Belgium
85-718: Heers ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦeːrs] , Limburgish : Hiër [ˈɦiəʀ] ) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg . The municipality of Heers was formed by several mergers. In 1971: In 1977 the current municipality of Heers was formed by merging: This Belgian Limburg location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Limburgish language Germany Limburgish ( Limburgish : Limburgs [ˈlɪm˦bʏʀ(ə)xs] or Lèmburgs [ˈlɛm˦-] ; Dutch : Limburgs [ˈlɪmbʏr(ə)xs] ; also Limburgian , Limburgic or Limburgan ) refers to
170-652: A regional language (Dutch: streektaal ) in the Netherlands . As such, it receives moderate protection under chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . However, some linguists have argued that this recognition was highly politically motivated and done more on sociolinguistic than purely linguistic grounds. In 1999, the Dutch Language Union , the de facto language authority which asserted that it had not been asked for advice, opposed
255-453: A High German variety as one that has taken part in any of the first three phases of the High German consonant shift. It is nevertheless most common in linguistics to consider Limburgish as Low Franconian. The traditional terminology can be confusing as the differences between the historical groupings Old West Franconian and Old East Franconian (which mainly concern certain vowel variations and
340-592: A Limburgian-Ripuarian context. Regardless of the exact definition used, the term Limburgish itself is specific to the Netherlands and Belgium, where it used by linguists and speakers alike and is strongly connected to the cultural and regional identity of the inhabitants of both Belgian and Dutch Limburg. This regional identity is notably absent from the speakers of closely related Low Franconian dialects in adjacent parts of Germany, who do not refer to their local dialects as Limburgish . In German linguistic discourse too,
425-549: A Middle Limburgish dialect. Especially in the Netherlands, the cultural meaning of the language is also important. Many song texts are written in a Limburgish dialect, for example during Carnival . Jack Poels writes most of his texts for Rowwen Hèze in Sevenums, a local dialect. To what degree Limburgish actually is spoken in Germany today remains a matter of debate. Not depending on the city in these parts of Germany, less than 50% of
510-418: A certain ruler also created a sphere of linguistic influence, with the language within the area becoming more homogeneous. Following, more or less, the political divisions of the time, several large dialect groups can be distinguished. However, the borders between them were not strong, and a dialect continuum existed between them, with spoken varieties near the edges of each dialect area showing more features of
595-600: A group of South Low Franconian varieties spoken in Belgium and the Netherlands , characterized by their distance to, and limited participation in the formation of, Standard Dutch . In the Dutch province of Limburg , all dialects have been given regional language status, including those comprising ″Limburgish″ as used in this article. Limburgish shares many vocabulary and grammatical characteristics with both German and Dutch . A characteristic feature of many dialects of Limburgish
680-582: A homogeneous language, but a retrofit definition based on the region where Dutch is currently an official language. German and French dialectology considers Limburgish part of the Rhenish Fan . Sometimes it is also called a variety of Meuse-Rhenish , especially among German dialectologists. Belgian/Dutch linguistics considers it in the context of Limburgian-Ripuarian, together with the Ripuarian varieties. The early medieval Limburgish writer Heinrich von Veldeke
765-514: A labial or velar consonant. Some former class 1 weak verbs retained so-called Rückumlaut . These verbs had undergone umlaut in the present tense, but the umlaut-triggering vowel was syncopated in the past tense already in Old Dutch, preventing umlaut from taking hold there. Thus, senden had the first- and third-person singular past tense sande . These verbs tended to be reinterpreted as strong verbs in later Middle Dutch; sande itself gave rise to
850-592: A little south of the area between the villages of 's-Gravenvoeren and Sint-Martens-Voeren in the Belgian municipality of Voeren . Limburgish is spoken in a considerable part of the German Lower Rhine area. This area extends from the border regions of Cleves , Viersen and Heinsberg , stretching out to the Rhine river. Modern linguists, both in the Netherlands and in Germany, now often combine these distinct varieties with
