Dutch Language Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**Nederlandse Taalunie**
Official languages	Dutch
Executive Secretariat	Linde van den Bosch (since 2004)
Established	1980
Member states	2 (plus 1 associate member)
Headquarters	The Hague, the Netherlands
Official site	Official site of NTU

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The Nederlandse Taalunie or Dutch Language Union is an international institution for discussing issues relating to the Dutch language. It was founded in 1980 by the Netherlands and Belgium. Surinam has been an associate member of the Taalunie since 2005. An important accomplishment of the Union has been the modification of the Dutch orthography in 1995.

Among the publications of the Union is the well-known Woordenlijst Nederlandse taal, commonly known as the "Groene boekje" ("Green booklet"), because of its distinctive green colour. The green booklet is the official orthographic and grammatical reference of the Dutch language. It is laid out like a dictionary, including plural forms and spelling, but without the actual definitions of the words.

The most recent version of the Green Booklet appeared in 2005, including a controversial 'spelling reform' which was not received well in general. In December 2005, most of the Dutch mainstream media announced a boycott. In August 2006, they released a 'White book' as their own, subtly different guideline. Currently these two spellings are both in use, sometimes confusing people; the 'green' one is used by schools and officials, the 'white' one by papers, magazines and tv stations. In Belgium on the other hand the spelling reform was generally accept without protest.

The Van Dale dictionary is commonly accepted as the official Dutch dictionary (much like the Oxford English Dictionary for Anglophones). The Van Dale Groot woordenboek der Nederlandse taal, often called Dikke Van Dale ("fat Van Dale", referring to its size) is split into three tomes (A-I, J-R, S-Z) and is usually updated every 7-8 years. The most recent version is the 14th edition from 2005.