Introduction The Dutch language

Abstract

The official language of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is known to us as Dutch. Dutch belongs, along with German, the Scandinavian languages and English, to the so-called ‘Germanic’ group of languages. We can see plainly the family relationship of Dutch to English when we compare words like which, although they are pronounced differently, show their common origin. We can find many words like this in the Dutch vocabulary, and even more words like which have become somewhat disguised through sound changes and differing spellings, and are not always easily recognizable. The close relationship of a large number of words is still more obscured by the changes of time, e.g. to an extent that only a trained eye can identify them.