West Flemish

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West Flemish
West-Vlaams
Native to	Belgium, Netherlands, France
Region	West Flanders
Native speakers	(1.4 million cited 1998)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Weser–Rhine Germanic Low Franconian Dutch West Flemish
Dialects	Zeelandic French Flemish
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: vls – (West) Vlaams zea – Zeelandic (Zeeuws)
Glottolog	sout3292  Southwestern Dutch vlaa1240  Western Flemish
Linguasphere	52-ACB-ag
West Flemish is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

West Flemish (West-Vlams or West-Vloams or Vlaemsch (in French Flanders), Dutch: West-Vlaams, French: flamand occidental) is a collection of Low Franconian varieties spoken in western Belgium and the neighbouring areas of France and the Netherlands.

West Flemish is spoken by about a million people in the Belgian province of West Flanders, and a further 50,000 in the neighbouring Dutch coastal district of Zeelandic Flanders (200,000 if including the closely related dialects of Zeelandic) and 10-20,000 in the northern part of the French department of Nord.^[1] Some of the main cities where West Flemish is widely spoken are Bruges, Dunkirk, Kortrijk, Ostend, Roeselare and Ypres.

West Flemish is listed as a "vulnerable" language in UNESCO's online Red Book of Endangered Languages.^[2]