Dutch translation

The importance of Dutch translation and some of its characteristics

Along with German, English and Swedish, Dutch is one of the 14 Germanic languages. After English and German, Dutch is the third largest Germanic language with 38 million speakers.

Also known as Flemish, it is the official language of the Netherlands and the Republic of Suriname. From Dutch, varieties such as Pennsylvania German or Limburgish are derived, spoken in Limburg and the Rhineland.

Some of its linguistic characteristics are the presence of three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), as in German. It is also characterised by the abundant presence of consonants in its words, for example, angstchreeuw which means “cry of fear”.

Although difficult, we should not forget that Dutch is an important language because of the importance of the Netherlands in the European economy. Furthermore, the Netherlands is ranked 10th in the world list of the best countries to live in.

Dutch translation is not only useful due to the country’s economy and liveability – the Netherlands is also one of the countries with the lowest unemployment rate.

We conclude that Dutch is a language to learn if you want to improve your quality of life and be happier.

Differences and similarities between Dutch and Spanish

Along the same lines, at Translinguo Global® we can say that the main difference is that Spanish is a Romance language and Dutch is a Germanic language. Although they differ in denomination, both have the Indo-European language family as their common origin.

It is true that, at first glance, we may think that Dutch and Spanish are nothing alike, but this is not true. These two languages share both phonemes and certain grammatical aspects that bring them somewhat closer together.

We can see these similarities in words such as “fisioterapeuta”, which translates into Dutch as “fysiotherapeut“.

As for the differences, the first one we could highlight is the pronunciation of one language and the other. Also noteworthy, from a grammatical point of view, is the much more simplified use of reflexive pronouns in Dutch.

It is also worth mentioning that, like Spanish, Dutch has a number of dialects. The best known is Dutch, which is spoken in northern and southern Holland.

These are some of the characteristics that should always be considered when performing Dutch translation into English or vice versa.

The Dutch translation market

Even with all the characteristics that make Dutch a fundamental language, its fortunes are changing in the translation market.

In the field of sworn translation, the Spanish MAE (Foreign Office) has only 1 sworn translator for Flemish. This picture is surprising if we consider the high number of native Dutch speakers in our country.

In the case of the Spanish publishing translation market, the figures are not at all encouraging. In fact, in 2009 only 56 books were translated from Dutch into Spanish.

This situation may be due to the predominance of languages such as English or French, which are more successful in our market.

However, we can find Dutch translations of works such as those of San Juan de la Cruz or Pérez Galdós.

As a summary, we will say that the link between languages does not turn the Dutch translation into the most successful. However, this perspective should not be to the detriment of the Dutch language and its potential growth in the translation market. On the contrary, we must give priority to untiring task of growing Dutch translation.