The dutch language, "Nederlands" is spoken by around 22 million speakers living mainly in Netherlands and Belgium, but also in former colonies and other neighboring countries. Aruba, Suriname, the Dutch Antilles, South Africa, Guyana and parts of Indonesia all have some population of Dutch speakers.

The history of the language clearly indentified as Dutch begins around 450-500 AD, when great changes were taking place in the major Germanic language.

Dutch, like most modern languages, has 3 clear phases. "old Dutch", dating from 450-500, "Middle Dutch", dating from around 1150 until 1500, and "modern Dutch" which emerged from the sixteenth century onward.

Dutch is written using Roman characters, and has the characteristic of being more formal in grammar than spoken Dutch. Also the writtne language is fairly standardized, while spoken Dutch has regional variations, especially in northern Holland, southern holland and the flemish regions in the east and in Belgium.