When in Brussels ...
I live in Den Haag and make frequent trips to Brussels. I speak both French and Nederlands and have found that when in Brussels you should speak French. The reason is that even though the city is the capital of Flanders, the Flemish speaking region of Belgium, 80% of the people there speak French. This fact has taken on heightened sensitivities since the political impasse in the government between the Walloons (French speaking Belge) and the Flemish (Nederlands or Vlaams speaking Belge). I don't want to get into the politics here, but the French speakers in Brussels are extremely sensitive about this because if Belgium splits into two separate countries then they would presumably become part of Flanders since Flanders claims Brussels as its capital. So when in Brussels, speak as the Brusselites do.
Sent by: Paul
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Brussels will not become part of Flanders as Paul mistakenly thinks. Brussels is a Region and French speaking people in Brussels will continue to speak French. Let's not forget that the European Communities are based in Brussels and the majority of people employed in the European Communities do not speak Flemish or even consider it necessary to speak Flemish.
Limburgish and West-Flemish are considered separate language varients by UNESCO.
Dutch is spoken by around 22 million people, mainly in the Netherlands and Belgium, but also by smaller groups of speakers in parts of France and several former Dutch colonies. One of the major dialect groups of Dutch, Flemish, is spoken in the southwestern Netherlands and the northern half of Belgium. In Flanders, there are 4 main dialect groups: West Flemish, East Flemish, Brabantian, which includes several main dialect branches, including Antwerpian, and Limburgish. Some Flemish dialects are so distinct that they might be considered as separate language variants, although the strong significance of language in Belgian politics would prevent the government from classifying them as such. Most towns and cities stick to standard Dutch. In Belgium, however, dialects are very much alive; many senior citizens there are unable to speak standard Dutch.
Some things need to be clarified about the so-called dialect Flemish. In fact it is not a dialect.
The language people in Flanders speak is Dutch and only Dutch. Flemish is not a language nor a dialect. You can compare the difference between Holland Dutch and Flemish Dutch with British and American English. The grammar is the same, the dictionary is the same. Yet, some words or expressions would not be used in Flanders as compared to Holland (The Netherlands) and vice versa. We do understand each other perfectly.
And then, you have variations/ dialects on Dutch that differ per city, town, etc. These dialects are not languages. They have no dictionary, no separate grammar. It is still Dutch but with a large number of words that wouldn't be used elsewhere. Also pronunciation is very different so that some people might have difficulty to understand each other.
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