Dutch introduction
From UniLang Wiki
Dutch is a member of the West Germanic languages spoken by c.20 milion people, chiefly in the Netherlands (14 million) and Belgium (5 million) with others in a small adjacent area of North-East France, in Suriname and The Netherlands Antilles (where it has official status), and by immigrants in several other countries. In Belgium, it is the official language in the northern part of the country. The Dutch/French language issue continues to divide the Belgian population. There is very little structural difference with the language spoken in The Netherlands, and the name Netherlandic has been proposed as a single term for all varieties of the language. Dutch is written in the Roman alphabet, and texts date from the end of the 10th century.
It's closest relatives are Afrikaans, Frisian, German and English.
Low German, Luxembourgish are not far away either.
Other West-Germanic languages are Yiddish and Scots.
