West Flemish

West Flemish
West Flemish
West-Vlaams
Native to	Belgium, Netherlands, France
Region	West Flanders
Native speakers	(1.4 million cited 1998)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Weser–Rhine Germanic Low Franconian Dutch West Flemish; ; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Zeelandic; French Flemish;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:; vls – (West) Vlaams; zea – Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
Glottolog	sout3292 Southwestern Dutch; vlaa1240 Western Flemish
Linguasphere	52-ACB-ag
	West Flemish is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

West Flemish (West-Vlams or West-Vloams or Vlaemsch (in French-Flanders), Dutch: West-Vlaams, French: flamand occidental) is a collection of Dutch dialects spoken in western Belgium and the neighbouring areas of France and the Netherlands.

West Flemish is spoken by about a million people in the Belgian province of West Flanders, and a further 50,000 in the neighbouring Dutch coastal district of Zeelandic Flanders (200,000 if including the closely related dialects of Zeelandic) and 10-20,000 in the northern part of the French department of Nord. Some of the main cities where West Flemish is widely spoken are Bruges, Dunkirk, Kortrijk, Ostend, Roeselare and Ypres.

West Flemish is listed as a "vulnerable" language in UNESCO's online Red Book of Endangered Languages.

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