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These multiple definitions are used many times and can result in confusion. One might expect that Flemish would be an official term for the language of politics and education in Flanders, but there is no standardized language of culture by this name. In Belgium the official languages according to the constitution are French , German and Dutch , which in the legal context refers to the same standard Dutch (''Algemeen Nederlands'') that is an official language of The Netherlands . In contrast to countries where the names of languages may have a more purely descriptive significance, in Belgium language is at the basis of a long political emancipation struggle, which accounts for the weight being put on the use of correct terminology, as well as the involvement of government in determining and defining standard languages. DIFFERENT LINGUISTIC MEANINGS OF ''FLEMISH'' To the term ''Flemish'', as a linguistic notion, several meanings can be given: # Dutch as it is spoken in the present region Flanders (i.e. Dutch-speaking northern Belgium) # the non-standardized dialects of the former countship of Flanders, which once covered most of the provinces of West-Vlaanderen , Oost-Vlaanderen (Belgium), Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (Netherlands) and the northern French region of French Flanders # the non-standardized dialects of the provinces of West-Vlaanderen , Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and French Flanders . # any combination of the above Depending on the definition used, ''Flemish'' shows more or less differences with the Standard Dutch , as officially determined by the Nederlandse Taalunie . Some usages that are common in Belgium, but not in The Netherlands, are recognized as being interchangeably correct, and are therefore formally correct Dutch , while others are rejected in Flanders as Dialect isms. DIFFERENCES FROM DUTCH Standard Dutch as spoken, and, more commonly, as written in Belgium is slightly different from standard Dutch as spoken in the Netherlands . The differences extend to Vocabulary and Idiom . This southern standard is largely of Brabantic origin, though this also shaped the northern standard since the Habsburg persecution of protestants and the decline of Antwerp when the Dutch blockade of the river Schelde caused a mass emigration to the Netherlands. The Flemish people themselves often note some difference between standard Dutch, as spoken in the Netherlands, and "Flemish". This distinction is also recognised outside of Flanders, as can be seen by the fact that companies such as Microsoft have a setting for 'Dutch (The Netherlands)' and 'Dutch (Belgium)' in their software, even though the official language recognized in both countries is the same. The official language, after all, is set by a single regulating body for the Dutch writing language, the Taalunie , in which the Netherlands and Belgium (in fact the Flemish region) participate as equal partners (in cooperation with South American associate member Suriname , where still other dialects exist). The majority of Dutch-speaking Belgians speak Dutch with a softer accent than the majority of Dutch-speakers in the Netherlands, not using an unvoiced g, v or z at the beginning of a word. Their language thus reflects the original written Dutch standard derived from the Brabantic . Flemish television networks often feel obliged to add Dutch subtitles to programming from the Netherlands proper, so that viewers can fully understand what is being said, especially when the speaker has a heavy Randstad accent. This practice is also used for true dialect speakers within Flanders; ironically when fictional TV characters supposedly speak dialect, it is usually a mix between Antwerp's (the Brabantic, largest city's and relatively easy to understand elsewhere) and standard Dutch. This is often compared to the relationship between American and British English (see American And British English Differences ), except that there is no written difference whatsoever. OTHER DIALECTS Another category of variants consists of the Dutch ( North Brabant is Dutch, Antwerp and Vlaams-Brabant are Belgian) and the region of Limburg (both states have a homonymous province). The main dividing lines between the Dutch dialects run from north to south, not from west to east as the Belgian-Dutch state border does. Of course centuries of separate political life did generate quite some idiomatic differences in official language and various jargons, but hardly anything grammatical and not significantly more even in vocabulary than between say Austria, Switzerland and Germany (even within this federal country there are very distinct northern and southern groups, pre-Luther without a common standard even in writing). The fairytale that 'Flemish' was a 'language without a literature' separate from Dutch was maintained by Belgium's francophone ruling class to fence off any threat from growing cries for recognition among the Dutch-speaking majority. Finally there are among these Dutch dialects also ''strictly'' Flemish Dialects in the linguistic sense, that are spoken in the old county of Flanders (about a third of the Dutch-speaking region in Belgium), among which the most deviant subset is West Flemish , which is also spoken in Zeeuws Vlaanderen situated in Zeeland a province of The Netherlands alongside Zeeuws which can be seen as the link between Hollandic and West Flemish . LANGUAGE HISTORY The Flemish dialects belong, just all other within Dutch, e.g. Hollandic , to the Continental West- Germanic Languages and are spoken in an area roughly comprising the Belgian province of West-Vlaanderen .Standard Dutch is mainly formed from Brabantic dialects, with major inputs by Hollandic (as its forging happened largely when emigrants from Antwerp resettled in Amsterdam) and (countship-)Flemish dialects. Classification Flemish can be classified as followed:
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