French and English gaining ground in Brussels' Flemish periphery

Although the proportion of French speakers in the Flemish municipalities around Brussels - the Vlaamse Rand - is increasing, Dutch remains the dominant language, according to the latest VUB language barometer.The researchers at the Brussels-based Flemish university analysed the language skills of 2,273 residents of 19 municipalities in the Flemish periphery. They found a sharp increase in the diversity of languages spoken - 104, compared with 87 in 2019 and 75 in 2014 - with English in particular having become more popular. The periphery region has thus reached a level comparable to that of Brussels in terms of multilingualism.“The Vlaamse R…