The History of the Dutch Language in Belgium

The city of brussels is a very interesting example. For a long time, french was the main language used in the public sphere in belgium. Everything important for social mobility was essentially off limits to flemish inhabitants who speak dutch. But after years of domination by the francophone part of belgium, the dutch speaking region called flanders got a large amount of autonomy through successive legislation. And now, after a couple of generations of linguistic a fair to day, dutch speakers are down to five % of the population of brus Brussels.