Netherlands
The Netherlands (i/ˈnɛðərləndz/; Dutch: Nederland [ˈneːdərˌlɑnt]) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of twelve provinces in North-West Europe and three islands in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders[9] with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. It is a parliamentary democracy organised as a unitary state. The country capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague.[10] The Netherlands in its entirety is often referred to as "Holland", although North and South Holland are actually only two of its provinces.
The Netherlands was one of the first countries to have an elected parliament, and the country is a founding member of the EU, NATO, OECD and WTO. Together with Belgium and Luxembourg it forms the Benelux economic union. The Netherlands had the tenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2011. The country is host to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and five international courts: the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EU's criminal intelligence agency Europol and judicial co-operation agency Eurojust. This has led to the city being dubbed "the world's legal capital".[13] The Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 13th of 157 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom.[14] In May 2011, the Netherlands was ranked as the "happiest" country according to results published by the OECD.[15]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands
Dutch language
Dutch (Nederlands) is a West Germanic language and the native language of most of the population of the Netherlands, and about sixty percent of the populations of Belgium and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second language for another 5 million people.[1][2] It also holds official status in the Caribbean island nations of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten, while historical minorities remain in parts of France and Germany, and to a lesser extent, in Indonesia,[n 1] and up to half a million native Dutch speakers may be living in the United States, Canada, and Australia.[n 2] The Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa have been standardised into Afrikaans, a mutually intelligible daughter language of Dutch[n 3] which today is spoken to some degree by an estimated total of 15 to 23 million people in South Africa and Namibia.[n 4]
Dutch is closely related to German and English[n 5] and is said to be between them.[n 6] Apart from not having undergone the High German consonant shift, Dutch—like English—has mostly abandoned the grammatical case system, is relatively unaffected by the Germanic umlaut, and has levelled much of its morphology.[n 7] Dutch has three grammatical genders,[3] but this distinction has far fewer grammatical consequences than in German.[n 8] Dutch shares with German the use of subject–verb–object word order in main clauses and subject–object–verb in subordinate clauses.[n 9] Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and contains the same Germanic core as German and English, while incorporating more Romance loans than German and fewer than English.[n 10]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language
Dutch people
The Dutch people (Dutch: Nederlanders) are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands.[14] They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada,[15] Australia,[16] South Africa,[17] New Zealand, and the United States.[18]
The traditional art and culture of the Dutch encompasses various forms of traditional music, dances, architectural styles and clothing, some of which are globally recognizable. Internationally, Dutch painters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh are held in high regard. The dominant religion of the Dutch is Christianity (both Catholic and Protestant), although in modern times the majority is no longer (openly) religious. Significant percentages of the Dutch are adherents of other religions (Islam, Buddhism), humanism, agnosticism, atheism or individual spirituality.[19][20]
In the Middle Ages the Low Countries were situated around the border of France and the Holy Roman Empire, forming a part of their respective peripheries, and the various territories of which they consisted had de facto become virtually autonomous by the 13th century.[21] Under the Habsburgs, the Netherlands were organised into a single administrative unit, and in the 16th and 17th centuries the Northern Netherlands gained independence from Spain as the Dutch Republic.[22] The high degree of urbanization characteristic of Dutch society was attained at a relatively early date.[23] During the Republic the first series of large scale Dutch migrations outside of Europe took place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_people
Dutch Proverbs
Confidence
¶ A drop of honey catches more flies than a barrel of vinegar.
Diffidence
¶ Acht is meer dan duizend.
Idiomatic translation: Diffidence is the right eye of prudence.
Meaning: When forming a belief be doubtful; no one is always right after all.
Honesty
¶ An open box tempts an honest man.
Trees
¶ Tall trees catch much wind.
