French language in Netherlands

The French for years in Netherlands is the official language of the elite. To see this, for example, to the Dutch arm, where Je maintiendrai ("I will maintain") in State.However, French is spoken less and less.

French was especially in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries the language of the European elite and functioned as lingua franca. As France played an important role in politics (think of Louis XIV and Napoleon). Netherlands was even briefly part of France, from 1810 to 1813, and French was the official language of the country in that period, in addition to the Dutch. Until 1892, there was a French-language newspaper called Le Courrier de la Meuse for residents of Maastricht with French as mother tongue. The mining code of 1810 (Loi concernant les Mines, les Minières et les Carrières) was the last French-language law in Dutch law and disappeared in 2003. In education was French as a second language well into the 20th century considered more important than the English.

As the influence of France waned in Europe, the influence of the French language also took off. Yet the country and the language is still a great attraction on Dutch. To see this all to the fact that France, the most popular holiday destination for years is of Dutch. Also, there are a lot of French words to find in the Dutch (garage, Office,purse, lingerie). The other way around also has the Dutch traces in the French left behind, and not only in areas such as shipping (matelot: sailor) and the waterworks:polders and digues (dykes). Include words like bière (beer), drôle (turd: funny) and boulevard (stronghold) come from the Dutch.

Also in high school French still hold a privileged position, although the French under intense competition suffers from English, German and Spanish. French is a compulsory subject in many secondary schools. After the Dutch, the English and the German is often the fourth language of Dutch French. Well there is more and more passive knowledge: students can read the language but did not write or speak. Also, there are fewer and fewer University students on the French.