Linguistic Versus Societal Status
In a decree dated December 24, 1990, the Belgian Walloon regional government was the first to officially recognise Limburgish, as spoken in West Limburg, as a regional, indigenous language. In March 1997 the Dutch government recognised Limburgish as a regional language (Dutch: streektaal) in the Netherlands. As such, it receives moderate protection under chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
It has been argued, however, that this recognition was highly politically motivated and done more on sociolinguistic than purely linguistic grounds. In 1999, the Dutch Language Union which had not been asked for advice, opposed the recognition. From the Limburgish side it has been argued that the arguments put forth against the recognition of Limburgish were not based on linguistic considerations, but rather a concern for maintaining the dominance of the Dutch language.
On the other hand, Limburgish has not been recognised by the German and Belgian national governments as an official language so far. An attempt at recognition, made after Limburgish had been recognised in the Netherlands, failed in the Belgian parliament due to Flemish opposition. It should be noted that political power in Belgium is divided according to linguistic lines. Recognising Limburgish would weaken Flemish political power.
Read more about this topic: Limburgish Language
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