The History of the Dutch Language: From Old Frankish to Today
The Dutch language has travelled a remarkable road — from the speech of Frankish tribes along the Rhine, through a golden age of trade and printing, to a modern language spoken on three continents. Understanding where Dutch comes from makes its quirks (that hard g, those long compound words) suddenly make sense. Here’s the story.
Old Dutch (500–1150): the Frankish roots
Dutch descends from the West Germanic dialects spoken by the Franks and other tribes in the Low Countries. The oldest known Dutch sentence — “Hebban olla vogala nestas hagunnan…” (“All the birds have begun nests…”) — was scribbled by a Flemish monk around 1100. It’s a love note, fittingly, given how much Dutch culture loves directness.
Middle Dutch (1150–1500): the age of cities
As trade cities like Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp boomed, written Dutch flourished — but there was no single standard. Each region wrote its own way. This was the era of medieval literature, guild records, and the first Dutch poetry. If you read Middle Dutch today, it looks like Dutch wearing a costume: recognisable but strange.
The Golden Age (1500–1700): standardisation and the Statenbijbel
The printing press changed everything. The pivotal moment came in 1637 with the Statenbijbel — an official Dutch translation of the Bible commissioned by the government. To make it readable nationwide, scholars blended features from different regional dialects into one standard. This is the foundation of modern Standard Dutch.
Colonial spread (1600–1900): Dutch goes global
The Dutch East and West India Companies carried the language across the globe — to Indonesia, the Caribbean, Suriname, and South Africa. In South Africa, Dutch eventually evolved into a new language entirely: Afrikaans. Some of these connections survive today; others faded after independence.
Modern Dutch (1900–today): spelling reforms and the Taalunie
The 20th century brought several official spelling reforms to keep Dutch consistent and modern. In 1980, the Netherlands and Belgium founded the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union) to jointly govern the language — which is why a book printed in Amsterdam is identical to one in Antwerp. Today Dutch absorbs English loanwords rapidly (de computer, chillen, liken) while keeping its distinctive grammar.
Why this history matters for learners
- The shared Germanic root explains why so much vocabulary feels familiar to English speakers
- The blended-dialect origin explains why “standard” Dutch sounds slightly different from any single region
- The trade history explains the hundreds of English-Dutch cognates that give you a head start
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Start learning Dutch →Frequently asked questions
How old is the Dutch language?
Dutch as a distinct language emerged around the 5th–6th century from West Germanic dialects. The oldest written Dutch sentence dates to about 1100. Standard Dutch as we know it crystallised in the 1600s.
What language is Dutch closest to?
Afrikaans (its direct descendant), then Frisian and German, then English. All are West Germanic languages sharing a common ancestor.
Did Dutch influence English?
Yes — especially through trade and seafaring. Words like cookie, boss, yacht, skipper, dock, easel and landscape all came from Dutch.