Grammatica - loco

2
Spelling
10
August 1996, dictated that the ‘preferred spelling’ become the only
permissible spelling. 2 Ever since there has been considerable confusion
among the populace as to what is now considered correct, as well as
many people refusing to take any notice of the spelling reform as they
could see nothing wrong with the way the spelling was. Many people are
no longer aware what variant of a given spelling was regarded as ‘preferred’,
compounded by the fact that in 39 instances the spelling committee scrapped
the preferred spelling for the sake of consistency, e.g. now product to
conform with productie, but previously produkt. What is more, it was
decided that it would be advisable to take a fresh look at spelling issues
every ten years, with the result that a further refinement of the spelling
reform was announced in 2005, something which aroused great discontent
and criticism.
The guidelines of this most recent official spelling, and a spelling list
containing 110,000 words, are contained in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal
(Sdu Uitgevers, Den Haag/Standaard Uitgeverij, Antwerpen, 2005). The
issues dealt with under 2.3 to 2.7 are all discussed in detail in the preface
of the Woordenlijst. Spelling reform, and indeed all official issues concerning
the Dutch language, have been conducted under the auspices of the
Nederlandse Taalunie, a joint Dutch-Flemish body founded in 1980 and
based in The Hague. The Woordenlijst can be consulted online on the
website of the Taalunie.
The level of discontent with the constant spelling changes is such that in
2006 Het Witte Boekje was published by a non-government body,
Genootschap Onze Taal, to offer people a less rigid alternative to the official
spelling as prescribed by Het Groene Boekje. As a non-native speaker of
the language you are advised not to buy into the controversy and to follow
the officially sanctioned spelling as advocated by the Nederlandse Taalunie
in Het Groene Boekje; this is after all the spelling that all governmental
bodies, including all educational institutions, in both countries are expected
to adhere to, although a number of influential newspapers have publically
declared that they prefer to use de witte spelling.
2 The consequences of this change of policy are likely to be greater in Flanders than
in The Netherlands. In the latter the government always advocated use of the
voorkeurspelling, but in Flanders the alternative had the advantage of making loanwords
look less French and thus attracted many followers, especially the Flemish press. In fact
permitting two spelling variants was from the beginning an attempt to arrive at a
compromise between what the two Dutch-speaking nations desired. It was felt by 1995
that allowing alternative spellings had not been a wise thing to do.