Flemish
The word
Flemish has two meanings: a
linguistic one (the language of the
Flemings), and a
social/
political one (everything that refers to
Flanders or to one or more individual Flemish people or organisations).
It is used often, but because of the different definitions use of the term often is ambiguous. It should be noted that Flemish (
Vlaams,
Flamand or
Flämisch) is not an official designation of a language in Flanders or Belgium. These are French, German and Dutch. Since the notion "Flemish" is a container for a number of very different dialects of Dutch, it has little sense linguistically to treat it as one entity. "The" Flemish language doesn't exist, although the notion is used as such in every day language.
The
adjective "Flemish" refers to everything and everybody that has a relation to
Flanders, in every geographical definition. It is also used for everything originating from Flanders, cultural, political, economical, etc.
*
Flanders or the Flemish Region, a constitutional region in Belgium
*
Flanders, a geographical region in Belgium
*
Flanders (county), the historical countship of the Low Countries
*
Flemish Community, an institutionalized community in Belgium
*
Flemish people, the ethnic group native to Flanders
*
Flemish movement, a political movement for autonomy
*Part of this article was translated from the
Dutch Wikipedia article on the same subject.
