Flemish or Dutch?
I have studied languages and for years I was struggling with the terms Flemish and Dutch.
I therefore contacted some well-known language institutes in 2004. I then reached the decision that Flemish and Dutch were two different spoken languages but one and the same written language.
That was also the opinion of the Taalunie ('Language Union') which wrote that there is no standard Dutch spoken language, but that Dutch consists of two sub-standards: "As far as the spoken varieties are concerned, there is a divergence. In the past few years spoken language has become much more informal which means that each variety, Dutch and Flemish, have adopted terms from the own regional language. The informal Dutch adopted terms from the Dutch sub-standard language while Flemish adopted terms from the Flemish siub-standard."
This meant foremost that according to the Taalunie it is correct when a Flemish person says he is speaking Flemish and not Dutch. The Taalunie says: "The consequence of all of this is that we can consider Dutch to be a language with different sub-standards. The Taalunie's opinion is that those sub-standards need to be considered as factual achievements that have a right to social recognition and status."
When dealing with written language, the Taalunie says: "As far as the formal language, usually written language, is concerned, there is a convergence. The written language varieties (e.g. newspaper language) in the Netherlands and Flanders have grown towards each other in the past decades. This is also the case for formal spoken language, like the language in news broadcasts."
I also turned to Van Dale lexicografie (publisher of the leading Dutch explanatory dictionary). It has often disturbed me that the Dutch people showed a lack of respect towards the Flemish people. Van Dale gave me a satisfying answer: "Van Dale Lexicografie is a Dutch publisher and therefore opts for a Dutch perspective."
Another problem is the label that Van Dale uses for Flemish
words. They are using 'Belgian Dutch' and not 'Flemish' because "Belgian
Dutch is a neutral, linguistic name for the language in Flanders. A
name like '“Flemish” is not a good alternative because many Flemish
people regard Flemish as being too dialectic. A second argument against
"Flemish" is that it does not only denote 'Flanders' but also the
provinces of 'East and West Flanders', so next to 'Brabanthic' and
'Limburgian'. As many linguistic texts use 'Flemish' in this narrow
meaning, it might cause confusion when we use it to denote the whole of
Flanders."
I believe that almost noone uses the term 'Flemish' to denote those two
provinces. The currect significance of 'Flemish' is clearly the whole
of Flanders. So to me this seems to be a fallacy which is used to keep
the Belgian nationalists among the linguists satisfied.
Regarding the future, the Taalunie sees it this way: "On the one hand both varieties do not have to be brought closer to one another (see above). Much depends on the social climate: the core is the possibility to deal with variation, not only towards Dutch and Flemish. Think about other 'accents' like Dutch spoken by Antilians, Turkish youngsters, etc. On the other hand the converging and diverging forces need to be kept in balance or at least: the centrifugal forces should not get the upper hand. For the Taalunie this is one of the most important challenges for the coming years!"
I do not agree to this. There is a growing Flemish consciousness and the fact that more and more Flemish people are (re)discovering their identity will also lead to a new language consciousness. For more than hundred years we were taught not to write as we speak but to adopt a foreign language (Dutch). This impeded the development and standardisation of the Flemish language.
Our Flemish language was (and often still is) regarded as inferior and 'bad Dutch'. Therefore everybody had to write Dutch.
Flemish is different enough to be considered a separate language, just as Catalan is compared to Spanish or Norwegian as compared to Swedish.
So my conclusion is: Flemish and Dutch are two different spoken and almost identical written languages. One is not superior to the other.
Herman Boel, 26 December 2004 - thoroughly updated on 10 August 2006.