935-450: A marked Brabantian influence, first among the western (i.e. spoken up to Genk ) Limburgish dialects and then also among the eastern variants. Currently Limburgish – although being essentially a variety of Low Franconian – still has a considerable distance from Standard Dutch with regards to phonology, morphology and lexicon. Standard Dutch, which developed mostly from West Low Franconian dialects such as Flemish and Brabantic , serves as
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#17330856739691020-722: A more refined classification. Dutch linguists use the term Oost-Limburgs ( East Limburgish ) for the form of Limburgish spoken in an area from Belgian Voeren south of Maastricht in the Netherlands to the German border. For them, West-Limburgs ( West Limburgish ) is the variety of Limburgish spoken in Belgium in the area east of the Uerdingen line, for example in and around Hasselt and Tongeren . It includes areas in Dutch Limburg (like Ool , Maria Hoop and Montfort ) and Dutch Brabant. The border of West-Limburgs and Oost-Limburgs starts
1105-539: A third possibility. In this case, it means "bye-bye" ["good day"]). In the preceding example, the difference is grammatical, but not lexical. An example of a lexical difference caused only by tone is the word [biː˦˨] biè which is articulated with a push tone and means "bee", which forms a tonal minimal pair with [biː˦˨˧] biẽ , which is articulated with a dragging tone and means "at". This contrastive pitch accent also occurs in Central Franconian dialects spoken to
1190-433: A word could be found spelled differently in different occurrences within the same text. There was the matter of personal taste, and many writers thought it was more aesthetic to follow French or Latin practice, leading to sometimes rather unusual spellings. The spelling was generally phonetic, and words were written based on how they were spoken rather than based on underlying phonemes or morphology. Final-obstruent devoicing
1275-537: Is Southern Meuse-Rhenish as spoken in Belgium, the Netherlands and the German Lower Rhine. The Northern Meuse-Rhenish dialects as spoken in the Netherlands and in Germany (a little eastward along the Rhine) are unambiguously Low Franconian. As discussed above, Limburgish straddles the borderline between "Low Franconian" and "Middle Franconian" varieties. These Southern Meuse-Rhenish dialects are more-or-less mutually intelligible with
1360-504: Is claimed by the tradition of both Dutch and German dialectology. From the end of the 20th century on, Limburgish has developed a sense of autonomy from the traditional Dutch-German dipole as Limburgish linguists and functionaries consider it explicitly distinct from Dutch and German, as affirmed by the Covenant of the Limburgish language which politically decouples Limburgish from Dutch in
1445-463: Is especially in the Dutch province of Limburg that Limburgish is used not only in everyday speech, but also often in more formal situations and on the local and regional radio. According to a study by Geert Driessen, in 2011 Limburgish was spoken by 54 percent of the adults and 31 percent of the children. Limburgish has no real written tradition, except for its early beginnings. Hendrik van Veldeke wrote in
1530-462: Is realized as [oə] before alveolar consonants. /eɪ/ can be realized as [eə] or [ejə] . In the dialect of Geleen , /eː/ is realized as [iɛ] and /oː/ as [ɔː] . In many dialects such as that of Maastricht and Sittard, the long vowel /aː/ in Dutch cognates is most of the time realized as [ɒː] , as in nao ("after", "to, towards"). The Standard Dutch equivalents are na [naː] and naar [naːr] . In about 50 Belgian Limburgish dialects,
1615-510: Is the occurrence of a lexical pitch accent ( Franconian tone accent ), which is shared with the adjacent Central Franconian dialects of German. The name Limburgish (and variants of it) derives only indirectly from the now Belgian town of Limbourg ( Laeboer in Limburgish, IPA: /ˈlæːbuʁ/), which was the capital of the Duchy of Limburg during the Middle Ages . More directly it is derived from
1700-408: Is the only one with both forms ik and mich/dich . All dialects in the Dutch province of Limburg spoken north of the tonality border are Kleverlandish in linguistic respect. The dialects spoken in the most southeastern part of the Dutch province of North Brabant (i.e. in and around Budel and Maarheeze ) also have many Limburgish characteristics. An important difference between these dialects and