Notes
Dutch language
[1]^ In France, a historical dialect called French Flemish is spoken. There are about 80,000 Dutch speakers in France; see Simpson 2009, p. 307. In French Flanders, only a remnant of between 50,000 to 100,000 Flemish-speakers remain; see Berdichevsky 2004, p. 90. Flemish is spoken in the north-west of France by an estimated population of 20,000 daily speakers and 40,000 occasional speakers; see European Commission 2010.
A dialect continuum exists between Dutch and German through the South Guelderish and Limburgish dialects.
In 1941, 400,000 Indonesians spoke Dutch, and Dutch exerted a major influence on Indonesian; see Sneddon 2003, p. 161. In 1941, about 0.5% of the inland population had a reasonable knowledge of Dutch; see Maier 2005, p. 12. At the beginning of World War II, about one million Asians had an active command of Dutch, while an additional half million had a passive knowledge; see Jones 2008, p. xxxi. Many older Indonesians speak Dutch as a second language; see Thomson 2003, p. 80. Some of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia speak Dutch amongst each other; see Tan 2008, pp. 62–64, Erdentuğ & Colombijn 2002, p. 104. Dutch is spoken by "smaller groups of speakers" in Indonesia; see Bussmann 2002, p. 83. Some younger Indonesians learn Dutch as a foreign language because their parents and grandparents may speak it and because in some circles, Dutch is regarded as the language of the elite; see Vos 2001, p. 91. At present, only educated people of the oldest generation, in addition to specialists for which knowledge of the language is required, can speak Dutch fluently; see Ammon 2006, p. 2017. Around 25% of present-day Indonesian vocabulary can be traced back to Dutch words, see Maier 2005, p. 17.
[2]^ 410,000 in USA, 159,000 in Canada, 47,000 in Australia; see Simpson 2009, p. 307. Between 200,000 and 400,000 in USA alone; see McGoldrick, Giordano & Garcia-Preto 2005, p. 536.
[3]^ Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see Booij 1995, p. 2, Jansen, Schreuder & Neijt 2007, p. 5, Mennen, Levelt & Gerrits 2006, p. 1, Booij 2003, p. 4, Hiskens, Auer & Kerswill 2005, p. 19, Heeringa & de Wet 2007, pp. 1, 3, 5.
Afrikaans was historically called Cape Dutch; see Deumert & Vandenbussche 2003, p. 16, Conradie 2005, p. 208, Sebba 1997, p. 160, Langer & Davies 2005, p. 144, Deumert 2002, p. 3, Berdichevsky 2004, p. 130.
Afrikaans is rooted in 17th century dialects of Dutch; see Holm 1989, p. 338, Geerts & Clyne 1992, p. 71, Mesthrie 1995, p. 214, Niesler, Louw & Roux 2005, p. 459.
Afrikaans is variously described as a creole, a partially creolised language, or a deviant variety of Dutch; see Sebba 2007, p. 116.
[4]^ It has the widest geographical and racial distribution of all official languages of South Africa; see Webb 2003, pp. 7, 8, Berdichevsky 2004, p. 131. It has by far the largest geographical distribution; see Alant 2004, p. 45.
It is widely spoken and understood as a second or third language; see Deumert & Vandenbussche 2003, p. 16, Kamwangamalu 2004, p. 207, Myers-Scotton 2006, p. 389, Simpson 2008, p. 324, Palmer 2001, p. 141, Webb 2002, p. 74, Herriman & Burnaby 1996, p. 18, Page & Sonnenburg 2003, p. 7, Brook Napier 2007, pp. 69, 71.
An estimated 40 percent of South Africans have at least a basic level of communication in Afrikaans; see Webb 2003, p. 7 McLean & McCormick 1996, p. 333. Afrikaans is a lingua franca of Namibia; see Deumert 2004, p. 1, Adegbija 1994, p. 26, Batibo 2005, p. 79, Donaldson 1993, p. xiii, Deumert & Vandenbussche 2003, p. 16, Baker & Prys Jones 1997, p. 364, Domínguez & López 1995, p. 399, Page & Sonnenburg 2003, p. 8, CIA 2010.
