forts. On 31 August Beseler was made responsible for
22000-413: The frontier, which was assumed to mean that the Belgian army was not trying to escape to the west. The Belgian command had expected to withdraw the 1st and 5th divisions by rail but a lack of rolling stock led to most troops moving by road, while the 2nd Division remained in Antwerp, the 3rd Division was at Lokeren, the 4th, 6th divisions were on either flank and the Cavalry Division was to the west, covering
22176-541: The garrisons. Erroneous reports to the Belgian and British commanders before dawn on 8 October that forts 1, 2 and 4 had fallen, led to a decision that if they were not recaptured, the inner line would be abandoned at dusk and the defenders withdrawn to the city ramparts. The ramparts were earth parapets with shelters underneath and had caponiers (passages) protruding on the flanks, with moats 60 yd (55 m) wide and 10–15 ft (3.0–4.6 m) deep in front. The Belgian and British commanders decided to continue
22352-508: The ground between Brussels and Antwerp. Beseler abandoned the pre-war plan and substituted an attack from south of Antwerp, towards forts Walem, Sint-Katelijne-Waver and then an exploitation northwards in the area of forts Koningshooikt , Lier , Kessel , four intermediate works, the river Nete and an inundation 400–500 yd (370–460 m) wide. The 6th and 5th reserve , marine and 4th Ersatz divisions forced Belgian outposts back 4–5 mi (6.4–8.0 km) on 28 September and formed
22528-415: 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
22704-486: The infantry. Ludendorff attacked again around noon on 6 August and found no opposition in the city, the Belgian 3rd Division having been withdrawn to the Gete . The Germans began a siege of the fortress, which fell on 16 August. On 10 August German cavalry reached the Gete and Jägers began to move northwards to Diest and Hasselt. On 12 August German cavalry and Jäger attacked at the Battle of Halen and were driven off after
22880-685: 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
23056-451: The inner forts and the city within range of the German heavy artillery. Orders for a counter-attack against the German battalions on the north bank were not issued until 1:15 a.m. on 6 October and did not arrive in time to all of the Belgian and British units in the area. Attacks made at local initiative by some Belgian units which recaptured some ground before being repulsed. The defenders withdrew to another unfinished position midway between
23232-507: The inner ring, where the trenches were again found to be shallow and the ground cleared for 500 yd (460 m) in front which made them easily visible to German artillery observers. In northern France, German troops engaged in mutual outflanking attempts, from the Aisne northwards since September, had reached Arras. Lens was captured by I Bavarian Reserve Corps on 5 October. Three German cavalry corps had attempted another flanking manoeuvre to
23408-408: The landing of the 3rd Cavalry Division, parts of which arrived on 8 October. By the night of 8/9 October, the Belgian field army had escaped from Antwerp and had assembled north-west of Ghent, which was garrisoned by three Allied brigades; at Ostend 37 mi (60 km) from Ghent, were the British 7th Division and the 3rd Cavalry Division. At Lokeren, the German attack on Antwerp had begun to close
23584-548: 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
23760-618: 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
23936-437: 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
24112-455: The morning of 10 October, when the Chief of Staff of the Military Governor appeared with authority to discuss surrender, he was presented with a fait accompli and had to agree to the terms already accepted. The last c. 30,000 men of the Antwerp garrison surrendered and the city was occupied by German troops until November 1918. 33,000 soldiers of the Antwerp garrison fled north to
24288-525: The most vital parts of the forts, had by 6:00 p.m. on 29 September with extraordinary accuracy, made Fort Sint-Katelijne-Waver untenable and extensively damaged Fort Walem. Preparations to evacuate the Belgian Army to Ostend were begun by the Belgian Army Headquarters on 29 September and wounded, recruits, untrained men, prisoners of war, transport, equipment, ammunition and industrial machinery were gradually moved from Antwerp. The route out of
24464-474: The night of 1/2 October but Walem and the Bosbeek redoubt were not captured until the afternoon of 2 October, after every available German gun was used to bombard them. German bombardment of gun emplacements, destruction of magazines and the exhaustion of Belgian ammunition led to Forts Walem and Koningshooikt falling to the Germans and the evacuation or surrender of the remaining defences in the 3rd Sector except for
24640-403: The north and IV Cavalry Corps had reached Zwartberg and Mont des Cats near Ypres. The advance of the German army threatened to block the western retreat route of the Belgian army out of Antwerp. On 6 October discussions between the British and Belgians, led to a decision to withdraw the field army to the west bank of the Scheldt, where it could maintain contact with a relieving force and avoid
24816-488: The north and at 10:00 p.m. c. 1,500 men, half the original complement were interned and about forty stragglers managed to sneak along the border and escape. The British forces in Belgium were instructed on 8 October to cover the retirement of the Belgians and British from Antwerp to Ghent, Zelzate, Ostend, Torhout and Diksmuide and then join the left flank of the BEF, as it advanced into Flanders. On 9 October most of
