The Dutch language (Nederlandse taal)

The Dutch language (Nederlandse taal), also Dutch (debate: Nederlands), belongs like the German to the Germanic branch of the indogermanischen languages. In particular the Low German, the English and the Frisian have many common characteristics with the Dutch. Afrikaans arose from the Dutch.
The Dutch is a West-Germanic language which developed from the Down Frankish and other Germanic dialects like the from Lower Saxony, from (see German dialect continuum) in the delta of the Rhine, the Meuse and Schelde – northwesterly of the Benrather line – and developed. Most dialects spoken in the Netherlands are of Down Frankish origin. The Down Frankish decreases on his part on altfränkischen to (salischen) dialects. The Down Frankish dialects on the German Lower Rhine (see language also from the Lower Rhine) could be probably evaluated also as a rather Dutch (see also Rheinmaasländisch). However, the Dutch also shows some Saxon and Frisian influence (see Neuniederländisch).

The modern Dutch (as a national language and standard language) is marked by dialects of the provinces Holland and Brabant (above all around the former linguistic centre Antwerp). Loan words come from the French and in newer time from English. The traditional word state is preserved in the Dutch more than in the modern (high) Germans. There were not linguistic advancements and Neuformungen of the today's German in the Dutch, so that many concepts which have disappeared from the German standard language live on in the Dutch (e.g., oorlog, lenen, kiezen, verbazen). The Dutch vocabulary has not taken part in the High German sound shift which has led to the today's High German. Examples are:

genoot/comrade, wetenschap/science, paard/horse, koopman/businessman, verbeteren/improve, koninkrijk/kingdom.