Ons Erfdeel. Jaargang 10

[p. 10]

‘netherlandic’^*
a clarification

The undersigned, Professors of Netherlandic Language and Literature at Universities in the Netherlands and Belgium, wish to publish the following comments on the article ‘Sprachverwirrung’ by Georg Hermanowski, which appeared in the Frankfurt edition of the ‘Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel’, March 29, 1966, pp. 696-697.

Their statement of opinion applies in particular to the paragraph phrased as follows: ‘Although people nowadays are fond of referring to the “Dutch-speaking population of 18 million in Holland and Belgium”, in fact this notion is merely of relative value, as the language differences between North and South are very considerable and by no means relate “only to the vocabulary”. In Holland, the standard spoken language (in addition to numerous dialects) is now the so-called ABN (generally received Dutch); the Flemings however speak Flemish-Dutch; and this differs from ABN just as much as Afrikaans, which is also a form of Dutch.’ (p. 696).

1. The Netherlandic language (commonly called Dutch language) is an independent Germanic language. It is spoken and written by about twelve million inhabitants in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (‘Holland’) and by some five million inhabitants in the Northern half of Belgium (‘Flanders’).

2. Literature in the Netherlandic language is known as Netherlandic literature. As this literature has in the course of history not experienced a uniform development, Netherlandic literature in Belgium is often referred to seperately as ‘Flemish literature’. The undersigned take no sides in the scientific debate about the unity or dichotomy of Netherlandic literature and merely note that, in addition to the only possible overriding term ‘Netherlandic literature’, the familiar expression ‘Flemish literature’ continues to be used both at home and abroad to designate Netherlandic literature in Flanders. They have no objection to this state of affairs, provided that in this connection one does not lose sight of the notion of the linguistic unity of the whole of Netherlandic literature.

3. The undersigned recognise the right of the German institutions and more

* The present text offers some difficulties in English, which do not occur in Dutch, German or French. In these languages there is a set name for the language of the inhabitants of the Netherlands and the Northern half of Belgium, namely Nederlands-Niederländisch-Néerlandais. Moreover there exist in these languages terms to designate the Northern part of this linguistic area (‘Holland’), namely Hollands-Holländisch-Hollandais, and the Southern part (‘Flanders’), namely Vlaams-Flämisch-Flamand.
In English there is only one popular term to indicate both the language of the whole area and that same language as it is spoken in the Netherlands, namely Dutch. In order to avoid confusion, Professor C.B. van Haeringen launched the term ‘Netherlandic’, covering both ‘Dutch’ (in the second sense) and ‘Flemish’. In this paper we adopt the term Netherlandic along with Dutch as a more appropriate name for the language which is spoken in Flanders as well as in the Netherlands.

[p. 11]

particulary of the German publishers to take an independent decision with respect to the designation of the literature from the Netherlandic-language area. Points 1 and 2 are therefore to be regarded exclusively as an explanation of the linguistic position in the Netherlandic-language area.

4. The undersigned most definitely reject, however, the description of the linguistic position in the Netherlands and Belgium given by Georg Hermanowski in the extract, quoted above, from his article. From the scientific point of view, it is unsound and misleading to state that a language is spoken in Flanders which differs from received Duch as spoken in Holland just as much as does Afrikaans. In view of the development of Afrikaans into an independent Germanic language, the remark to the effect that Afrikaans is a form of Dutch, in the same way as Flemish, is equally untenable.

There is no ‘Flemish’ language distinct from a ‘Dutch’ language: there is only a Netherlandic (or ‘Dutch’) language, which is valid as the obligatory standard language in Flanders as well as in the Netherlands, although obviously with nuances such as occur in every language (including German). The differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and syntax between Dutch and Flemish Netherlandic-speaking persons are certainly no greater than the linguistic differences between the inhabitants of Vienna and Hamburg. There is no question of describing these nuances as a different form of language. The undersigned are therefore bound to reject the version given by Mr. Hermanowski as untenable and unauthorised.

(Translated by Arthur Birt and Marron C Fort)