Dutch, Afrikaans, Flemish, Frisian

Thanks to Ralf Cornelissen and Lex Bennick for technical advice.

About the Languages

Dutch/Flemish/Afrikaans

Dutch, Flemish and Afrikaans are three closely related forms descended from the Germanic language Middle Dutch, first spoken in the Western coasts of Europe. In modern terms:

• Dutch is the main official language of the Netherlands and is also spoken in Aruba, Curaçao, Surinam and Sint Maarten.
• Flemish or Belgium Dutch is spoken in Belgium. It is generally understandable by Dutch speakers but preserves unique dialectal features.
• Afrikaans developed from the Dutch used by South African Dutch speakers and has significant differences from European Dutch.

Note also that Dutch has recently undergone a spelling reform which has reduced
the number of accents used to primarily the acute and umlaut (dieresis),
but some older or French borrowed words may use the grave and circumflex
accents.

Frisian

The term "Frisian" generally refers to Western Frisian spoken in the Netherlands, but closely related Frisian languages are also found in Germany. All are descended from Old Frisian which was a sister language to Anglo-Saxon. Hence, Frisian is considered the closest relative to English spoken in Europe.

Windows ALT Codes

In Windows, combinations of the ALT key plus a numeric code from the number keypad can be used to type a non-English character in any Windows application.

See the detailed instructions on the ALT Code How To for complete information on implementing the code. Additional options for entering accents in Windows are also listed in the Accents section of this Web site.

Dutch Punctuation

Windows International Keyboard Codes

In order to use these codes you must activate the U.S. international keyboard. Once the U.S. International keyboard has been activated, you can use the codes below.

Accented Vowels

This list is organized by Accent type. The sample shows a letter
with that accent, and the Notes present any special comments about
using that accent.

For the Template, the symbol "V" means any vowel.

Example 1: To type the letter ó – Type the apostrophe
key (‘), then O.  For Ó, type the apostrophe,
then capital O.

Windows Dutch Keyboard

If you wish to simulate a non U.S. keyboard, follow the instructions for
Activating Keyboard Locales to activate and switch Microsoft keyboards.

Macintosh Accent Codes

Accented Vowels and Punctuation

In order to use the full set of codes, particularly accented y, switch to or the US/ABC Extended keyboard.

Example 1: To input the letter ó, hold down the Option
key, then the E key. Release both keys then type lowercase o.
Example 2: To input the letter Ó, hold down the
Option key, then the E key. Release all three keys then
type capital O.

Accented Y in OS X

For accented y, you must activate the US/ABC Extended keyboard. Once the extended keyboard has been activated, you can use the codes below.

Example: For Ý, type Option+E, then capital Y.

Web Development

Historical Encodings

Unicode (utf-8) is the preferred encoding for Web sites. However, the following historic encodings may still be encountered.

• iso-8859-1 (Latin 1),
• iso-8859-15 (adds support for the euro (€)
• win-1252

If possible, you should transition to Unicode.

Language Tags

Language Tags allow browsers and other software to process text more efficiently. They are also important for optimal screen reader accessibility.

Dutch Codes

Note: Some dialects are distinct enough to have been assigned language codes.

• nl (Dutch/Flemish)
• nl-NL (specifically Netherlands)
• nl-BE (Belgian Dutch/Flemish)
• af (Afrikaans)
• li (Limburghish)
• vls (Vlaams, West Flemish)
• zea (Zeelandic)

Historical Stages

• dum (Middle Dutch)
• odt (Old Dutch)

Frisian Codes

• fy (Western Frisian)
• frs (Eastern/Saterland Frisian)
• frr (Northern Frisian)
• ofs (Old Frisian)

HTML Entity Codes

Use these codes to input accented letters in HTML. For instance, if you
want to type één you would type één.

The numbers in parentheses are the numeric codes assigned in Unicode encoding. For instance, because é is number 233, één can also be used to input één.These numbers are also used with the Windows Alt
codes listed above.

Dutch Currency

European Quote Marks

Many modern texts use American style quotes, but if you wish to include European style quote marks, here are the codes. Note that these codes may not work in older browsers. Dutch quotations in the Netherlands use right facing bottom and top quotes as in the following example – „This is a quotation.” Other areas may use different conventions.

Links

Linux/Unix

Some content is in Dutch.

• Linux Accent Codes (English)
• Linux Links Com – Dutch
• NL LLG – Nederlandse Linux Gebruikers Groep
• Linux How To for Belgium

Dutch, Afrikaans & Frisian Languages

• History of Dutch
• From European to Afrikaner
• Lowlands L (Dutch, Afrikaans, Frisian)

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