Terminology of the Low Countries The Old Dutch form is "flāmisk", which becomes "vlamesc", "vlaemsch" in Middle Dutch and "Vlaams" in Modern Dutch. Flemish is now exclusively used to describe the majority of Dutch dialects found in Flanders, and as a reference to that region. Calques of "Vlaams" in other languages: In many languages including English, (a calque of) "Holland" is a common name for the Netherlands as a whole. Even the Dutch use this sometimes. Strictly speaking, Holland is only the central-western region of the country comprising two of the twelve provinces, North Holland and South Holland, and thus linguistically a "pars pro toto"
Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts created and from then on until 1971 Flemish scientists were either member of the Dutch-language Flemish academy or member of the officially bilingual ARB. This situation created confusion sometimes. As a consequence of the first state reform in Belgium in 1970, the officially bilingual Royal Academy was dissolved in 1971 and replaced by a solely French-speaking academy, ARB, for the French speaking community and a solely Dutch-speaking academy, KAWLSK, for the Flemish community. Almost 30 years later on, KAWLSK was renamed KVAB ("Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten") in 1999. Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science