Dutch in Belgium

However, in the Brussels Capital Region and in the adjacent Flemish-Brabant municipalities, Dutch has been largely displaced by French as an everyday language.

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.

The spoken standard was also under the influence of Antwerp for a long time as a dialect with high status, which also applied outside this city.

On the other hand, French-speaking education has had a lower status due to the massive influx of non-French-speaking children.

Languages spoken at home as determined by a 2013 survey are:[11] In the last decade Dutch seems to be used more, both in education, where this development has been going on for some time, and in economic and social life.

The percentage of participants in secondary and higher education who received Dutch lessons was also on the rise and in 2013 reached 17%.

Among foreign inhabitants of Brussels, there is also a clear increase in both the number and percentage of children and adults choosing Dutch-speaking education.

[17] To the east of the Flemish counties Voeren, in the Low Dietsch region in the Liège province, a transitional dialect between Dutch and German is still being spoken.

This regional language is closely related to that of Dutch South Limburgish, the dialect of Eupen and of the adjacent Aachen.

These rural municipalities, which have been able to preserve their 'Platdietse' character despite two centuries of French-speaking administration, remained officially monolingual French after the establishment of the language border in 1963, although there is a legal possibility for facilities for Dutch or German.

The conservative Belgian government and especially the Catholic clergy also saw such 'social risks' for Flanders in the rise of socialism in these industrial areas, and therefore stimulated train and tram traffic, which allowed the Flemish to continue to live in their own environment.

In the years after the Second World War, many Flemish farmers also moved to Wallonia, often because of the size of the farms and the attractive price of agricultural land.

The supra-regional, semi-standardized colloquial form of Dutch spoken in Belgium uses the vocabulary and the sound inventory of the Brabantic dialects.