West Flemish
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| West Flemish | |
|---|---|
| West-Vlaams West-Vlams, West-Vloams |
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| Native to | Belgium, Netherlands, France |
| Region | West Flanders |
| Native speakers | 1.4 million (1998)[1] |
| Language family |
Indo-European
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| Dialects | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: vls – (West) Vlaams zea – Zealandic (Zeeuws) |
| Linguasphere | 52-ACB-ag |
West Flemish (Dutch: West-Vlaams, French: flamand occidental, West Flemish: West-Vlams/West-Vloams), "Flemish" in the linguistic sense, is a language spoken in western Belgium and adjoining parts of the Netherlands and France. It is generally considered a dialect of Dutch, but is incomprehensible to speakers of the Dutch dialects of Antwerp and Amsterdam.[2]
West Flemish is spoken by 1.07 million people in West Flanders (in Belgium), 120,000 in the neighbouring Dutch coastal district of Zeelandic Flanders (and another 220,000 if Zealandic is included), and 10,000 in the northern part of the French département of Nord.[1] Some of the main cities where West Flemish is widely spoken are Bruges, Kortrijk, Ostend, Roeselare, and Ypres. The dialects of the rest of the Dutch province of Zeeland, Zeelandic, are often included in West Flemish; these are part of a dialect continuum which proceeds further north into Hollandic.
West Flemish is listed as a "vulnerable" language in UNESCO's online Red Book of Endangered Languages.[3]
| This article is a part of a series on |
| Dutch dialects |
|---|
| "Dutch Low Saxon" |
| West Low Franconian |
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| East Low Franconian |
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| Low German |
See also [edit]
- Dutch dialects
- Flemish people (Flemings or Vlamingen)
- French Flemish
- Hebban olla vogala
- Westhoek
References [edit]
- ^ a b (West) Vlaams at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
Zealandic (Zeeuws) at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013) - ^ RL Trask, "Number of Languages", in Language and Linguistics: The Key Concepts, 2nd ed. 2007
- ^ UNESCO.org[dead link]
External links [edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: West Flemish language |
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West Flemish edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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