Editing Flanders (section)

=== Language and literature ===
[[File:Guidogezelle.jpg|thumb|Statue of [[Guido Gezelle|Gezelle]] in [[Bruges]], by sculptor [[Jules Lagae]]]]

The standard language in Flanders is [[Dutch language|Dutch]]; spelling and grammar are regulated by a single authority, the [[Dutch Language Union]] (''Nederlandse Taalunie''), comprising a committee of ministers of the Flemish and Dutch governments, their advisory council of appointed experts, a controlling commission of 22 parliamentarians, and a secretariate.<ref name="Taalunie1">{{Cite web | url = http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/wie_zijn_wij/ | title = De Taalunie – Wie zijn wij? | language = nl | publisher = Nederlandse Taalunie | access-date = 19 February 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110323042427/http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/wie_zijn_wij/ | archive-date = 23 March 2011 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="Taalunie2">{{Cite web | url = http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/werkwijze_en_beleid/ | title = De Taalunie – Werkwijze en beleid | language = nl | publisher = Nederlandse Taalunie | access-date = 17 February 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110318083841/http://taalunieversum.org/taalunie/werkwijze_en_beleid/ | archive-date = 18 March 2011 | url-status = live }}</ref> The term [[Flemish dialects|Flemish]] can be applied to the Dutch spoken in Flanders; it shows many regional and local variations.<ref>{{Cite web |url = http://odur.let.rug.nl/~hoeksema/divid-4.ppt |format = ppt |title = College 4 – 1830 Belgische onafhankelijkheid, Noord-Zuidverschillen, Dialecten en de rijksgrens, Frans-Vlaanderen |language = nl |author = Hoeksema, Jack |publisher = [[University of Groningen]] (host site) |access-date = 19 February 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110724164852/http://odur.let.rug.nl/~hoeksema/divid-4.ppt |archive-date = 24 July 2011 |url-status = dead }}</ref>

The earliest example of literature in non-[[standardized dialect]]s in the current area of Flanders is [[Hendrik van Veldeke]]'s ''Eneas Romance'', the first courtly romance in a [[Germanic language]] (12th century). With a writer of [[Hendrik Conscience]]'s stature, [[Flemish literature]] rose ahead of French literature in Belgium's early history.<ref name="Letterkundig-Museum">{{Cite web |url = http://www.letterkundigmuseum.nl/tabid/92/BiographyID/19/BiographyName/HendrikConscience/Mode/BiographyDetails/Default.aspx |title = Hendrik Conscience (biography) |language = nl |publisher = Letterkundig Museum, The Hague, The Netherlands |access-date = 21 February 2011 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110724094015/http://www.letterkundigmuseum.nl/tabid/92/BiographyID/19/BiographyName/HendrikConscience/Mode/BiographyDetails/Default.aspx |archive-date = 24 July 2011}}</ref><ref name="Couttenier">{{Cite web |url = http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/cout003nati01_01/cout003nati01_01_0001.php |title = Nationale beelden in de Vlaamse literatuur van de negentiende eeuw |author = Couttenier, Piet |work = Nationalisme in België. Identiteiten in beweging 1780–2000. (Deprez, Kas; Vos, Louis – red.) |pages = 60–69 |language = nl |publisher = Houtekiet, Antwerpen/Baarn (online by [[Digital library for Dutch literature|dbnl]]) |year = 1999 |access-date = 21 February 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110614205621/http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/cout003nati01_01/cout003nati01_01_0001.php |archive-date = 14 June 2011 |url-status = live }}</ref> [[Guido Gezelle]] not only explicitly referred to his writings as Flemish but used it in many of his poems, and strongly defended it:

'''Original''' <small>from ''kleengedichtjes'' (1860?)</small><ref name="kleengedichtjes1">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sP9ySIDdZ-cC&pg=PA320 |title=Guido Gezelle: volledig dichtwerk |language=vls |page=320 |publisher=Lannoo Uitgeverij |year=1999 |access-date=18 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527210116/https://books.google.com/books?id=sP9ySIDdZ-cC&pg=PA320 |archive-date=27 May 2016 |url-status=live |isbn=9789020935103 }}</ref><ref name="kleengedichtjes2">{{Cite web |url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/geze002fbau01_01/geze002fbau01_01.pdf |title=Driemaal XXXIII Kleengedichtjes – Gij zegt dat 't vlaamsch te niet zal gaan |trans-title=Three times XXXIII Little Poems – Thou sayst Flemish will fade away |work=Dichtwerken (deel 1 en 2) [Poems (Part 1 and 2)] (ed. Baur, Frank) |language=nl |at=Part 2, p. 505 |author=Gezelle, Guido |publisher=[[Veen (publisher)|Veen]], Amsterdam (1949, 3rd print – online by [[Digital library for Dutch literature|dbnl]]) |access-date=19 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614205634/http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/geze002fbau01_01/geze002fbau01_01.pdf |archive-date=14 June 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<blockquote><poem>Gij zegt dat 't vlaamsch te niet zal gaan:
't en zal!<!--Maintain dialect here, for Standard Dutch "'t Zal niet"-->
dat 't waalsch gezwets zal boven slaan:
't en zal!
Dat hopen, dat begeren wij:
dat zeggen en dat zweren wij:
zoo lange als wij ons weren, wij:
't en zal, 't en zal,
't en zal!</poem></blockquote>