While the number of total speakers of Afrikaans is unknown, estimates range between 15 and 23 million. Afrikaans has 16.3 million speakers; see de Swaan 2001, p. 216. Afrikaans has a total of 16 million speakers; see Machan 2009, p. 174. About 9 million people speak Afrikaans as a second or third language; see Alant 2004, p. 45, Proost 2006, p. 402. Afrikaans has over 5 million native speakers and 15 million second language speakers; see Réguer 2004, p. 20. Afrikaans has about 6 million native and 16 million second language speakers; see Domínguez & López 1995, p. 340. In South Africa, over 23 million people speak Afrikaans, of which a third are first-language speakers; see Page & Sonnenburg 2003, p. 7. L2 "Black Afrikaans" is spoken, with different degrees of fluency, by an estimated 15 million; see Stell 2008–11, p. 1.
Dutch and Afrikaans share mutual intelligibility; see Gooskens 2007, p. 453, Holm 1989, p. 338, Baker & Prys Jones 1997, p. 302, Egil Breivik & Håkon Jahr 1987, p. 232. For written mutual intelligibility; see Sebba 2007, p. 116, Sebba 1997, p. 161.
It is easier for Dutch speakers to understand Afrikaans than the other way around; see Gooskens 2007, p. 454.
[5]^ Dutch and English are the closest relatives of German; see Abraham 2006, p. 124. Dutch is the closest relative of German; see Czepluch & Abraham 2004, p. 13. Dutch and English are closely related; see Ingram 1989, p. 494, Todd 2004, p. 37, Kager 1989, p. 105, Hogg 2002, p. 134, De Bot, Lowie & Verspoor 2005, pp. 130, 166, Weissenborn & Höhle 2001, p. 209, Crisma & Longobarde 2009, p. 250. Dutch and English are very closely related languages; see Fitzpatrick 2007, p. 188. Dutch is, after Frisian, the closest relative of English; see Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 23, Classe 2000, p. 390, Hogg 2002, p. 3, Denning, Kessler & Leben 2007, p. 22. English is most closely related to Dutch; see Lightfoot 1999, p. 22, and more so than to German; see Sonnenschein 2008, p. 100, Kennedy Wyld 2009, p. 190.
[6]^ Dutch is traditionally described as morphologically between English and German, while syntactically closer to German; see Clyne 2003, p. 133. Dutch has been positioned to be between English and German; see Putnam 2011, p. 108, Bussmann 2002, p. 83, Müller 1995, p. 121, Onysko & Michel 2010, p. 210. Typologically, Dutch takes a midway position between English and German, having a similar word order to that of German, having a grammatical gender, and a largely Germanic vocabulary. It is however morphologically close to English, and the case system and subjunctive have largely fallen out of use; see Swan & Smith 2001, p. 6.
[7]^ Dutch shares with English its simplified morphology and the abandonment of the grammatical case system; see Booij 1995, p. 1, Simpson 2009, p. 309. In contrast to German, case markings have become vestigial in English and Dutch; see Hogg 2002, p. 134, Abraham 2006, p. 118, Bussmann 2002, p. 83, Swan & Smith 2001, p. 6. The umlaut in Dutch and English matured to a much lesser extent than in German; see Simpson 2009, p. 307, Lass 1994, p. 70, Deprez 1997, p. 251.
[8]^ Dutch has effectively two genders; see Booij 1995, p. 1, Simpson 2009, p. 309, De Vogelaer 2009, p. 71. Grammatical gender has little grammatical consequences in Dutch; see Bussmann 2002, p. 84
[9]^ Simpson 2009, p. 307, Booij 1995, p. 1. Dutch and German not have a strict SVO order as in English; see Hogg 2002, pp. 87, 134. In contrast to English, which has SVO as the underlying word order, for Dutch and German this is SV1OV2 or (in subordinate clauses) SOV; see Ingram 1989, p. 495, Jordens & Lalleman 1988, pp. 149, 150, 177. Dutch has almost the same word order as German; see Swan & Smith 2001, p. 6.
