Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The countries that comprise the region called the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) all have comparatively the same toponymy.Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nedre, Nether, Lage(r) or Low(er) (in Germanic languages) and Bas or Inferior (in Romance languages) are in use in low-lying places all over Europe.
The Benelux Union (Dutch: Benelux Unie; [8] French: Union Benelux; [9] Luxembourgish: Benelux-Unioun) [10] or Benelux is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. [11]
Knowledge of foreign languages in the Netherlands, in percent of the population over 15, 2006. Data taken from an EU survey. [8] Knowledge of the German language in the Netherlands, 2005. According to the Eurobarometer: 70% of the respondents indicated that they know German well enough to have a conversation.
When concerning language, the word duche could be used as a hypernym for several languages (The North est Contrey which lond spekyn all maner Duche tonge – The North [of Europe] is an area, in which all lands speak all manner of "Dutch" languages) but it could also suggest singular use (In Duche a rudder is a knyght – In "Dutch" a rudder ...
The European Netherlands constitutes the vast majority (by land area and population) of both the country and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and as such 'the Netherlands' in common parlance often implicitly refers to this entity. Similarly, the articles linked to below predominantly consider the European Netherlands.
A map illustrating the area in which Dutch is spoken. The official language of the Netherlands is Dutch, spoken by almost all people in the Netherlands. Dutch is also spoken and official in Aruba, Brussels, Curaçao, Flanders, Sint Maarten and Suriname.
Map of the Netherlands in Europe Relief map of the Netherlands in Europe. The geography of the European Netherlands is unusual in that much of its land has been reclaimed from the sea and is below sea level, protected by dikes. It is a small country with a total area of 41,545 km 2 (16,041 sq mi) [1] and ranked 131st.
In Suriname today, Dutch is the sole official language, [91] and over 60 percent of the population speaks it as a mother tongue. [92] Dutch is the obligatory medium of instruction in schools in Suriname, even for non-native speakers. [93] A further twenty-four percent of the population speaks Dutch as a second language. [94]