Bring on the Language Police!
Words become outlawed, and people with different opinions soon accuse the other party of engaging in ‘framing’. Are the language police just round the corner?
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High Road to Culture in Flanders and the Netherlands
Words become outlawed, and people with different opinions soon accuse the other party of engaging in ‘framing’. Are the language police just round the corner?
Linguist and Professor of Dutch Marc van Oostendorp debunks the consensus that Dutch would be a pluricentric language.
Perhaps the real puzzle is why there is so much variation. The small geographical area of the Netherlands and Flanders is home to hundreds of dialects according to some counts – some of them mutually unintelligible.
In the Low Countries too, the use of profanity by politicians in office is no longer an exception. Is this profane language spontaneous and innocent, or is there a calculated strategy behind it?
Gender-inclusive language is not a new phenomenon, but an additional layer has recently been added. Where do we stand today in 2023?
Native speakers of Dutch should adopt a more tolerant and empathetic attitude towards non-native speakers, argues Christopher Joby, a Dutch Studies scholar from Norwich.