Dutch beyond the Low Countries

We take initial steps in mapping out Dutch beyond the Low Countries. For this project, a workshop was requested from the Lorentz Center and subsequently granted and contacts will be established with various researchers who want to collaborate on research into the language use of Dutch communities in Australia and the Mennonites in Mexico, and among Dutch Calvinists in Brazil. The new data may be able to answer interesting research questions such as to what extent contact with various languages has led to differences in Dutch varieties, or if there is evidence of convergence or identical developments. It will also be interesting to investigate whether European standard Dutch continues to exert influence on non-European varieties or if these are based on an older variant or on Dutch dialects.

Researchers: Stef Grondelaers, Frans Hinskens, Marc van Oostendorp, Ton van der Wouden and guest researchers Emmie Houbens & Cefas van Rossem
Past researchers: Gertjan Postma and Nicoline van der Sijs