Facts about the Dutch Language
The Dutch language is a member of the West Germanic group of the Indo-European family of languages.
Most native Dutch speakers live in the Netherlands, Belgium, as well as Suriname, with additional speakers in France, Germany and several former Dutch colonies. Dutch is closely related to other West Germanic languages such as English, West Frisian and German.
There are 21 million native speakers of Dutch. Approximately, 15 million of these reside in the Netherlands.The Dutch language is also spoken in the Netherlands Antilles, as well as Aruba, Canada, Suriname and the USA by emigrant communities. Dutch is also spoken in northern Belgium where it is generally known as Flemish.
