Talk:Dutch language/Archive 3
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===Recommendations=== I googled the dutch language query both as first and second language. I found that both first and second language speakers combined together amount to 21-22 million speakers, which is same as that provided in the top right corner in the article.
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Here is some math:
1. netherlands: 16 million speakers 2. Belgium: another 5 million out of a population of 10 million (this is an estimate) 3. Suriname: Another half million. 4. Aruba: Few thousands.
- Total: more than 21.5 million
This can only mean one thing. There are not more than a few thousand dutch speakers (both first and second language) in other parts of the world. here is a government link http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/december/GermanicBranch.html to support this.
This also means that unless we have credible references to prove that dutch is spoken by the millions or at least one million in countries like Indonesia, we should not put large squares around the globe. I presume that some of us still have colonial hang over to go on putting dots indiscriminately everywhere on the globe. Such maps will be deleted.
Samstayton 02:43, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
I object to the number of only 5 million speakers in Belgium. Cia.gov pointed that 60 percent of Belgium speaks Dutch. The population of Belgium is 10,379,067 (July 2006 est.) That means that 6.2 million people speak Dutch. The Netherlands has 16.5 million inhabitants.
So: 1. Netherlands: 16.5 mln 2. Belgium: 6.2 mln 3. Suriname: 440 thousand. = 23 million.