Concept
Belgians
Overview
Belgians (Dutch: Belgen [ˈbɛlɣə(n)] ; French: Belges [bɛlʒ] ; German: Belgier [ˈbɛlɡi̯ɐ] ) are people identified with the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe. As Belgium is a multinational state, this connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural rather than ethnic. The majority of Belgians, however, belong to two distinct linguistic groups or communities (Dutch: gemeenschap; French: communauté) native to the country, i.e. its historical regions: Flemings in Flanders, who speak Dutch, West Flemish and Limburgish; and Walloons in Wallonia, who speak French or Walloon. There is also a substantial Belgian diaspora, which has settled primarily in the United States, Canada, France, and the Netherlands.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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The traites, which correspond to our customs, divide the kingdom into three great parts; first, the provinces subject to the tariff of 1664, which are called the provinces of the five great farms, and under which are comprehended Picardy, Normandy, and the greater part of the interior provinces of the kingdom; secondly, the provinces subject to the tariff of 1667, which are called the provinces reckoned foreign, and…
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
States what Belgians is.
Lastly, there was the great class of the small farmers, the peasantry, which with its appendix of farm laborers, constitutes a considerable majority of the entire nation. But this class again sub-divided itself into different fractions. There were, firstly, the more wealthy farmers, what is called in Germany _Gross_ and _Mittel-Bauern_, proprietors of more or less extensive farms, and each of them commanding the…
Friedrich Engels, Revolution and Counter-Revolution
States what Belgians is.
Those who inhabit the frontiers of Finland, have adopted some of the expressions of their neighbours, as happens to every people: but when two nations give to things of common use, to objects which are continually before their eyes, names absolutely different, it affords a strong presumption, that one of them is not a colony from the other. The Finlanders call a bear Karu, the Laplanders Muriet: the sun in the…
Voltaire, The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia
States what Belgians is.
Philosophers who discussed Belgians
Related ideas
- Ethnicity
- French language
- Afterlife
- Germany
- Monotheism
- Dutch language
- Netherlands
- Flemish people
- United States Declaration of Independence
- Belgium
- Western Europe
- Gaul
- Oxford University Press
- Low Countries
- Dutch Republic
- Lingua franca
- French people
- Wallonia
- Francophonie
Place in the tradition
Part of Discourse ethics.