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The term Flemish itself has become ambiguous. Nowadays, it is used in at least five ways, depending on the context. These include: An indication of Dutch written and spoken in Flanders including the Dutch standard language as well as the non-standardized dialects, including intermediate forms between vernacular dialects and the standard.
In the Flanders Region Dutch is the sole official language. In Brussels-Capital Region Dutch and French are co-official languages. In the Wallonia Region French and German are co-official languages, but in four municipalities with language facilities limited government services are also available in Dutch.
The Flemish Diamond (Dutch: Vlaamse Ruit) is the name of the central, populous area in Flanders and consists of several of these cities, such as Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven and Mechelen. Approximately 5.5 million people live in the area.
Flanders (/ ˈ f l ɑː n d ər z / FLAHN-dərz [a] or / ˈ f l æ n d ər z / FLAN-dərz; [b] Dutch: Vlaanderen [ˈvlaːndərə(n)] ⓘ) [c] is the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium.
The original County of Flanders encompassed areas which today belong to France and the Netherlands, but are still host to people of Flemish descent and some continued use of Flemish Dutch. Namely, these are Zeelandic Flanders and the Arrondissement of Dunkirk (historically known as French Westhoek).
Official languages of Belgium: Dutch (yellow), French (red) and German (blue). Brussels is a bilingual area where both Dutch and French have an official status.. The position of Dutch in Belgium has improved considerably over the past 50 years at the expense of French, which once dominated strongly in political, economic and cultural life.
Flanders too has a number of dialects, but linguists regard these as varieties of Dutch rather than a separate Flemish language, with the exception of Limburgish and West Flemish. The main Dutch dialects in Belgium are Brabantian and East Flemish. Standard Dutch, as spoken in Belgium, is mostly influenced by Brabantian.
Position of East Flemish (colour: brown) among the other minority languages, regional languages and dialects in Belgium and the Netherlands East Flemish (Dutch: Oost-Vlaams, French: flamand oriental) is a collective term for the two easternmost subdivisions ("true" East Flemish, also called Core Flemish, [1] and Waaslandic) of the so-called Flemish dialects, native to the southwest of the ...