Multilingualism in Brussels: ‘I'd Rather Speak English’

Abstract

Language is both a divisive and a unifying force in Brussels. Historically predominantly Dutch-speaking, surrounded by the officially Dutch-speaking federal state of Flanders, located in a majority Dutch-speaking nation-state, and with the majority of its Belgian citizens Francophone, Brussels has officially been bilingual Dutch–French since 1962. This paper reports the results of a survey undertaken to uncover the actual language usage and preferences in the Belgian capital. It shows that in a society where old divisions and sensitivities between French and Dutch speakers persist, English has emerged as the ‘neutral third party’.

Keywords:

• language planning
• Dutch
• French
• German
• English
• Belgium

Notes

1. ‘Territorial monolingualism’ is the common linguistic term; however, ‘municipal monolingualism’ is a more accurate description for the majority of Belgium. See section on ‘Historical Perspective’ for the development of the three Regions and Communities.

2. The reality is more complex than our introductory notes suggest. There are additional officially German-speaking municipalities united in the official German Commmunity, but there is no official German-speaking Region. German speakers constitute about 1% of the population. The 27 ‘municipalities with linguistic facilities’ are another wrinkle in the map. In these municipalities, speakers of a language other than the official language receive different degrees of bilingual services. There are 21 municipalities with language facilities for Francophones (most notably six French-dominant municipalities on Brussels' periphery that exhibit various levels of conflict between the ‘internationals’, straight-Belgian Francophones and the traditional Flemish residents), four with language facilities for speakers of Dutch and 2 with language facilities for speakers of German.

3. As of 1 May 2007, the EU had 23 official languages.

4. The ‘Free University of Brussels’ has no single name, only French- and Dutch-language identifications.