Indo-European · ISO 639-3 vls
Vlaams Language West-Vlaams
Vlaams is an Indo-European language spoken by about 1.4 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Vlaams is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Vlaams
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Germanic
- Northwest Germanic
- West Germanic
- Macro-Dutch
- Middle-Modern Dutch
- Modern Dutch
- Southwestern Dutch
- Vlaams
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Vlaams language
Vlaams (West-Vlaams) is spoken by about 1.4 million people, which makes it the 400th most spoken language in the world — just behind Sena (1.4 million) and ahead of Chechen (1.4 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Southwestern Dutch group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Vlaams spoken?
Vlaams is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Belgium (1.2 million).
Vlaams is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Vlaams is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Dutch, Afrikaans, English, German, Nigerian Pidgin, Bavarian and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 vls.
Frequently asked questions about Vlaams
How many people speak Vlaams?
Where is Vlaams spoken?
What language family does Vlaams belong to?
What is Vlaams called in Vlaams?
Is Vlaams an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.