Languages of Belgium
In addition to the three official languages, others are spoken in Belgium, like in Wallonia, where French became dominant only relatively recently. Sometimes seen as dialects, the varieties related to French have been recognized by the French Community as separate languages ("", ‘regional native languages’) since 1990, without, however, taking any further significant measures to support those varieties.
Language legislation in Belgium
In 1898, the Law on Equality was introduced. Dutch and French were now to be regarded as co-equal official languages but native French speakers in parliament, unwilling to learn or use Dutch, were either unable or unwilling to read the Dutch texts they were supposed to vote on. The reverse was not the case: Dutch speakers were obliged to learn French.)