Bedrohte Sprache? Die Haltung niederländischen Sprachwissenschaftler gegenüber den großen Nachbarsprachen im Laufe der Jahrhunderte

This contribution discusses the problem of the alleged threat to the Dutch language by the three surrounding major languages French, German and English. After an introduction on when one can speak of Dutch as an independent language, the paper looks at how the Dutch themselves have defined their language and from when on there is a clear Dutch language community. In the following sections, the historical struggle against French, German and English infl uences is examined in its historical order. For practical reasons, the contribution is limited to the situation on the territory of the Netherlands.