Common Dutch
Standard Dutch (Algemeen Nederlands, often abbreviated to AN) is the standard language as it is taught in schools and used by authorities in the Netherlands, Flanders, Suriname, and Aruba, as well as the former Netherlands Antilles. The Dutch Language Union defines what is AN and what is not. Since efforts to “uplift” people came to be considered rather presumptuous, the earlier name Algemeen Beschaafd Nederlands (“Common Civilised Dutch”) and its abbreviation, ABN, have been replaced with Algemeen Nederlands and thus AN. The implicit insinuation that people speaking dialects or with an accent were not civilised was thus removed.
Read more about this topic: Dutch Language Union
Famous quotes containing the words common and/or dutch:
“This, our respectable daily life, on which the man of common sense, the Englishman of the world, stands so squarely, and on which our institutions are founded, is in fact the veriest illusion, and will vanish like the baseless fabric of a vision; but that faint glimmer of reality which sometimes illuminates the darkness of daylight for all men, reveals something more solid and enduring than adamant, which is in fact the cornerstone of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Too nice is neighbor’s fool.”
—Common Dutch saying, trans by Johanna C. Prins.