French Flemish (French Flemish: ,

Standard Dutch Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. ''Afrikaans'' i ...

: , french: flamand français) is a

West Flemish West Flemish (''West-Vlams'' or ''West-Vloams'' or ''Vlaemsch'' (in French-Flanders), nl, West-Vlaams, french: link=no, flamand occidental) is a collection of Dutch dialects spoken in western Belgium and the neighbouring areas of France and t ...

dialect spoken in the north of contemporary France. Place names attest to Flemish having been spoken since the 8th century in the part of

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

that was ceded to France at the 1659

Treaty of the Pyrenees The Treaty of the Pyrenees (french: Traité des Pyrénées; es, Tratado de los Pirineos; ca, Tractat dels Pirineus) was signed on 7 November 1659 on Pheasant Island, and ended the Franco-Spanish War that had begun in 1635. Negotiations were ...

, and which hence became known as

French Flanders French Flanders (french: La Flandre française) is a part of the historical County of Flanders in present-day France where a dialect of Dutch was or still is traditionally spoken. The region lies in the modern-day region of Hauts-de-France and r ...

. Its dialect subgroup, called French Flemish, meanwhile, became a minority dialect that survives mainly in

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Bourbourg Bourbourg (; ) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is situated in the maritime plain of northern France, in the middle of a triangle formed by Dunkirk, Calais, and Saint-Omer. Population In 1945 Bourbourg absorbed the fo ...

( in Dutch),

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

(),

Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; vls, Sint-Omaars) is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Saint Audomar, ...

() with an

ethnic enclave In sociology, an ethnic enclave is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration ...

Haut-Pont (''Haute-Ponte'') known for its predominantly Flemish community and Bailleul (). French-Flemish has about 20,000 daily users, and twice that number of occasional speakers. The language's status appears to be

moribund Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state near death. Moribund may refer to: * ''Moribund'' (album), a 2006 album by the Norwegian black metal band Koldbrann * " Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel known in English as "Seasons in the Sun ...

, but there has been an active movement to retain French Flemish in the region.French Flemish: group defends a dying language
''Flanders Today''

Education

A growing, re-introduced language, French Flemish is taught in several schools in the

French Westhoek Westhoek (; ; Dutch for "west corner") or Maritime Flanders (french: Flandre maritime) is a region in Belgium and France and includes the following areas: #Belgian Westhoek ( nl, Belgische Westhoek, link=no) including the West Flanders of Diksm ...

. The ANVT-ILRF was given permission to carry out experimental lessons in four public schools (in

Esquelbecq Esquelbecq (; from ) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Its southern limit with Ledringhem is ''chemin de Rubrouck''. Heraldry History In 1436, Wautier de Ghistelles was ''seigneur d'Ekelsbeke et de Ledringhem'' (Lor ...

Noordpeene Noordpeene ( nl, Noordpene, vls, Nôordpene) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France. The small river Peene Becque flows through the village. Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department The following is a list of ...

Volckerinckhove Volckerinckhove (; nl, Volkerinkhove) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is part of the arrondissement of Dunkirk and the canton of Wormhout. Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department The following is a l ...

Wormhout Wormhout (; before 1975: ''Wormhoudt''; vls, Wormout) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Several people in Wormhout still speak West Flemish, a local dialect of Dutch and the traditional language of the region, while Frenc ...

) for the school years of 2007–08 until 2010–11, after which it would be evaluated. Afterwards, all requirements were met but it was only allowed to continue them, but not to expand to other schools or to the ''

collège In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

''. On the other hand, the private Catholic education began teaching standard Dutch in collèges in

Gravelines Gravelines (, ; ; ) is a commune in the Nord department in Northern France. It lies at the mouth of the river Aa southwest of Dunkirk. It was formed in the 12th century around the mouth of a canal built to connect Saint-Omer with the sea. As ...

and

Hondschoote Hondschoote (; from Dutch; ''Hondschote'' in the modern Dutch spelling) is a commune of the Nord ''département'', in northern France. Heraldry Geography Hondschoote borders Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. It lies 12 km f ...

Status

Though generally seen as a dialect of Dutch, some of its speakers prefer to call it a

regional language * A regional language is a language spoken in a region of a sovereign state, whether it be a small area, a federated state or province or some wider area. Internationally, for the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Lan ...

. Jean-Paul Couché, chairman of the ''Akademie voor Nuuze Vlaemsche Taele'' (ANVT), argues:

Linguistically, a dialect depends on a larger, national language. That does not apply to French Flemish. We are not connected to standard Dutch because it is an artificial language that was created based on the dialects of North Holland. Research shows that the distance between French Flemish and Dutch is greater than that between Dutch and German.

Although French Flemish and West Flemish are together with

Limburgish Limburgish ( li, Limburgs or ; nl, Limburgs ; german: Limburgisch ; french: Limbourgeois ), also called Limburgan, Limburgian, or Limburgic, is a West Germanic language spoken in the Dutch and Belgian provinces of Limburg (Netherlands), L ...

and

Gronings Gronings (; gos, Grunnegs or Grönnegs), is a collective name for some Friso-Saxon dialects spoken in the province of Groningen and around the Groningen border in Drenthe and Friesland. Gronings and the strongly related varieties in East ...

the most distant dialects from Standard Dutch, Standard Dutch and Standard German are more distant still. However, that is not the case for Dutch and German dialects spoken at both sides of the Dutch-German border.

Footnotes

External links

Akademie voor Nuuze Vlaemsche Taele
tries to regulate this language

site UOC, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

), subsite Euromosaic – Research Centre of Multilingualism.
fvlinhetnederlands.actieforum.com
Languages of France Ethnic groups in France Dutch language Dutch dialects Endangered Germanic languages {{Germanic-lang-stub