Glossary

´activism´: the ´activists´ were the Flemish militants who during the First World War collaborated with the Germans. This was a minority within the Flemish Movement, without any support from the population at large. The German occupying regime pursued a specific ´Flamenpolitik´ (Flemish policy), designed to divide Belgians and recruit Flemish collaborators by meeting Flemish demands such as the Dutchification of the State University of Gent. Combatting ´activism´, ´passivist´ Flemish militants – a majority of the Flemish Movement, including figures such as van Cauwelaert, Huysmans, Franck and Vermeylen – rejected collaboration with the Germans, remained steadfast in their allegiance to the Belgian government and were to continue to pursue the strategy of language legislation after the war.

anticlericalism: is a feature of freethinking. Anticlericals campaigned for the integral separation of Church and State in order to phase out the hold of the Church on society and destroy the Church financially. In the nineteenth century, anticlericals fought particularly against the traditional role of the Church in education and charity.

Battle of the Golden Spurs: battle between the King of France, supported by the urban elites of the County of Flanders, and a coalition of forces consisting of the Count of Flanders, local noblemen and Flemish artisans and peasants. Ended in a defeat of the French army (11 juli 1302).

Belgicism: Belgian nationalism.

Christian-Democracy: a tendency within the Catholic party, Christian-Democrats represented the interests of Catholic workers. In the late nineteenth century Catholics set up a great number of Catholic social organizations, including trade unions and other labour organizations – this is the start of the rise of the Catholic pillar in Belgium

Coucke and Goethals-affair:  a legendary case in Flemish mythology. Coucke and Goethlas were two Flemish labourers sentenced to death for murder in 1860 by the Court of Assizes [i.e. the equivalent of the Crown Court in England] of Mons, a city in the southern part of the country. The trial and defence were conducted entirely in French. Flamingants defended the innocence of the accused and claimed a miscarriage of justice had taken place on account of a bad translation of a sentence during the trial.

Flamingantism: refers to the ideology and political programme of the Flemish Movement, which at the outset fought for official recognition of the Dutch language in Belgium. The label ´Flamingant´, first used in a derogatory sense by French-speakers, was soon adopted by supporters of the Flemish Movement as a title of honour.

freethinking: freethinkers rejected dogma or religion on the grounds that the truth can be ascertained only through science and rational thinking. They advocated secularization and the integral separation of Church and State. Freethinking became more popular with the advance of a reactionary, dogmatic tendency within Belgian Catholicism – these so-called Ultramontanists claimed the Church had a monopoly on the truth.

Front Movement: in the Belgian army, dug in at the Front along the River Yser, there emerged an underground pro-Flemish movement which denounced the linguistic abuses at the Front. The so-called Front Movement (in Dutch: Frontbeweging) was an underground organization because defending linguistic rights in the army was construed as a breach of army discipline. At the end of the war its leaders founded a Flemish-nationalist party, the Front Party, to fight for an independent Flemish state.

“geuzen”: the “geuzen” or Beggars is the term used to denote those who opposed Philip II at the outset of the >>Revolt of the Netherlands. The “Beggars of the Sea” were rebels who having fled from the Low Countries and being based in foreign ports, captured enemy vessels. In Dutch national mythology, the Beggars were transformed into militantly anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic national heroes

Greater-Netherlands: according to supporters of the notion of a Greater-Netherlands, the Flemish and the Dutch not only spoke the same language, they were also one people.

Karsman-affair: a legendary court case in the annals of the Flemish Movement. In 1863, Jacob Karsman´s barrister, Julius Vuylsteke, was denied the right by the Court of Appeal of Brussels to address the court in Dutch. Court proceedings in Brussels were since 1830 entirely in the French language.
 
“klauwaards”: the term “klauwaard”, named after a “klauwende” or clawing Flemish lion, denoted a supporter of the fight of the Count of Flanders in the 13th and 14th centuries against the King of France and his followers, the pro-French patricians (or so-called “leliaarts”). The “klauwaards” included most of the urban artisans, a large part of the Flemish high nobility and a considerable group of peasants. After the annexation of Flanders by France the “klauwaards” lost their seats on the city councils, but the Battle of the Golden Spurs handed them back the control of the cities. In the nineteenth century, the symbol of the “klauwaard” was recycled by the Flemish Movement in its fight against the Frenchified Flemish bourgeoisie.

language barrier: impediment to communication caused by language differences.

language boundary: geographical boundary of a linguistic community.

language policy: government policy in the matter of language use.

linguistic Flamingantism: Flamingantism that campaigned exclusively for legislation designed to improve the position of the Dutch language.

linguistic area: the territory where a particular language is spoken.

minority language: language spoken by a numerical or sociological minority.

northern Netherlanders: the term “northern Netherlanders” which refers to “the Dutch”, and its counterpart “southern Netherlanders” was used and is used by those in favour of cultural or political unity between North (i.e. the Netherlands) and South (i.e. Flanders).

principle of individual language rights: each person is free to opt for the language of his/her choice in respect of public services (education, administration and so on)

principle of territorial integrity: each inhabitant has to adapt to the language of the region where he/she lives, as far as his/her use of public services is concerned (education, administration and so on).

proportional representation (PR): electoral system whereby the number of seats allocated to a political party corresponds to a greater or lesser degree with their relative share of the total number of votes. With the introduction of proportional representation in 1899, the Catholic party lost a number of parliamentary seats in Flanders to the Liberal and Socialist parties. The result was that, for the first time, all three parties had representatives in Parliament from each of the two parts of the country.

self-government: the right of a country or a people to determine its own laws and rules.

Social-Democracy: political philosophy and movement which aims to create a Socialist society by democratic means.

standard language: a language is a >>standard language when formal agreements exist about the way in which the language is expressed in writing.