Why is the Dutch language referred to as Flemish in Belgium?

Question

Dutch and Flemish are the same language. Why is the language in Belgium not also known as Dutch?

Answer 1

That's a very good question. It's not that it's difficult to answer, only that most people don't have a clue...
Cisje comes the closest to the right answers: it's mostly flemish pride that causes them to speak of "the flemish language". Flemish people will even speak of the "flemish coastline", although 10 years ago it was still being called the "belgian coastline". Some flemish cities historically have a french name too (like Antwerp - Anvers or Mechelen - Malines, Gent - Gand...) Well, some months ago, those french names were removed from all road signs and official communication.
That's all because of flemish separatist who try to cultivate flemish nationalistic feelings... Sad but true.

Let's set things straight: dutch and flemish are one and the same language. Ok, they have different accents, they sometimes use different expressions and proverbs, but still... stating that flemish is a separate language would be the same as stating that american and british are two separate languages.
The official languages of Belgium are dutch, french and german. Flemish is not mentionned as it's a dialect.
There seems to be confusion about the use of the word dialect too. Linguistically speaking, a dialect is the same as a language, only that it's not fully institutionalized. (That means: it has to be an official language, has to have separate dictionnaries and grammars... etc. which we don't)
A dialect is not in any way inferior to a language.

In the flemish region, almost all people speak some sort of standard dutch, only in a flemish way... But of course, as in all european countries, every city, every village, every region has its own dialect. Those dialects often differ so greatly that people in the east won't understand people in the west (only 200 km apart!) and vice versa. So actually it's pretty hard to speak of a standard flemish. (Although some people seem to believe that the antwerp dialect is standard flemish, because it's spoken on some TV programs)
Mostly the number of people who speak regional dialects is diminuishing.

Answer 2

Flemish Language

Answer 3

Chantal you sound like you're a French Belgian who wishes to re-write history. Belgium is historically the Southern Netherlands. The ill fated United Netherlands of 1815-1830 which saw Belgium breakaway from the union, left the Kingdom of the Netherlands in tatters. The Dutch had to re-write their constitution and continued to describe themselves as the Kingdom of the Netherlands which at the time still included Luxemburg. Netherlands = Lowlands not Holland nor Flanders. But I think they can continue to call themselves The Netherlands despite them not actually owning the name, we won't sue them or anything.

With regards the language, what we call Dutch today was also the language of North West France up till about 1500. The standard Dutch language(s) in those days was definitely Flanders and Brabant as this was the centre of Netherlands commercial activity, then when the Northern provinces manage to shrug themselves clear of Spanish control (the Belgians didn't), the French language started to dominate literature and government documents. With Holland now closed to the Flemish little intellectual input from the north came about. The Flemish speakers were basically the proletariat and anyone who was anyone preferred to speak French in order to succeed in life.

The Dutch republic became a World power and of course the language there continued to develop both spoken and written, this now was Standard Dutch.

It's only been in the past 100 years that Flemish Dutch has made a come back. The Walloon (French) yoke has been cast off and language-wise North and South have re-united. The modern standard Dutch language is settled it's mostly the Amsterdam-The Hague- Utrecht language but the Brabant input Antwerp-Breda-Tilburg can't be overlooked either.

Regarding accents and dialects that's equally true of North and South. in the north there are dialects unintelligible not only to Belgians but to the Dutch themselves like Drents, Zeelandish and particularly with Frisian. Both North and South these accents/dialects are more pronounced depending on the individuals level of education, which of course is the same everywhere.

West Flemish which incidentally is the Dutch language most similar to English along with Frisian runs contiguous to the Zeeland form of Dutch. Brussels Flemish almost died out due to the frenchification of the city, but is now making signs of a bit of a comeback. But in summing it all up, if the Netherlands had remained together way back when, it's likely that standard Dutch would actually be Flemish, so neither Northern or Southern Dutch is a dialect of one or the other. With the teaching of Nederlands the same both sides of the border, they are equals. I've never understood subtitles on Dutch TV for Flemish broadcasts and neither have the Dutch people watching along with me.

One other point worth remembering is the word Dutch has evolved from Duits which is the same word as Deutsch in German. When the Dutch language became associated with the Dutch republic the word Dutch became synonymous with the North as well, but like the term Netherlands they don't own that either. Confused?.

Answer 4

We tend to call it Flemish as we are Flemish people!
It's a sort of proudness I guess...

In reality it's not much different than Dutch besides maybe the dialect words but the Dutchmen also have dialects...

Answer 5

Flemish (Vlaamse) is a dialect of Dutch spoken in Flanders, though the official language (as well as French) of Belgium is Standard Dutch rather than Flemish.

Answer 6

Interesting. My wife is Flemish from Bruges. Her family speaks Old Flemish as does she. She is talking on the phone with her mom right now in Old Flemish. If you want to conquer a culture destroy its language.

Answer 7

Abitmish speaks with forked tongue. Dutch and Flemish are considered two separate languages though very closely related. Its a bit like the relationship between Swedish and Norwegian which are also very close but considered to be separate. The Flemish speakers of Belgium were separated politically from the Protestants in the Netherlands in the 1600s and that also helps explain why the two languages did not merge completely. Flemish is nothing like French - French is a Romance language whereas Flemish is very much a Germanic one.

Answer 8

Because the Flemish always like to do things differently...

Answer 9

In this country it's Flemish, French and German, we have those 3 languages.
Dutch is not official here but given in schools, we are not the Netherlands(with all respect!), so it's not the same language.
We have several same sounds in words between Flemish and Dutch, but we have also in the Flemish a lot of French words.

Answer 10

It is known as dutch too..but Flemish is a DIALECT of Dutch