Dutch Translations

POZENA’s professional Dutch translations

• Dutch is a member of the Germanic language group. In its early stage of development, it was mostly influenced by the Frankish, Frisian and Saxon tribes. The oldest preserved document in Old Dutch is the Utrecht baptismal vow (Utrechtse doopgelofte). In its written form, Dutch is related to German, and – to a lesser extent – to English. However, in terms of pronunciation, it is markedly different from both of these languages.
• There are three major varieties of Dutch: North Dutch (Noord-Nederlands), Belgian Dutch (Belgisch-Nederlands) and Suriname Dutch (Surinaams-Nederlands). Dictionaries of the Dutch language list more than 500 words that are unique to the latter variant. Some of the 17th century dialects gave rise to Afrikaans, which is now considered a daughter language of Dutch. It is spoken by parts of the populations in South Africa and Namibia.
• Nederlands is regulated by the Hague-based Dutch Language Union, which was founded in 1980.
• Dutch is an official language of the EU, CARICOM (the Caribbean Community) and the Union of South American Nations.

• While the official name of the language is Dutch, the variety spoken in Flanders (the northern part of Belgium) is usually called Flemish, which is also referred to as Belgian Dutch, Flemish Dutch or Southern Dutch.
• As the Netherlands was a maritime power in the 17th century, a number of naval terms made their way into dozens of languages. Such English words as yacht, skipper, deck or cruiser serve as perfect examples of Dutch loanwords.
• A distinctive feature of the Dutch language is consonant clusters which are hard to pronounce. A good example is the word angstschreeuw (“a cry of distress”).
• Another difficult word is the 53-letter noun Kindercarnaval-soptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamhedenplan, which is considered to be the longest word in Dutch. It means “preparation activities plan for a children's carnival procession”.
• Dutch is known for its humorous sayings and proverbs, such as, for example, hij heeft een baard een z’n keel (literally “he has a beard in his throat”), which is used of a boy undergoing voice change.