Angelo R.

asked • 10/23/19

Is Belgium bilingual, trilingual or what? What "lingual" is it?

Maryam K.

tutor
The population of Belgium is divided into three linguistic communities. In the north the Flemings, who constitute more than half of Belgium’s population, speak Flemish, which is equivalent to Dutch (sometimes called Netherlandic). In the south the French-speaking Walloons make up about one-third of the country’s population. About one-tenth of the people are completely bilingual, but a majority have some knowledge of both French and Flemish. The German-language region in eastern Liège province, containing a small fraction of the Belgian population, consists of several communes around Eupen and Saint-Vith (Sankt-Vith) (see Eupen-et-Malmédy). The city of Brussels comprises a number of officially bilingual communes, although the metropolitan area extends far into the surrounding Flemish and Walloon communes. The French-speaking population is by far the larger in the capital region. Bruxellois, a regionally distinct dialect influenced by both French and Flemish is also spoken by a small segment of the city’s inhabitants. Belgium: National composition
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03/22/20

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Suzanne O. answered • 10/24/19

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International Experience and Multiple State Certifications

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Nice question!


Belgium is one of those special places that has several official languages, plus a bunch of unofficial ones.


The official languages are Dutch (55% of Belgians have it as the first language, 16% as their second), French (36% as a first language and 49% as a second) and German (0.4% as a first language and 22% as a second).


That makes Belgium trilingual, officially. Unofficially, they are polyglots.

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AJ O.

I'd also like to add that the Belgians speak Flemish, not Dutch. Having lived in both Belgium and the Netherlands, the primary difference between the two dialects is their pronunciations. Even to the untrained ear, the two sound very different.
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02/13/20

Yin Mei H.

Belgians speak mainly Flemish and French. There are some who also speak German, but they seem to be a very small part of the populations. All the Belgians I've ever met have always been either the Flemish or French speakers, not the German-speaking ones. I have visited Belgium, but have never been to the Netherlands. However, I participated in the 2019 World Scout Jamboree, which took place in West Virginia, U.S.A. This event was attended by about 48,000 foreign and U.S. scouts and scout leaders. The Dutch sent a rather large contingent of scouts and scouters to the event, so I met a lot of Dutch people there. I did ask them about the difference between Dutch and Flemish and was told that Flemish is very similar to Dutch and that the main difference between the two was just the prononunciation of certain words. The Dutch guy I spoke to told me that Flemish is really actually Dutch, with minor variations. By the way, didn't Belgium used to be known as Flanders (in English) or Flandres (in French)? I'm not entirely sure, but I think the word Flemish might have been derived from Flanders??
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06/18/20

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