oa Limburgse en Friese toestanden

This review article discusses the merits and demerits of Rob Belemans' dissertation “Taal of Tongval. De gespleten Limburgse kus, oraal erfgoed en taalpolitiek” [language or dialect: the split Limburgian kiss, oral heritage and language politics]. In addition to a discussion of Belemans' description of the different approaches of Belgium versus the Netherlands with regard to the recognition of Limburgian as a regional language in the Charter, this review article provides some basic background information about language politics in The Netherlands. More specifically, it is argued that a fruitful strategy of language politics should be based on the use of the harmony model (instead of the conflict model), as is evidenced by the relative success of the language policy of the province of Fryslân.