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Half of the parents claimed to understand Flemish as did a quarter of the pupils. These data indicate that women gave up Flemish earlier than men – which is a common feature of feminine behaviour when less prestigious language varieties are at stake – but above all that extremely few youngsters are still familiar with Flemish. The answers on attitudinal questions reveal that 82% of the parents did not consider it worthwhile to pass on Flemish to the next generation, but that an equal amount of youngsters thought the opposite. Such attitudes are typical for a society confronted with imminent language death (Willemyns, 1997). Yet, 16 years later bilingualism continues to exist in the region and contacts with the Dutch speaking Belgian neighbours can still incite some interest in both the own linguistic heritage and the language and culture of the Belgian and Dutch neighbours. Correspondence Any correspondence should be directed to Dr Hugo Ryckeboer, Kromme Leie 29, B-9051 Sint-Denijs-Westrem, Belgium ([email protected]). Notes 1. This was the case e.g. when Noël Josephe, born in the border-village of Boeschepe, became the first ‘président du Conseil régional’ in 1981. Although his mastery of the Flemish dialect was excellent, he never mentioned or used it in public, except perhaps in local pre-election meetings. 2. In wealthy families in the former Flemish speaking part of what is now French Flanders it was the custom that the children went to Lille or Saint-Omer for some time to learn French. The mystic author Maria Petyt from Hazebrouck (1623–1677) writes in her autobiography that she was sent to Saint-Omer at the age of 11 to learn French. References Beyers R. (ed.) (1999) Van vader- naar moedertaal. Latijn, Frans en Nederlands in de dertiende-eeuwse Nederlanden. Handelingen van de Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal-en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis LIII. Callebout, B. andRyckeboer, H. (1997)Contacts linguistiques français-néerlandais dans le Nord de la France. In P. Nelde, Z. Stary, W. Wölck and H. Goebl (eds) Contact Linguistics, Vol. 2 (pp. 1240–1252). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Carton, F. and Lebegue, M. (1989) Atlas linguistique et ethnographique du Picard, tome I. Paris: CNRS. DeCerteau,M., Julia, D. andRevel, J. (1975)Une politiquede la langue. La Révolution française et les Patois. Paris: Gallimard. Gilliéron, J. and Edmont, E. (1902–1910) Atlas Linguistique de la France. Paris. 309