Kris Deschouwer | Keynote Lezing

The Dutch language from Belgium to Flanders

Thursday 11 June 2026 | 11:30–12:30
Online Viewers in Europe: 17:30–18:30

The relation between Belgium and the Dutch language is not an easy one. When the country was founded in 1830 after the separation from the northern part of the Low Countries it opted for French as its working language. Dutch was only very gradually given the space that it deserved in a country where French is actually a (large) minority language. The recognition of Dutch and the territorial organization of language use culminated from the 1960s on in the creation of Flanders as a strong substate in a new federal Belgium. Promoting the Dutch language is now in the hands of Flanders. But then paradoxically, the relation between Flanders and the Dutch language remains somewhat ambiguous.