Search results
Sort results
Select author
Refine search results
Select genre
Select tag
Why Flemish and Dutch Deaf People Don’t Always Understand Each Other
18 May 2026
People from different countries may speak the same spoken language, but that does not mean they share the same sign language. The Deaf communities in the Netherlands and Flanders, for example, each use their own sign language, with their own lexicon and grammar: Dutch Sign Language (NGT) and Flemish
Can a Computer Recognise Dialect?
27 April 2026
Is a computer able to understand whether a sentence is written in Drents, Limburgs, or Gronings? Researchers at the Meertens Institute decided to take up this question. Using over a thousand Dutch dialect novels and a specifically trained language model, they show that artificial intelligence perfor
It’s all Double Dutch to ChatGPT
30 March 2026
Language is power. Whoever decides which words count, which sentences sound right, which expressions are 'correct', also decides who belongs and who doesn't. That question is as old as standardised Dutch itself. But as generative AI reshapes the linguistic landscape, it takes on a new and urgent dim
The Smell of Masculine Fullness and Rotten Eggs
19 February 2024
How do you describe a fragrance when you lack the words for it? Linguist Marten van der Meulen sees possibilities in dialects and non-European languages.
There Is More to the Cow’s Voice Than Just Moo
21 June 2023
Dairy cows are not merely suppliers of dairy products to supermarkets; they are social beings that communicate with each other and with humans. However, sociolinguistics has paid little attention to this kind of interaction. Leonie Cornips aims to shed light on this through her language research on
The Top 7 Language Stories of the Year
20 December 2022
Join us in bidding goodbye to 2022 with seven of the finest language stories we published this year that are worth re-reading or listening to again.
New Reference Work on Regional Languages in the Netherlands and Flanders
29 August 2022
In the book Wie zegt wat waar? (Who Says What Where?) the reader is presented with a more accurate picture of the regional languages in the Netherlands and Flanders than in many other reference works. Dialect areas are less strictly demarcated here and reflect the increased interplay between regiona
How Romanian Writer Mira Feticu Made Dutch Her Own
17 September 2021
It requires a great deal of courage and persistence to make a new language and culture your own. In her book Liefdesverklaring aan de Nederlandse taal (Declaration of Love to the Dutch Language) Mira Feticu describes this struggle – this process of falling over and getting back up again – with D
The Decolonisation of Language Starts With Awareness
6 July 2021
Language is a representation of reality, which we use unconsciously. It thus reflects the prevailing relations in society, even if these are unjust. That is why it is necessary to decolonise language, writes scriptwriter and opinion former Raf Njotea. But because language is so elusive, imposed rule
Mira Feticu Declares Her Love to the Dutch Language
24 June 2021
Learning Dutch was a struggle, but it gave her freedom, states the Romanian-Dutch author Mira Feticu in her latest book. The Liberian-born writer Vamba Sherif can relate to Feticu’s victorious journey.
Double Dutch and Beyond
4 January 2021
Last year, the Anglo-Netherlands Society of London, to mark its centenary, published North Sea Neighbours, a collection of wide-ranging essays on important aspects of Dutch-British interaction across the sea. In his contribution, Professor Reinier Salverda of University College London (UCL) zooms in
