The Dutch Language Union is an international regulatory institution that governs issues regarding the Dutch language. It is best known for its spelling reforms which are promulgated by member states, grammar books, the Green Booklet and its support of Dutch language courses and studies worldwide. It was founded on a treaty concluded between the Netherlands and Belgium on 9 September 1980. Suriname has been an associate member of the Taalunie since 2004.
IJ is a digraph of the letters i and j. Occurring in the Dutch language, it is sometimes considered a ligature, or a letter in itself. In most fonts that have a separate character for ij, the two composing parts are not connected but are separate glyphs, which are sometimes slightly kerned.
Jersey Dutch, also known as Bergen Dutch, was a Dutch dialect formerly spoken in northeastern New Jersey from the late 17th century until the early 20th century. It evolved in one of the two Dutch-speaking enclaves that remained for over two centuries after the dissolution of Dutch control in North America, the other giving rise to Mohawk Dutch. It may have been a partial creole language based on Zeelandic and West Flemish Dutch dialects with English and possibly some elements of Lenape.
The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal is a dictionary of the Dutch language. It contains between 350,000 and 400,000 entries describing Dutch words from 1500 to 1976. The paper edition consists of 43 volumes on 49,255 pages. It is believed to be the largest dictionary in the world in number of pages. The dictionary was nearly 150 years in the making from 1849; the first volume was published in 1864, and the final volume was presented to Albert II of Belgium and Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1998.
The duit was an old low-value Dutch copper coin. Struck in the 17th and 18th centuries in the territory of the Dutch Republic, it became an international currency. It had the value of 1/8 stuiver.
In Dutch-speaking areas, a schout was a local official appointed to carry out administrative, law enforcement and prosecutorial tasks. The office was abolished with the introduction of administrative reforms during the Napoleonic period.
Theodiscus was a term used in the early Middle Ages to refer to the West Germanic languages. The Latin term was borrowed from the Germanic adjective meaning "of the people" but, unlike it, was used only to refer to languages. In Medieval Western Europe non-native Latin was the language of science, church and administration, hence Latin theodiscus and its Germanic counterparts were used as antonyms of Latin, to refer to the "native language spoken by the general populace". They were subsequently used in the Frankish Empire to denote the native Germanic vernaculars. As such, they were no longer used as antonym of Latin, but of walhisk, a language descendant from Latin, but nevertheless the speech of the general populace as well. In doing so Latin theodiscus and the Germanic reflexes of *þiudiskaz effectively obtained the meaning of "Germanic", or more specifically one of its local varieties – resulting in the English exonym "Dutch", the German endonym Deutsch, the modern Dutch word for "German", Duits, and the obsolete or poetic Dutch word for Dutch and its dialects such as Diets. In Romance languages the same word yielded the Italian word for "German", tedesco, and the old French word used for Dutch or, depending on the locality, German speakers, tiois.
Japanese words of Dutch origin started to develop when the Dutch East India Company initiated trading in Japan from the factory of Hirado in 1609. In 1640, the Dutch were transferred to Dejima, and from then on until 1854 remained the only Westerners allowed access to Japan, during Japan's sakoku seclusion period.
The Word list of the Dutch language is a spelling dictionary of the Dutch language. It is officially established by the Dutch Language Union. Because of the colour of its published form, it is better known as the Green Booklet.
The history of Dutch orthography covers the changes in spelling of Dutch both in the Netherlands itself and in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in Belgium. Up until the 18th century there was no standardization of grammar or spelling. The Latin alphabet had been used from the beginning and it was not easy to make a distinction between long and short vowels (a / aa). The word jaar (year) for instance, could be spelt jar,jaer,jair, or even yaer and iaer. With the spirit of the French Revolution, attempts were made to unify Dutch spelling and grammar. Matthijs Siegenbeek, professor at Leiden was officially asked in 1801 to draw up a uniform spelling.
Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia; it is a separate standard language rather than a national variety, unlike Netherlands Dutch, Belgian Dutch and Surinamese Dutch. An estimated 90 to 95% of Afrikaans vocabulary is ultimately of Dutch origin, so there are few lexical differences between the two languages, however Afrikaans has considerably more regular morphology, grammar, and spelling.
The Grand Dictation of the Dutch Language was a televised spelling test for adults organized by the Belgian newspaper De Morgen, the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant and the Dutch public broadcaster NTR. In May 2017 it was announced no more dictations would be held due to the number of viewers strongly receding.
Dutch profanity can be divided into several categories. Often, the words used in profanity by speakers of Dutch are based around various names for diseases. In many cases, these words have evolved into slang, and many euphemisms for diseases are in common use.
Maurits Gysseling was an influential Belgian researcher into historical linguistics and paleography. He was especially well known for his editions and studies of old texts relevant to the history of the Dutch language, and also for his very detailed analyses of historical place-names and their probable origins.
Flemish is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch, Belgian Dutch, or Southern Dutch. Flemish is native to the region known as Flanders in northern Belgium; it is spoken by Flemings, the dominant ethnic group of the region. Outside of Belgium Flanders, it is also spoken to some extent in French Flanders and the Dutch Zeelandic Flanders.
Stéphanie Hélène Swarth was a prolific Dutch poet active from 1879 to 1938. She is considered one of the Tachtigers and acquired a reputation as a sonneteer.
Johan Hendrik van Dale was a Dutch teacher, archivist, and lexicographer. He created Van Dale's Great Dictionary of the Dutch Language ; first published in 1874, after his death. It was, and in its subsequent editions remains, the leading dictionary of the Dutch language.
Ewoud Sanders is a Dutch historian of the Dutch language and a journalist. He is associated with the Museum Meermanno in The Hague, and is best known to the general public from his regular weekly column WoordHoek in the newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
Reinder van der Meulen was a Dutch linguist. He received his doctorate in 1907. He was appointed a Member of the Dutch Academy of Sciences in 1925. From 1900 to 1907, he was in Leiden, then at the University of Leipzig where he studied Baltic and Slavic languages. Under the supervision of August Leskien, he defended his thesis on Nature comparisons in Lithuanian songs and laments. From 1946 to 1952, he was Full Professor of Baltic and Slavic languages at Leiden University. In 1908 he visited Lithuania. He participated in the II general meeting of the Lithuanian Science Society, and was elected a corresponding member of this society. From 1907 to 1912 worked as a teacher. From 1912 to 1935, he edited the Dictionary of the Dutch Language. He published articles on Lithuanian onomastics and the Prussian language in the publications of the Dutch Academy of Sciences.
