Dutch is a Germanic language. It is spoken by approximately 16 million people in the Netherlands and 5 million in northern Belgium. (Southern Belgium is French speaking.) Dutch distinguishes itself from German by major differences in pronunciations, vocabulary, and grammar. Knowing one helps you learn the other, but they are not mutually intelligible.
The Dutch spoken in the Netherlands differentiates itself from Flemish—the Dutch spoken in Belgium—by differences in pronunciation and vocabulary that approximate the differences between American and British English. Within the Netherlands, there are also a number of regional dialects that are so strong as to be almost incomprehensible to Dutch speakers from outside the area. Televised interviews with someone who has a strong Limburg accent are subtitled so that everyone watching can understand what is being said.
Dutch is not the only language spoken in the Netherlands. The province of Friesland is officially bilingual. All documentation must be prepared in both Frisian and Dutch. Frisian competes with Dutch in Friesland just as Welsh and Irish (Gaelic) compete with English in Wales and Ireland. Frisian is also still spoken in the areas of northern Germany that border on the province of Groningen. Approximately 400,000 people speak it. Frisian vocabulary is much closer to English than to Dutch. This underscores the fact that the Angeles and the Saxons of England came from the same group of German tribes as the Frisians: the Ingaevones. Frisian is subtitled on Dutch television, just like English, German, French, or any other foreign language would be.引自 Geography
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