24992-507: The operations to save Antwerp had failed, the resistance of the defenders (after the outer forts were destroyed) detained German troops, when they were needed for operations against Ypres and the coast . Ostend and Zeebrugge were captured unopposed, while further west Nieuwpoort (Nieuport) and Dunkirk were held by the Allies, which thwarted the final German attempt to turn the Allied northern flank. The troops from Antwerp were also needed to cover
25168-483: The original Cavalry Division and a second one formed from divisional cavalry, along with cyclists and motor machine-gun sections. On 14 October the Belgian army began to dig in along the Yser, the 6th and 5th Divisions to the north of French territorial divisions from Boesinghe, along the Yser canal to Dixmude, where the Fusiliers Marins had formed a bridgehead, covered by the artillery of the Belgian 3rd Division, with
25344-526: 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
25520-533: The passage of German troops through Belgium to France and on the night of 3/4 August the Belgian General Staff ordered the 3rd Division to Liège to obstruct a German advance. The German army invaded Belgium on the morning of 4 August. Covered by the 3rd Division, the Liège fortress garrison, a screen of the Cavalry Division and detachments from Liège and Namur, the rest of the Belgian Field Army closed up to
25696-509: The possibility that Belgian forces reinforced by British troops, would threaten the northern flank of the German armies involved in the invasion of France. The plan anticipated operations by eleven divisions from seven reserve corps on the east of the National Redoubt, where inundations were impossible. In 1914 the siege was conducted by only six divisions, one of which was needed to guard the Liège–Brussels railway between Tienen and Brussels and
25872-517: 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
26048-411: 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
26224-496: The railway to Ghent. The 4th and 6th divisions began to retire during the day, although delayed by the German advance to Lokeren and during the night of 8/9 October, most of the field army moved west of the Ghent–Zelzate Canal, with rearguards from Loochristy northwards; the 4th Brigade moved to Ghent, where French Fusiliers Marins arrived in the morning. The British 7th Division moved from Bruges to Ostend, to cover
26400-489: The region, joining the 30th Division of XV Corps from Alsace, which conducted operations against the sortie between 10–13 September around Brussels. The Belgian advance was stopped and the army retired to Antwerp on 13 September. At Antwerp, the German concentration of troops on the south-eastern side of the line had left a gap to the north from the Dender to the Dutch frontier. The gap spanned about 13 mi (21 km) at
26576-544: The rest of the division in reserve at Lampernisse to the west. The 4th, 1st and 2nd Divisions prolonged the line north with advanced posts at Beerst, Keyem, Schoore and Mannekensvere, about 1 mi (1.6 km) forward on the east bank. A bridgehead was also held near the coast around Lombartzyde and Westende to cover Nieuport, with the 2nd Cavalry Division in reserve. On 18 October the German III Reserve Corps from Antwerp, began operations against Belgian outposts on
26752-509: 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
26928-423: 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
27104-414: The river Gete and by 4 August, the 1st Division had assembled at Tienen , the 5th Division at Perwez , the 2nd Division at Leuven and the 6th Division at Wavre , covering central and western Belgium and the communications towards Antwerp. German cavalry appeared at Visé early on 4 August and found the bridge down and Belgian troops on the west bank. The Germans found a ford, crossed the river and forced
27280-481: The river bank until dark when two more battalions crossed the river. Attacks at Lier had taken the town up to the line of the Kleine Nete and on the flank had reached the line of the inundations. German artillery commenced a bombardment of Fort Broechem to the north, which was devastated and evacuated on 6 October. The Belgian commanders decided to continue the defence of Antwerp, since the German advance had not brought
27456-517: 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
27632-537: The security of the German forces around Antwerp from relief attempts from the west. Landsturm battalions were transferred from the Generalgouverneur appointed to administer occupied Belgium, Field Marshal Von der Goltz and a division of the Marinekorps was ordered to the area. On 1 September, the Belgians received information that the Germans were preparing to advance towards the Belgian western flank, on
27808-402: 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
27984-472: The south-west. Later in the day German troops entered fort Broechem and the Massenhoven redoubt to the north unopposed, which widened the gap in the Antwerp defence perimeter to 14 mi (23 km) and began to move German super-heavy artillery over the Nete, which took until 8 October. At 11:25 p.m. on 7 October German 6 in (150 mm) howitzers began to bombard the city. By the night of 7 October
