English is an official language in the special municipalities of
Saba and
Sint Eustatius (
BES Islands), as well as the autonomous states of
Curaçao and
Sint Maarten. It is widely spoken on Saba and Sint Eustatius. On Saba and St. Eustatius, the majority of the education is in English only, with some bilingual English-Dutch schools. 90-93% of the Dutch people can also speak English as a foreign language. (see also:
English language in the Netherlands)
Papiamento is an official language in the special municipality of
Bonaire. It is also the native language in the autonomous states of
Curaçao and
Aruba.
Another Low Franconian dialect is
Limburgish, which is spoken in the south-eastern province of
Limburg.
Limburgish is spoken by 825,000 speakers. Though there are movements to have Limburgish recognised as an official language (meeting with varying amounts of success, having previously been recognised as a regional language) Limburgish consists of many differing dialects that share some common aspects, but are quite different.[10]
The Netherlands also has its separate
Dutch Sign Language, called Nederlandse Gebarentaal (NGT). It has 17,500 users, and in 2021 received the status of recognised language.[11]
Minority languages, regional languages and dialects in the Benelux
The varieties in the Netherlands can be grouped into a major Low Franconian group, the one around
Almere and the rest.[13] Limburg is divided into a small area around Weert, a large area until Venlo and an area North of this.[13] There is another major group: Low Saxon divided into three areas.[13]Urk is separate.[13]Friesland hosts many of the varieties obtained.[13] They can be divided into
Frisian, archaic Frisian (
Hindeloopen,
Schiermonnikoog and
Terschelling island),
Friso-Franconian varieties (Frisian cities,
Midsland,
Ameland island and
Het Bildt) and
Friso-Saxon (in
Stellingwerf and variously also
Westerkwartier).[13]
Possible clustering includes the following possible categories not mentioned hitherto:
Zeeland and Central Gelderland.[13]Midsland,
Ameland island and
Het Bildt can be grouped together.[13]
Leeuwarden and possibly
Sneek can be grouped together. Dokkum, Stavoren, Kollum and possibly Heerenveen can have single varieties.[13]
West Frisian
West Frisian is an official language in the Dutch province of
Friesland (Fryslân in West Frisian). The government of the Frisian province is bilingual. Since 1996 West Frisian has been recognised as an official minority language in the
Netherlands under the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, although it had been recognised by the Dutch government as the second state language (tweede rijkstaal), with official status in Friesland, since the 1950s.
The
mutual intelligibility in reading between Dutch and Frisian is limited. A
cloze test in 2005 revealed native Dutch speakers understood 31.9% of a West Frisian newspaper, 66.4% of an
Afrikaans newspaper and 97.1% of a Dutch newspaper.[14]
^"Cittaslow Vaals: verrassend, veelzijdig, veelkleurig". Retrieved 9 September 2015. The PDF file can be accessed at the bottom of the page. The relevant citation is on the page 13: "De enige taal waarin Vaals echt te beschrijven en te bezingen valt is natuurlijk het Völser dialect. Dit dialect valt onder het zogenaamde Ripuarisch."
Ginsburgh, Victor; Ignacio Ortuño-Ortin; Shlomo Weber (February 2005).
"Why Do People Learn Foreign Languages?"(PDF). Université libre de Bruxelles. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2007-10-25. Retrieved 2007-10-10. - specifically, see Table 2.