Languages of Belgium

The Kingdom of Belgium has three official languages, which are, in order from the greatest speaker population to the smallest, Dutch, French, and German. A number of non-official, minority languages are spoken as well.

Belgium's official languages are those of its larger, historically more powerful neighbors, France, the Netherlands, and Germany.

Official languages

A Bilingual French-Dutch traffic sign in Brussles

Dutch

Close to 60% percent of the country's population speaks Dutch as primary (Belgian) language.^[1] It is the official language of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region (merged to Flanders) and next to French an official language of the Brussels-Capital Region. The main Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium are Brabantian, West Flemish, East Flemish and Limburgish. The original Brabantian dialect of Brussels is heavily influenced by French, which is nowadays the most spoken.

French

A linguistic map of Belgium: mainly Dutch-speaking areas are marked in yellow; the areas of Belgium which are primarily Francophone are marked in red, with hatching in the Brussels region, which is bilingual with a French majority, and the almost uniformly German-speaking East Cantons in blue.

The Belgian variety of French is with 40% the second-most spoken primary (Belgian) language.^[1] It is the official language of the French Community (which, like the Flemish Community, is a political entity), the dominant language in the Walloon Region (having also a small German-speaking Community) as well as in the Brussels-Capital Region with roughly 95% of its inhabitants able to speak French either as primary language (50%) or as lingua franca (45%).^[2][3] There are also many Flemish people that are able to speak French as a second language. Belgian French is in most respects identical to standard, Parisian French, but differs in some points of vocabulary, pronunciation, and semantics. Ma vie en rose and Man Bites Dog are important Belgian films in the French language.

German

German is the smallest official language in Belgium, spoken by less than 1% of the population, though the 71,000 person population of the German-speaking Community is almost 100% German-speaking. This area of Belgium was taken as part of the Treaty of Versailles with Imperial Germany following World War I, and Nazi Germany re-annexed them during their invasion of Belgium.

Non-official languages

Historically, several other languages have dominated parts of Belgium, particularly Wallonia, which have in recent years given way to French.

An historical linguistic map of Wallonia, before French became the dominant language

Walloon

Walloon is the historical language of southern Belgium, and most of the areas where French is now spoken were Walloon-speaking until relatively recently. It is also the traditional national language of the Walloons. Though it has been recognized, like other "Indigenous languages" in Belgium, since 1990, it is mainly spoken by older people, though younger Walloons may claim some knowledge. It is mainly found in rural regions, and is used in theaters and literature, though not in schools.

Picard

Another historical language, Picard is mostly used in France, and was recognized by the Belgian government in 1990.

Champenois

Champenois was recognized in 1990, and is mainly spoken in Champagne, France, as well as Wallonia.

Lorrain

Like the other indigenous languages, Lorrain was recognized in 1990. It is mainly spoken in Gaume.

Yiddish

Yiddish is spoken by the 20,000 Orthodox Jews living in Antwerp. The community there is among the strongest in Europe, and one of the few places where Yiddish is still the dominant language in a Jewish community (others include Kiryas Joel, New York, and similar Orthodox neighborhoods in the United States, London, Paris, and Israel).

Migrant languages

Other languages spoken by foreign-born persons living in Belgium include: Arabic, Spanish, Turkish, Portuguese, and Italian.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Footnote: Of the inhabitants of Belgium, roughly 59% belong to the Flemish Community, 40% to the French Community and 1% to the German-speaking Community, though these figures relating to official Belgian languages include unknown numbers of immigrants and their children speaking a foreign language as primary language, and of infra-Belgium regional migrants which may be assumed to largely balance one another for natively French and Dutch speakers.
2. ^ Van Parijs, Philippe, Professor of economic and social ethics at the UCLouvain, Visiting Professor at Harvard University and the KULeuven. "Belgium's new linguistic challenges" (pdf 0.7 MB). KVS Express (supplement to newspaper De Morgen) March–April 2007: Article from original source (pdf 4.9 MB) pages 34–36 republished by the Belgian Federal Government Service (ministry) of Economy — Directorate-general Statistics Belgium. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.  — The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail.
3. ^ "Van autochtoon naar allochtoon" (in Dutch). De Standaard (newspaper) online. Retrieved on 2007-05-05. “Meer dan de helft van de Brusselse bevolking is van vreemde afkomst. In 1961 was dat slechts 7 procent. (More than half of the Brussels' population is of foreign origin. In 1961 this was only 7 percent.)” 

• This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook (2006 edition) which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.
• http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=wln
• http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=BE

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