; Translation

<blockquote><poem>You say Flemish will fade away:
It shan't!
that Walloon twaddle will have its way:<!--
   Before 2011-02-17 translated as "Walloonish rantings":
   "Walloonish" is [[Gaelg]], [[Gailck]], [[Manx]], [[Manx Gaelic]]: [http://www.websters-dictionary-online.net/definitions/Walloon].
   Gezelle did not mix dialects or languages, "waalsch" referred to Wallonia precisely as "vlaamsch" to Flanders.
   Informal singular "gezwets" from verb "zwetsen" (modern [Hollandic] Dutch "gelul"), not loudy as "rant[ing[s]]" implies.
   Hence, "waalsch gezwets" is "Walloon twaddle" in English [http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/twaddle?view=uk]{{dead link|date=September 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
   (or "Walloon prattle", or dialect "Walloon twattle"). -->
It shan't!
This we hope, for this we hanker:
this we say and this we vow:
as long as we fight back, we:
It shan't, It shan't,
It shan't!</poem></blockquote>

The distinction between [[Dutch literature|Dutch]] and Flemish literature, often perceived politically, is also made on intrinsic grounds by some experts such as Kris Humbeeck, professor of literature at the [[University of Antwerp]].<ref name="de-Ridder">{{Cite web |url = http://mededelingen.over-blog.com/article-31749051.html |title = Inleiding tot een proefschrift over de activistische tegentraditie in de Vlaamse letteren ('Introduction to a dissertation on the activist tradition in Flemish literature') (descriptive title) |language = nl |author = de Ridder, Matthijs (doctoral candidate [[University of Antwerp]]) |date = 22 May 2009 |publisher = Mededelingen van het Centrum voor Documentatie & Reëvaluatie (a republishing Blog about French and Dutch Literature) |access-date = 21 February 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110615014817/http://mededelingen.over-blog.com/article-31749051.html |archive-date = 15 June 2011 |url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="Humbeeck"><!-- Web site abc2004.be out of use ('for sale'), 'title' and name of web site indicate unlikeliness of finding this source elsewhere; new source fully corroborating the last statement of former sentence: added 2011-02-21. OBSOLETE: {{cite web|url=http://www.abc2004.be/login/components/public/main.php?action=getStatenItem&id=4&lang=1 |title=De beste bron van informatie over abc2004 |publisher=Abc2004.be |access-date=11 May 2010}} AVAILABLE: --> {{Cite journal|author=Polis, Harold (ed. red. at [[J.M. Meulenhoff|Meulenhoff/Manteau]])|date=25 June 2004|title=Vlamingen en Nederlanders moeten hun verschillen leren aanvaarden|url=http://taalschrift.org/discussie/000564.html|url-status=live|journal=Taalschrift|language=nl|publisher=[[Nederlandse Taalunie]]|issue=Ed. 77|issn=1570-5560|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722110548/http://taalschrift.org/discussie/000564.html|archive-date=22 July 2011|access-date=21 February 2011}}</ref> Nevertheless, most [[Dutch language|Dutch-language]] literature read (and appreciated to varying degrees) in Flanders is the same as that in the Netherlands.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.buchmesse.de/images/fbm/dokumente-ua-pdfs/2016/flandern_webseite_2016_en_57470.pdf|title=Flanders (Belgium)|website=Frankfurter Buchmesse|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202053515/http://www.buchmesse.de/images/fbm/dokumente-ua-pdfs/2016/flandern_webseite_2016_en_57470.pdf|archive-date=2 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

Influential Flemish writers include [[Ernest Claes]], [[Stijn Streuvels]] and [[Felix Timmermans]]. Their novels mostly describe rural life in Flanders in the 19th century and at beginning of the 20th. Widely read by the older generations, they are considered somewhat old-fashioned by present-day critics. Some famous Flemish writers of the early 20th century wrote in French, including Nobel Prize winners (1911) [[Maurice Maeterlinck]] and [[Emile Verhaeren]]. They were followed by a younger generation, including [[Paul van Ostaijen]] and [[Gaston Burssens]], who ''[[Activism|activated]]'' the [[Flemish Movement]].<ref name=de-Ridder/> Still widely read and translated into other languages (including English) are the novels of authors such as [[Willem Elsschot]], [[Louis Paul Boon]] and [[Hugo Claus]]. The recent crop of writers includes the novelists [[Tom Lanoye]] and [[Herman Brusselmans]], and poets such as the married couple [[Herman de Coninck]] and [[Kristien Hemmerechts]].

==== Languages ====
At the creation of the Belgian state, French was the only official language. Historically Flanders was a Dutch-speaking region. For a long period, French was used as a [[second language]] and, like elsewhere in Europe, commonly spoken among the aristocracy. There is still a French-speaking minority in Flanders, especially in the [[municipalities with language facilities]], along the language border and the [[municipalities with language facilities#Rim municipalities|Brussels periphery]] (Vlaamse Rand), though many of them are French-speakers that migrated to Flanders in recent decades.

In [[French Flanders]], French is the only official language and now the native language of the majority of the population, but there is still a minority of Dutch-speakers living there. French is also the primary language in the officially bilingual [[Brussels Capital Region]] (see [[Francization of Brussels]]).

Many Flemings are also able to speak French, children in Flanders generally get their first French lessons in the 5th primary year (normally around 10 years). But the current lack of French outside the educational context makes it hard to maintain a decent level of French. As such, the proficiency of French is declining. Flemish pupils are also obligated to follow English lessons as their third language. Normally from the second secondary year (around 14 years old), but the ubiquity of English in movies, music, IT and even advertisements makes it easier to learn and maintain the English language.