Limburg, also known as Belgian Limburg, is a province in Belgium. It is the easternmost of the five Dutch-speaking provinces that together form the Region of Flanders, one of the three main political and cultural sub-divisions of modern-day Belgium.
View of the Great Market place in Limburg's capital Hasselt
Statue of Ambiorix in the main square of Tongeren.
Still in use: the Roman paved road between Tongeren and Tienen
Cherries, an important product of Limburgian fruit growing business.
Dutch is a West Germanic language, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the third most spoken Germanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of the population of the Netherlands and Flanders. In South America, it is the native language of the majority of the population of Suriname, and spoken as a second language in the polyglot Caribbean island countries of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. All these countries have recognised Dutch as one of their official languages, and are involved in one way or another in the Dutch Language Union. Dutch Caribbean municipalities have Dutch as one of the official languages too. Up to half a million native speakers reside in the United States, Canada and Australia combined, and historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France and Germany.
The Utrecht baptismal vow
Title page of the Statenvertaling (1637) reads: Biblia ... Uyt de Oorspronckelijcke talen in onse Neder-landtsche tale getrouwelijck over-geset. (English: From the Original languages into our Dutch language faithfully translated.
Indonesia did not adopt the Dutch language after independence. However the Indonesian language absorbed a lot of Dutch vocabulary into its language. Seen here is the kantor pos (from Dutch postkantoor), meaning post office.
Standard Dutch used in a 1916 ad in South Africa before Afrikaans replaced Dutch for use in media