Brabantian
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Brabantian or Brabantic (Brabantic: Braobans Dutch: Brabants) is a dialect of the Dutch language spoken in Noord-Brabant and in the Belgian provinces of Antwerpen and Vlaams-Brabant and small parts in the West of Limburg. In the northwest of Brabant (Willemstad), Hollandic is spoken. Conventionally the Zuid-Gelders dialects are distinguished from Brabantian, though there are no objective criteria apart from geography to do this.
Brabantian is not recognized as a minority language in the Netherlands: as standard Dutch is partly based on Brabantian, there is no need of a separate Brabantian standard.
About one third of the Dutch-speaking population lives in the Brabantian dialect zone. In large Dutch towns such as Breda and Eindhoven, where many people speak Hollandic dialects, Brabantian dialects have been pushed away, whereas in rural areas many people still speak the original dialect. Tilburg and 's-Hertogenbosch however have a large number speaking the Brabantian dialect.
In Belgium, dialects are still the common spoken language. In the capital town Brussels French has largely replaced Dutch in the middle of the 20th century. Despite this, there are many cultural activities using the Brussels dialect. Moreover, Dutch is reviving among young Dutch-speaking families who are moving back from the suburbs toward the old city centre.
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