Ontwikkelingen In Het Gebruik Van Streektalen En Dialecten In De Periode 1995-2003

Usage of Dutch regional languages and dialects is very much in decline in favour of usage of standard Dutch. This paper analyses the developments in usage in the period 1995-2003 using data from five measurement points of the national cohort study Primai y Education (PRIMA). A total of 35,000 pupils and their parents were involved in this study. In addition, this paper analyses the relationship between usage of regional languages and dialects on the one hand and a number of family demographical characteristics and the children's Dutch language proficiency on the other. The results show that it is imperative to treat the Netherlands not as a whole but to differentiate between language areas. In contrast to the other regional languages and dialects the future of Limburgish seems less gloomy.