28160-534: 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
28336-463: 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
28512-477: 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
28688-412: The west of the city along the Dutch border to the coast, through which the Belgians at Antwerp had maintained contact with the rest of unoccupied Belgium, the Belgian Field Army commenced a withdrawal westwards towards the coast. On 9 October, the remaining garrison surrendered, the Germans occupied the city and some British and Belgian troops escaped to the Netherlands further north to be interned for
28864-534: Was considered to be impossible given the extent of the German trenches but an attack on the eastern flank was considered possible. Two divisions were to remain inside the Antwerp defences, while three divisions and cavalry were to attack towards Aarschot. Important crossings over the Demer and Dyle rivers were quickly taken, Aarschot was captured and by 10 September, the cavalry reached the city of Leuven. The German 6th Reserve Division and IX Reserve Corps were recalled to
29040-509: Was defended by numerous forts and other defensive positions and was considered to be impregnable. Since the 1880s, Belgian defence planning had been based on holding barrier forts on the Meuse (Maas) at Liège and at the confluence of the Meuse and the Sambre rivers at Namur , to prevent French or German armies from crossing the river, with the option of a retreat to the national redoubt at Antwerp, as
29216-514: Was demolished somewhat before 1870. The main source of wealth for Perwez was its market, which relied on agricultural products. In the modern era (1500-1800) Perwez got a cloth hall and a wheats exchange halle aux grains . In 1511 it got an annual October market. In 1577 troops paid by the rebellious States General camped near Perwez. During the Franco-Dutch War many houses and harvests were destroyed. The subsequent Nine Years' War
29392-451: Was intended to distract the III Reserve and IX Reserve corps observing Antwerp and to cut German communications through Leuven and Brussels. After reconnaissance on 24 August, four divisions advanced southwards from Mechelen the next day, leaving one division of infantry and the Cavalry Division in reserve. The sortie was halted on 26 August, after receiving news of the withdrawal of the French and British and that Joseph Joffre , commander of
29568-401: Was on the Roman road from Bavay to Cologne. This resulted in three tumuli which are no longer visible today. In 1977 a tomb with several Roman artefacts was discovered near the farm of Long Pont. In Medieval times, Perwez often suffered from its position near the border between the Duchy of Brabant and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège . Perwez developed around its church and its castle, which
29744-420: Was reinforced by Bavarian Landwehr Brigade 1 and Ersatz Brigade 9 from the 4th Ersatz Division, which was being relieved by the Marine Division. The German attack pushed forward 8 mi (13 km), which was close to Lokeren and also 8 mi (13 km) from the Dutch border. German air reconnaissance had reported that roads west of Antwerp were clear and many people were moving north towards
29920-412: Was reinforced by Reserve Ersatz Brigade 1 and attempted to cross the river from 5–6 October at Schoonaarde, Dendermonde and Baasrode, 3 mi (4.8 km) downstream but were repulsed. By the afternoon of 6 October the 3rd and 6th divisions still held ground in front of the outer forts, between Fort Walem and the Scheldt to the south-west of Antwerp and around to the west but in the south and south-east
30096-432: Was relieved by the 5th Division and went into reserve. No attempt was made by the Germans to pursue during the retirements, despite the inundations on the south bank of the Nete being only 8–12 in (200–300 mm) deep and patrols reported that no attempt had been made to cut the line of retreat from Antwerp. The Duffel redoubt was evacuated on 3 October after the garrison ran out of ammunition and German artillery-fire
30272-440: 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
30448-416: Was switched to Fort Kessel on the flank of the break-in. Next day German super-heavy guns began to bombard the fort, which forced the garrison to abandon the fort and German preparations for an attack on the line of the Nete were made, opposite Lier at the junction of the Grote and Kleine Nete and Duffel. The Royal Marine Brigade arrived opposite Lier in requisitioned London buses on 4 October and occupied
30624-417: Was under foreign control. In the 19th century, the East Indies trade started to dwindle, and with it the importance of Malacca as a trading post. The Dutch state officially ceded Malacca to the British in 1825. It took until 1957 for Malaya to gain its independence. Despite this, the Dutch language is rarely spoken in Malacca or Malaysia and only limited to foreign nationals able to speak the language. After
30800-403: 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
30976-408: Was utterly ruinous for Perwez. During the 19th century Perwez saw quite some industrialization based on agriculture. In 1870 there were two watermills , two windmills , two tanneries , three breweries and a râperie , linked to a central sugar factory. The râperie was a very significant enterprise, which had 175 employees. It extracted juice from sugar beet, which was then sent by pipeline to
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