ABSTRACT
Belgium is located in the northwest of Europe and has about 10 million inhabitants. There are three official languages: Dutch, French, and Gennan. Belgium is divided into four linguistic regions: Dutch-speaking (Flanders with almost 5.8 million inhabitants or 57.8% of the overall population); French-speaking (Wallonia, with under 3.2 million inhabitants or 31.9% ); Gennan-speaking (encompassing 9 municipalities with nearly 68,000 or 0.7% in the eastern part of Belgium); and bilingual Region Brussels-Capital (with some 950,000 inhabitants or 9.6%, a large majority of whom speak French), where Dutch and French languages are on equal terms. Belgium's geographical situation (on the border between the Latin and Germanic cultures) largely explains the country's linguistic diversity, one source of its conflicts and tensions at certain moments in national history.
