Dutch language

listen
Dutch
	Nederlands
Pronunciation	[ˈneːdərlɑnts] (listen)
Native to	Netherlands, Belgium
Region	Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Indonesia;; Additionally in Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, French Flanders and South Africa (as Afrikaans)
Ethnicity	Dutch; Flemings; Indo;
Native speakers	25 million (2021); Total (L1 plus L2 speakers): 30 million (2021)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Weser-Rhine Germanic Low Franconian (Frankish) Dutch; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Frankish Old Dutch Middle Dutch ; ;
Writing system	Latin (Dutch alphabet); Dutch Braille;
Signed forms	Signed Dutch (NmG)
Official status
Official language in	Belgium; Netherlands; Suriname; Dependent territories Aruba ; Curaçao ; Sint Maarten ; Organisations Benelux ; European Union ; Union of South American Nations ; PROSUR ; Caribbean Community ;
Regulated by	Nederlandse Taalunie; (Dutch Language Union)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	nl
ISO 639-2	dut (B) ; nld (T)
ISO 639-3	nld Dutch/Flemish
Glottolog	mode1257
Linguasphere	52-ACB-a
	Dutch-speaking world (included are areas of daughter language Afrikaans)
	Distribution of the Dutch standard language and Low Franconian dialects in Europe[image reference needed]
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

A Dutch speaker

Dutch (Nederlands [ˈneːdərlɑnts] (listen)) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language^[5] and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. Afrikaans is a separate but somewhat mutually intelligible daughter language^{[n 1]} spoken, to some degree, by at least 16 million people, mainly in South Africa and Namibia,^{[n 2]} evolving from the Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa. The dialects used in Belgium (including Flemish) and in Suriname, meanwhile, are all guided by the Dutch Language Union.

↑ Dutch at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Eurobarometer Languages
↑ "Dutch". Languages at Leicester. University of Leicester. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved July 1, 2014. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Modern Dutch". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Search this book on
↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Feiten

Cite error: <ref> tags exist for a group named "n", but no corresponding <references group="n"/> tag was found

Dutch
Nederlands
Pronunciation	[ˈneːdərlɑnts] (listen)
Native to	Netherlands, Belgium
Region	Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Indonesia; Additionally in Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, French Flanders and South Africa (as Afrikaans)
Ethnicity	Dutch Flemings Indo
Native speakers	25 million (2021)^[1] Total (L1 plus L2 speakers): 30 million (2021)^[2]^[3]
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Weser-Rhine Germanic Low Franconian (Frankish) Dutch
Early forms	Frankish Old Dutch Middle Dutch
Writing system	Latin (Dutch alphabet) Dutch Braille
Signed forms	Signed Dutch (NmG)
Official status
Official language in	Belgium Netherlands Suriname Dependent territories Aruba Curaçao Sint Maarten Organisations Benelux European Union Union of South American Nations PROSUR Caribbean Community
Regulated by	Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	`nl`
ISO 639-2	`dut (B)` `nld (T)`
ISO 639-3	`nld` Dutch/Flemish
Glottolog	`mode1257`^[4]
Linguasphere	`52-ACB-a`
Dutch-speaking world (included are areas of daughter language Afrikaans)
Distribution of the Dutch standard language and Low Franconian dialects in Europe^{[image reference needed]}
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.