Will Dutch ever die out?
Apart from some people over the age of 60, there is now practically no such thing as a Dutch monoglot. The vast majority of the population can communicate effortlessly in English and - as we all know - the Dutch prefer speaking in English with foreigners and actively avoid their native tongue.
English has a huge presence in Dutch media, politics, business and education. Already, you will hear groups of young Dutch people speaking some English with each other.
Will a tipping point be reached when English starts to overtake Dutch as the language the population uses among itself? Of course, it would take a long, long time for actual knowledge of the Dutch languange to die out but I think we could see English taking over for practical purposes within the next 30 years.
Dutch may well dissapear in netherlands, but in Flanders it will not.
Yes, it's already happening. I don't think Dutch would die out as per se, but Dutch vocabulary will become more and more Denglish.
Where do you draw the line and say it's gone too far? If you read Dutch forums/ newspapers you will find it quite hard not to find English words and phrases being used. Especially in adverts... the youth can hardly speak proper Dutch anymore.
I know this is happening too in different languages like German, French etc but it's more frequent in Dutch.
Have the Dutch got no pride?
The Dutch are strange in the sense they find pride in how spineless they are.
<<I know this is happening too in different languages like German, French etc but it's more frequent in Dutch. >>
And Italian.
When I was in Italy this past holiday, Engtalian was everywhere rife.
Dutch has been slaughtered in those parts of Flanders annexed by the dirty French and Walloons.
It's bound to disappear/evolve/break up someday, sooner or later.
Funny enough, Dutch will dissapear in the Netherlands first because in the Netherlands they never had to struggle like the Flemish had to, to keep the language alive and keep foreign influences away from Dutch.
The Dutch have always taken the fact that Dutch is the only language in the Netherlands for granted for too long and they certainly are now so weak to even see that English is taking over their country.
If Maltese hasn't died out in Malta, I can't see Dutch dying in the Netherlands. The Maltese are the ultimate language traitors, the Maltese themselves consider their own language to be the language of working-class, uneducated pigs and they all aspire to speak perfect English and/or Italian, and largely abandon Maltese.
There are pretty much no newspapers in Maltese, the only quality Maltese newspapers are in English. There is pretty much no literature in Maltese, all authors write in English, shop signs are 90% of the time in English, all education is in English and even the working language of the government is English.
Despite how weighed Maltese life is towards English, when you visit Malta, despite being highly English-influenced, the local language used is still obviously Maltese, a semetic tongue. Despite how encouraged they have been to abandon Maltese, and how little material there is available in it, they still ultimately speak it amongst themselves.
If Maltese hasn't died in Malta, Dutch isn't going anywhere.
Yeah Maltese is an interesting situation as its actually based on Arabic (the only one written in a Latin alphabet) but it imported a huge amount of words from Romance languages like Italian. I don't know if this has to do with shame though. The country is very small, however, so what do you expect.
<<as we all know - the Dutch prefer speaking in English with foreigners and actively avoid their native tongue. >>
Because Dutch is a private language. They prefer outsiders who go to their country with no knowledge of the Dutch language so that they would not eavesdrop on their conversation.
The Dutch Language Union: three countries united by one language
The Dutch language is spoken in the Netherlands, Belgian Flanders and Suriname. These three areas have been working together on linguistic issues, language policy, language teaching and literature for many years. In 1980, the cooperation between the Netherlands and Flanders was confirmed by founding the Taalunie. Suriname has been an associate member of the Taalunie since 2004. Three countries, each with its own history, but with a shared interest: a language that can be used effectively by as many of their inhabitants as possible, both within and outside their language areas.
The Dutch language is flourishing and healthy
The number of Dutch speakers is increasing, many new works of Dutch literature are being published and interest in the Dutch language is growing abroad. A vigorous, living language, Dutch doesn't need much help to survive, but every now and then a few rules and regulations are required to keep everyone working together harmoniously. And that is precisely why the Taalunie was founded.
http://taalunieversum.org/en/about_us/
Suriname
In Suriname (former Dutch Guiana), where in the second half of the 19th century the Dutch authorities introduced a policy of assimilation, Dutch is the sole official language and over 60 percent of the population speaks it as a mother tongue. A further twenty-four percent of the population speaks Dutch as a second language. Suriname gained its independence from the Netherlands in 1975 and has been an associate member of the Dutch Language Union since 2004. Sranan Tongo, spoken natively by about a fifth of the population.
Recognition of "Surinaams-Nederlands" ("Surinam Dutch") as an equal natiolect was expressed in 1976 by the publication of the Woordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands - een geannoteerde lijst van Surinaams-Nederlandse woorden en uitdrukkingen (Dictionary of Surinam Dutch - an annotated list of Surinam-Dutch words and expressions), published in 1989 as the Woordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands (Dictionary of Surinam Dutch), by Van Donselaar, and later by the publication of the Woordenboek Surinaams Nederlands (Dictionary Surinam Dutch) in 2009 (editor Renata de Bies, in cooperation with lexicologists Willy Martin en Willy Smedts), which was previously published as the Woordenboek van de Surinaamse Bijdrage aan het Nederlands (Dictionary of the Surinam Contribution to Dutch").
Caribbean
In Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles, both part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Dutch is the official language but spoken as a first language by only seven to eight percent of the population, although most people on the islands can speak the language since the education system is in Dutch at some or all levels. The lingua franca of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao is Papiamento, a creole language that originally developed among the slave population. The population of the three northern Antilles, Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius, is predominantly English-speaking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language
The Dutch must follow the French's example how strongly propagate own language.
So basically it's already DEAD! Because people in the Dutch carribean only 7% speak Dutch, and in Suriname? Where the Fcuk is Suriname... o yeaa that tiny small country you will never hear anything about.
And as we know people in the Netherlands are to shy to speak Dutch to foreigners... so basically besides Flanders which is the norhtern part of Belgium it's totally useless. Let's see Belgium (very small) Holland (very small and people don't like speaking Dutch) .... OMG Dutch is already DEAD!!!
The last Dutch speaker will live in Flanders, and to make it all the more hilarious, it will be a Brusseler.