Three official languages ​​in one country, how far must we go?

Belgium education Luxembourg
language border-1980-924.jpgBelgium is having a hard time. If you recognize three languages ​​as official languages, what is to do with the stamps? The official languages ​​are French, Dutch, and German. Naturally, these languages ​​are not spoken throughout the entire country. Special language laws have been created to define the language borders. Belgium is split into two parts by the language border, which runs roughly east-west. North of that border lies the area where Dutch is the official language, not only as spoken on the street, but also, for example, in education, the judiciary, and municipal services. South of the border, French is spoken, and here too, this language serves as the formal language for education, and so on. Brussels is an exception to this, however, because the Dutch and French languages ​​have the same rights there. And to make matters even more complicated, there is a German-speaking area in eastern Belgium. The Belgian Post came up with the idea, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Kingdom of Belgium, to adorn the existing 6,50 franc postcards with the provincial coats of arms, accompanied by the years 1830-1980, the country name, and the province name. However, in many cases, the provincial borders do not coincide with the language border! The province of Luxembourg (capital Arlon) posed no problem at all: the French language. The same applied to Hainaut (capital Mons) and Namur (with the capital of the same name). luxembourg-f-1980-929.jpg hainaut-f-1980-935.jpgnamur-f-1980-934.jpg But in the province of Brabant, there were distinctly Dutch-speaking areas (Flemish Brabant, capital Leuven), French-speaking areas (Walloon Brabant, capital Wavre), and areas where both languages ​​were spoken. Advice was hard to come by, but a decision was made to satisfy everyone. So a postcard was produced with exclusively Dutch text, exclusively French text, a combination of Dutch and French, and a combination of French and Dutch. brabant-nf-1980-925.jpg brabant-f-1980-926.jpg brabant-fn-1980-927.jpg brabant-n-1980-928.jpg For the provinces of Antwerp (with the eponymous capital), West Flanders (capital Bruges), Limburg (capital Hasselt), and East Flanders (capital Ghent), it was also no problem: the Dutch language. antwerpen-n-1980-931.jpg  west-vlaanderen-n-1980-930.jpg limburg-n-1980-933.jpg  oost-vlaanderen-n-1980-932.jpg The German-speaking area (Eupen and Malmedy) belonged to the province of Liège (Luik with the capital of the same name). Thus, it was both exclusively French and bilingual: German and French. Why? Because the official language in this area was German, but with French as a second language. In German, the translation of the place name Liège is: Lüttich. liege-f-1980-936.jpg   luttich-f-1980-937.jpg And Brussels? Brussels did not participate in this matter, because this city is not a province. That way, everyone was satisfied. The 10 provinces of Belgium and the Belgian Post, because instead of 10 postcards, they could now sell 13 cards. Price? 84,50 francs for the value of the cards, with a surcharge of 15,50 francs for the entire set: 100 francs. Cash register.

9 comments

  1. '@JHAvis, what a strange question. Surely the borders of Friesland are very clearly marked on various topographical maps???

  2. And furthermore, wherever people say “Goendei, hoe is't dermei”. The language boundary does not indeed have to coincide entirely with the topographical boundary; I think that is certainly true. See you soon!

  3. ‘@Dolores

    I think Jaap means the border for TNTPost. Even at the Provincial blocks, they couldn't get a Frisian off....

  4. @Jaap, do you mean “how far should we go”? The Netherlands goes anything but far when it comes to issuances in languages ​​other than Standard Dutch. While some countries are quite regionalistic in their issuances, in the Netherlands they are perhaps too cautious?

    Issuing all stamps in both Frisian and Dutch seems a bit nonsensical to me. The situation here is different from that in Belgium, after all. In Spain, too, postage and the like are not listed separately in Catalan, but there are undoubtedly Catalan stamps/items.

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