[10]^ Dutch vocabulary has more Germanic words than English and more Romance words than German; see Simpson 2009, p. 309, Swan & Smith 2001, p. 17. Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic; see Swan & Smith 2001, p. 6. Dutch has the most similar vocabulary to English; see Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 1.
References
Netherlands
[1]^ a b c d The World Factbook – Netherlands. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved on 8 March 2009.
[2]^ "Population and population dynamics; month, quarter and year". Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
[3]^ a b c d "Netherlands". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
[4]^ "Distribution of family income – Gini index". World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
[5]^ "Country Comparison: Distribution Of Family Income - Gini Index". World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
[6]^ "Human Development Report 2013". United Nations. 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
[7]^ "Wet gebruik Friese taal in het rechtsverkeer" (in Dutch). wetten.nl. Retrieved 25 October 2010.
[8]^ a b "Invoeringswet openbare lichamen Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba" (in Dutch). wetten.nl. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
[9]^ "North Sea". Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
[10]^ Dutch Ministry of Foreign affairs. "About the Nederlands". Retrieved 3 March 2011.
[11]^ "Milieurekeningen 2008". Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
[12]^ "Netherlands Guide – Interesting facts about the Netherlands". Eupedia. 19 April 1994. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
[13]^ van Krieken, Peter J.; David McKay (2005). The Hague: Legal Capital of the World. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 90-6704-185-8., specifically, "In the 1990s, during his term as United Nations Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali started calling The Hague the world's legal capital."
[14]^ Netherlands, Index of Economic Freedom. heritage.org
[15]^ "Where is the happiest place on Earth? | The Search Office Space Blog | Searchofficespace". News.searchofficespace.com. 25 May 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
Dutch language
[1]^ a b c d (Dutch) "Nederlands, wereldtaal". Nederlandse Taalunie. 2010. Retrieved 2011-04-07.
[2]^ a b c European Commission (2006). "Special Eurobarometer 243: Europeans and their Languages (Survey)" (PDF). Europa. Retrieved 2007-02-03. "1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." (page 153)
[3]^ Especially maintained in written language; cf. W. Haeseryn et al. (eds.), Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst (2nd ed., 1997), 160–161.
Dutch people
[14]^ Autochtone population at 1 January 2006, Central Statistics Bureau, Integratiekaart 2006, (external link) This includes the Frisians as well.
[15]^ Based on Statistics Canada, Canada 2001 Census.Link[dead link] to Canadian statistics.
[16]^ "2001CPAncestryDetailed (Final)" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-08-27.
[17]^ Based on figures given by Professor JA Heese in his book Die Herkoms van die Afrikaner (The Origins of Afrikaners), who claims the modern Afrikaners (who total around 4.5 million) have 35% Dutch heritage. How 'Pure' was the Average Afrikaner?
[18]^ According to Factfinder.census.gov
[19]^ "CBS statline Church membership". Statline.cbs.nl. 2009-12-15. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
[20]^ Religion in the Netherlands. (Dutch)
[21]^ Winkler Prins Geschiedenis der Nederlanden I (1977), p. 150; I.H. Gosses, Handboek tot de staatkundige geschiedenis der Nederlanden I (1974 [1959]), 84 ff.
[22]^ The actual independence was accepted by in the 1648 treaty of Munster, in practice the Dutch Republic had been independent since the last decade of the 16th century.
[23]^ D.J. Noordam, "Demografische ontwikkelingen in West-Europa van de vijftiende tot het einde van de achttiende eeuw", in H.A. Diederiks e.a., Van agrarische samenleving naar verzorgingsstaat (Leiden 1993), 35-64, esp. 40
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Netherlands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_people
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dutch_proverbs