Dutch Language

In defining what precisely should be understood by the term General Standard Dutch (Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands, ABN), politicians in The Hague have the last word.

It is in this city that the 'Little Green Book' (Het Groene Boekje), the official list of more than 116,000 Dutch words in their correct spelling, is published by the former State Publishers Sdu.

The founding fathers of the city spoke 'Hollands', a branch of the western Germanic language family. Later, however, the landed gentry at the Binnenhof spoke 'French to men, Italian to women, Spanish to God and Dutch to their horses'.

Willem the Silent had no command of the Dutch language, but used French at the court. The greatest linguistic innovator of his day was Simon Stevin, the technical and scientific adviser to Prince Maurits. He was one of the first scholars of his time to write his scientific works in the vernacular instead of Latin.

In 1804 the Netherlands introduced the first official spelling rules. Today, the Dutch Language Union (Nederlandse Taalunie) advises the Ministers of Culture in the Netherlands and Belgium on how words in ABN should be spelled. The most recent changes date from 2005.

Dutch is spoken by approximately 20 million people in Europe and is nine centuries old. Since 1972 Dutch has also been the name of the official language of Flanders in Belgium.

More information about the Dutch language can be found on: www.taalunieversum.org/en/.