close window= process whereby more and more people start using French. This process starts first of all at work and at school, but gradually also at home, with relatives and neighbours. So families in Brussels, who originally spoke Dutch, have switched completely to French a few generations later. This was caused by the high social status and the prestige that the French language offered. In the nineteenth century, but also until the mid twentieth century, many regarded Dutch as the language of the ‘poor and stupid Flemish peasants’.