netherlands

The 1585 fall of Antwerp to the Spanish army led to a flight to the northern Netherlands, where the Dutch Republic declared its independence from Spain. In 1637, a additional crucial step was made towards a unified language, when the Statenvertaling, the very first important Bible translation into Dutch, was designed that persons from all over the new republic could realize. It used components from many, even Dutch Low Saxon, dialects but was predominantly primarily based on the urban dialects of Holland of post 16th century. The quantity of non-native speakers of Dutch who voluntarily study the language is smaller....