Dutch is the mother tongue of more than 21 million people in the Netherlands and Belgium. In northwestern France, around 60,000 people speak a dialect of Dutch.
Dutch is used widely in government and education in the former colony of Suriname and in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba (which are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands). In Indonesia, many lawyers and historians speak Dutch owing to historical ties. Afrikaans, which is spoken in South Africa, evolved from 17th-century Dutch. Dutch has also influenced other languages, especially in shipping, waterworks and agriculture.
Dutch is taught at around 250 universities around the world. In French-speaking Belgium, northern France and Germany, many pupils choose Dutch as their second language. In 1980, the Netherlands and Flanders founded the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union), which promotes Dutch worldwide and draws up rules for spelling and grammar.
Dialects
Dutch has various dialects, but they are slowly disappearing under the influence of radio and television. In the province of Friesland, a separate language is spoken: Frisian. This officially recognised lesser-used language is the mother tongue of around 400,000 Frisians. It is similar in some ways to English and the Scandinavian languages. Dutch is the basic language of education throughout the country, including Friesland.
