The role of political borders in the millennial retreat of Dutch (Flemish) in the north of France

• Autores: Hugo Ryckeboer
• Localización: International journal of the sociology of language, ISSN 0165-2516, Nº. 145, 2000, págs. 79-108
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The historic presence of Dutch in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the north of France is still strikingly apparent in its place-names and family names. These remnants testify to the long existence of a Situation of bilingualism and diglossia in that region. A historic overview teaches us that a millennial retreat of Dutch and its replacement by Picardic and French has nowadays almost come to an end. During the Anden Regime political borders hardly seem to have played any role in that evolution. But in the last three centuries, since the annexation of French Flanders to France in the second half of the seventeenth Century, the linguistic Situation of the hinterland of Dunkirk has gradually changed from completely Dutch (Flemish) to almost completely French. Especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the state border between France and Belgium has had a growing sociological impact on language use and on the characteristics of the original Flemish dialect on either side of the border. A considerable divergence on the level ofthe Standard language use has caused a secondary divergence in the Flemish dialect, which is now threatened with extinction on the French side of the border.