Tweespalt rond de Westhoek: Een paragraafje uit de externe geschiedenis van het Franse West-Vlaams
Discord around the Westhoek: An Excerpt from the External History of French West Flemish

Summary/Abstract: In the so-called Westhoek, in the north-west of France, a few thousand (or tens of thousands?) French people still speak a variant of West Flemish. Various French authorities have dealt with this language in the past, either to try to eradicate it (public authorities) or to protect and even promote it (various associations). Today, the tide has turned. The French government is now sympathetic to the many regional languages of France. It is remarkable, however, that there is a great division among the private protectors of West Flemish. On the one hand, there are “particularists” who deny that West Flemish belongs to Dutch dialectology, and on the other there are “integrationists” who seek to link up with the Dutch-speaking states in general, and Standard Dutch in particular. The aim of this contribution is to reveal part of the historical roots of this division.

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