West Flemish
| West Flemish | |
|---|---|
| West-Vlaams | |
| Native to | Belgium, Netherlands, France |
| Region | West Flanders |
Native speakers | (1.4 million cited 1998) |
| Dialects | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:vls – (West) Vlaamszea – Zeelandic (Zeeuws) |
| Glottolog | sout3292 Southwestern Dutchvlaa1240 Western Flemish |
| Linguasphere | 52-ACB-ag |
West Flemish is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
West Flemish (West-Vlams or West-Vloams or Vlaemsch (in French Flanders), Dutch: West-Vlaams, French: flamand occidental) is a collection of Low Franconian varieties spoken in western Belgium and the neighbouring areas of France and the Netherlands.
West Flemish is spoken by about a million people in the Belgian province of West Flanders, and a further 50,000 in the neighbouring Dutch coastal district of Zeelandic Flanders (200,000 if including the closely related dialects of Zeelandic) and 10-20,000 in the northern part of the French department of Nord. Some of the main cities where West Flemish is widely spoken are Bruges, Dunkirk, Kortrijk, Ostend, Roeselare and Ypres.
West Flemish is listed as a "vulnerable" language in UNESCO's online Red Book of Endangered Languages.
| This article is a part of a series on |
| Dutch |
|---|
| Low Saxon dialects |
| West Low Franconian dialects |
| East Low Franconian dialects |