Dutch language

Dutch
Nederlands
Pronunciation[ˈneːdərlɑnts]  ( listen)
Native toNetherlands and Flanders
RegionNetherlands, Belgium, and Suriname;
also in Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, French Flanders
Ethnicity
Native speakers
22 million (2016)[1]
Total (L1 plus L2 speakers): 28 million (2018)[2]
Early forms
Signed Dutch (NmG)
Official status
Official language in

Regulated byNederlandse Taalunie
(Dutch Language Union)
Language codes
ISO 639-1nl
ISO 639-2dut (B)
nld (T)
ISO 639-3nld Dutch/Flemish
Glottologmode1257
Linguasphere52-ACB-a
Dutch-speaking world (included are areas of daughter-language Afrikaans)
Distribution of the Dutch language and its dialects in Western Europe
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Dutch (Dutch: Nederlands) is a West Germanic language. It comes from the Netherlands and is the country's official language.[3] It is also spoken in the northern half of Belgium (the region called Flanders), and in the South American country of Suriname. A language known as Afrikaans was developed from Dutch by the people in southern Africa and is now spoken mainly in South Africa but also in nearby Namibia. About 22 million people around the world speak Dutch.[4]

  1. Dutch at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
  2. "Dutch". Languages at Leicester. University of Leicester. Archived from the original on 2014-05-02.
  3. "Language". I Amsterdam. Archived from the original on 6 October 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  4. Wayne C. Thompson, Western Europe 2015-2016 (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), p. 201

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