What language is spoken in Holland? National language of Holland

Any tourist who is going on a trip to the Land of Tulips and Windmills, involuntarily thinks about what language they speak in Holland. Should I learn at least a few expressions to express myself as needed in a cafe, a shop, a hotel? Or is it better to take a phrase book with you? Especially this issue is of interest to those tourists who are planning a trip to the Dutch province. After all, as you know, in small towns and villages not all residents know English. Tourists who speak German or French are interested in whether they will understand in the Netherlands? Let's study this question. From this article you will learn what is the official language in Holland.

Statistics

Despite the fact that the small Kingdom of the Netherlands is surrounded by great powers, it has preserved its ancient and distinctive language. Moreover, the Dutch significantly influenced the development of other dialects. Due to the fact that local residents in the XVI-XVIII centuries were unsurpassed navigators, many words of this language were included in the navigational terms. In the XIX century Holland owned numerous overseas territories. This was the reason not only for dictionary borrowings, but also for the emergence of new languages. For example, Afrikaans is a combination of Dutch and adverbs of tribes inhabiting the South African Republic. Thus, the question should be restated: not "What language is spoken in Holland?", But "How many people in the world communicate in this dialect?". It turns out that there is much more than the number of inhabitants of this small country. Only in Europe more than 22 million people speak Dutch. These are the inhabitants of Belgium, the northern parts of France and Germany. And yet this language, albeit mutated, is owned in Aruba, the Antilles, Suriname, South Africa, Indonesia.

Dutch and Russian

Do not flatter yourself: the locals are unlikely to understand the bearer of the "great and mighty language". But, listening attentively to the local dialect, the Russian tourist is no-no, and will catch the familiar word. And this concerns not only the terms of navigation or hydrotechnical construction. Such simple and ordinary words as "chair", "corpse", "trousers", "colander" came to us from Holland. Rather, they came with merchants, engineers and seafarers, whom Peter I. invited. And this proves the advantage that Holland had in the economic and technical development. The language of the country of windmills was enriched with only one Russian word - "fool" (doerak).

Prevalence

More than 60 thousand French citizens living in the north-west of their country, consider the Dutch their native language. Also on it hundreds of thousands of Germans living in the lower reaches of the Rhine communicate freely. Moreover, the national language of the Netherlands is, in combination, one of the official dialects of the Kingdom of Belgium. By the way, the Flemish has small differences: it has borrowings from the French, but there are no Frisian words. European schoolchildren, who are obliged to teach, besides their mother tongue, also some language of the EU country, often choose Dutch. He is taught in two hundred and fifty universities in the world. And while all the government and residents of the Netherlands are making great efforts to popularize the Dutch language. And even set him a monument in 1893. It is dedicated to the struggle for the right to formally speak Dutch in the Cape Colony (then owned by Britain). Modern society "Dutch Language Union", created by activists, determines the rules for writing and pronunciation of words.

Relationship with Germanic dialects

Many people who have visited Amsterdam or Utrecht, to the question of what language they speak in Holland, rashly respond: in German. Yes, the local rumor is part of the rich family of Germanic dialects. You can even say that an ordinary German at 90% will understand who speaks Dutch. For his ear, it will sound somewhat unusual in pronunciation, as if the interlocutor choked with a fish bone, but still can not cough it out. But he will understand most of the words. The Dutch language is similar to the German construction of sentences and the craving for long, complex nouns. This is due to the common German origin of the two dialects. However, a tourist who speaks German should not rely on his knowledge. In closely related languages there are words with the same spelling and pronunciation, but with completely different meanings. For example, in the Netherlands, you can often see the inscription Huren on buildings. The tablet says that the premise is rented, and not that the priestesses of love render services here, as it might seem to a German-speaking person.

English and French

British words are also very much in the local dialect. This is due to the close cultural and historical ties that Holland had with this island country . What language is spoken in the northern part of the Netherlands, in Friesland? An ignorant person may seem that on a marvelous mixture of English and Scandinavian. But this is not so. This language is called Frisian and has the status of official regional in the north of the Kingdom. If the Dutch is associated with German grammatical structures, then with the English dialect it is related vocabulary. But from French, the local language took less borrowing. You can even say that the Romance words - only a rudiment of the era when Latin was the official language of the whole of Europe.

Origin

The history of the language begins in the 450's. It was then that the rumor of the local residents began to turn toward Germanic dialects, more and more moving away from the common Frankish languages. "Salic Truth" (legal document of the early Middle Ages) is a vivid example of the ancient Dutch language. Like the entire German group, it passed through two stages of development. From 1150 to 1500 the language was enriched with French borrowings, since the province was part of the Duchy of Burgundy. Dialects of Brabant and Flanders became the basis for the modern speech of the Netherlands. If you conduct a study of what language they speak in Holland, it turns out that they are the dialects of its two provinces. Completely the process of standardization of written and oral speech was completed in 1637, when the translation of the Bible into a language understood by all the inhabitants of the region was carried out.

Holland: what language do you speak with tourists?

Is it worth it to rely on your own linguistic knowledge base, going to go to the Kingdom of the Netherlands? Oh sure! Unlike other countries, where English is spoken only fluently in the capital, and even educated youth, in the Netherlands this is normal. The level of education, including linguistic, in the country is quite high. In Holland, speak the language of international communication, even children of primary school age and retired housewives. So a tourist who knows English, in this country will not be lost. Especially in Friesland, 400 thousand inhabitants of which speak the dialect, referring to the British-Scandinavian group. A tourist who knows German, it will be even easier to reach an understanding with the Dutch.