Witte Boekje (English: ''White Booklet'') is the popular name for the Spelling Guide of Our Language (Spellingwijzer Onze Taal), a publication of the

Genootschap Onze Taal ''Genootschap Onze Taal'' ('Society Our Language') is a Dutch society dedicated to the Dutch language. It was founded in 1931, initially to guard the language against what was then seen as creeping invasion of Germanism (linguistics), Germanisms in ...

. The first edition was released in October 1998; the latest edition is the tenth and was released in 2004. All these publications are explanations of the official spelling rules, as set by the

Dutch Language Union The Dutch Language Union (Dutch: , NTU) is an international regulatory institution that governs issues regarding the Dutch language. It is best known for its spelling reforms which are promulgated by member states, grammar books, the Green Boo ...

. Although the words in the guide have been based on the same official rules as the

Green Booklet The Word list of the Dutch language ( nl, Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal ) is a spelling dictionary of the Dutch language (Dutch orthography). It is officially established by the Dutch Language Union (). Because of the colour of its published fo ...

, the spellings in the two booklets do not always match. To aid users, the differences between the White Booklet and Green Booklet are made clear by appending ''GB'' to the differently spelled words.

2006 edition

After the spelling reform of 2005, the White Booklet was updated explicitly in a break with the

Boycott of official spelling

The latest edition will, because of the changes, be unable to bear the official certification mark of the

. The White Booklet will then become the spelling prescription of a group of media organizations and companies in the Netherlands who will boycott the new spelling rules. These parties have jointly announced in December 2005 that they will not switch to the new official spelling, and they had not done as of August 1, 2006. These are

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Trouw ''Trouw'' (; ) is a Dutch daily newspaper appearing in compact size. It was founded in 1943 as an orthodox Protestant underground newspaper during World War II. Since 2009, it has been owned by DPG Media (known as De Persgroep until 2019). ''Tr ...

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands. History ''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on 1 ...

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...

HP/De Tijd ''HP/De Tijd'' is a Dutch language monthly opinion magazine published by the Audax Groep. Its editorial offices are in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Alongside ''De Groene Amsterdammer'', ''Vrij Nederland'' and ''Elsevier'', it is one of the most influe ...

De Groene Amsterdammer ''De Groene Amsterdammer'' is an independent Dutch weekly news magazine published in Amsterdam and distributed throughout the Netherlands. It is conventionally considered to be one of the four major weeklies, alongside ''HP/De Tijd'', ''Vrij Neder ...

Vrij Nederland ''Vrij Nederland'' (Free Netherlands) is a Dutch magazine, established during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II as an underground newspaper. It has since grown into a magazine. The originally weekly and now monthly magazi ...

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, TekstNet, and the NOS. They will follow the spelling as determined by the White Booklet. Even though Onze Taal is a society for both Belgium and the Netherlands, no major media or publisher in Flanders uses the White Booklet.

References

{{Reflist Dutch language Spelling reform Dutch dictionaries Dutch non-fiction literature