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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.
Flemish people make up the majority of Belgians, at about 60%. Flemish was historically a geographical term, as all inhabitants of the medieval County of Flanders in modern-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands were referred to as "Flemings" irrespective of their ethnicity or language. [5]
The official language of the Flemish Region is Dutch. [9] The dialect cluster spoken in the region is sometimes colloquially referred to as Flemish (Vlaams), [10] [11] [12] Flemish Dutch (Vlaams-Nederlands), Belgian Dutch (Belgisch-Nederlands), or Southern Dutch (Zuid-Nederlands).
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.
Dutch is the official language of the Flemish Community. Minorities speak French, Yiddish, Turkish, Arabic, Berber, Italian, Spanish, English and German. Though most of these groups are recent immigrants, since the Middle Ages, Jews have formed the oldest minority to retain its own identity.
Almost all of the inhabitants of the Capital region speak French as either their primary language (50%) or as a lingua franca (45%). [4] [5] Many Flemish people also speak French as a second language. Belgian French is in most respects identical to the French of France, but differs in some points of vocabulary, pronunciation, and semantics.
It includes countries, which have Afrikaans and/or Dutch as (one of) their nationwide official language(s), as well as dependent territories with Afrikaans and/or Dutch as a co-official language. Worldwide, Afrikaans and Dutch as native or second language are spoken by approximately 46 million people.
Flemish may refer to: Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium; Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium; Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium; Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialect cluster spoken in Flanders; Flemish people or Flemings, inhabitants of Flanders