1785-503: Is unclear. The following can be said: The vowels /eɛ̯/ , /øœ̯/ and /oɔ̯/ , termed "sharp-long" and denoted with a circumflex ê ô , developed from Old Dutch long vowels. The opening diphthong pronunciation was probably widespread, and perhaps once universal, as it is nowadays still found in both West Flemish and in Limburgish, at opposite ends of the Middle Dutch language area. In the general area in between, including standard Dutch,
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#17330856739691870-421: The accent and some grammatical and pronunciation tendencies derived from Limburgish. This "Limburgish Dutch" is confusingly also often referred to simply as "Limburgish", although in Belgium such intermediate languages tend to be called tussentaal ("in-between language"), no matter the exact dialect/language with which standard Dutch is combined. In March 1997 the Dutch government recognised Limburgish as
1955-516: The platteland (Dutch: "countryside") and can in effect sometimes mean simply "slang" in the sense of any very informal, rustic or locally unique words or expressions. The term Limburgish can refer to all varieties spoken within either the Belgian or Dutch province of Limburg, the South-East of Flemish Brabant , the North-East of Liège as well as in combination with the adjacent Rhineland region in
2040-577: The 13th century. Its characteristics are: Hollandic was spoken in the County of Holland . It was less influential during most of the Middle Ages but became more so in the 16th century during the "Hollandic expansion", during which the Eighty Years' War took place in the south. It shows the following properties: Limburgish was spoken by the people in the provinces of modern Dutch and Belgian Limburg . It
2125-469: The Belgian Limburgish dialect of Borgloon , the dragging tone itself is bitonal, while it has also been proved that this is not the case in the adjacent Limburgish dialects of Tongeren and Hasselt . Other research has indicated that the push tone has a steeper fall in the eastern dialects of Limburgish (e.g. those of Venlo, Roermond and Maasbracht) than it has in western dialects. In addition, both
2210-568: The Cleves dialects ( Kleverländisch ). This superordinating group of Low Franconian varieties (between the rivers Meuse and Rhine) is called Meuse-Rhenish ( Rheinmaasländisch ). Both Limburgish and Low Rhenish belong to this greater Meuse - Rhine area, building a large group of Low Franconian dialects, including areas in Belgium, the Netherlands and the German Northern Rhineland . The northwestern part of this triangle came under
2295-889: The Continental West Germanic dialect continuum . As usual inside dialect continua, neighboring languages have a maximum of similarities, and speakers being used to the rather small individual lingual differences in their immediate neighborhood perceive them as close, and familiar, while more distant ones become gradually harder to understand with distance. That ends, in the Dutch–German continuum at least, most often with incomprehensible dialects. Isoglosses are so dense in this area that practically every village or town has its own distinct dialect of Limburgish. Large cities such as Mönchengladbach , Krefeld , and Düsseldorf have several local dialect varieties. The named cities have in common, that they are large enough to in part extend outside
2380-582: The Dutch border to the Bergisches Land Region near Düsseldorf east of the Rhine ). Goossens (1965) distinguished the following subdialects: There is no standardized form of Limburgish, nor is there an official standard spelling for the individual Limburgish dialects. The dialect association Veldeke Limburg developed an advisory spelling in 2003 that is endorsed by the Limburgish Language Council and aims at uniformly representing all
2465-604: The Limburgish Language Council adopted a standard orthography for Limburgish. On the basis of this standard orthography the Limburgish Academy Foundation ( Stiechting Limbörgse Academie ) is creating Limburgish-Dutch, Limburgish-English, Dutch-Limburgish and English-Limburgish dictionaries. Limburgish is spoken by approximately 1.6 million people in the Low Countries and by many hundreds of thousands in Germany . It
2550-451: The Limburgish dialects are generally considered to be more endangered than in the Netherlands. Since Limburgish is still the mother tongue of many inhabitants in Dutch and Belgian Limburg, Limburgish grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation can have a significant impact on the way locals speak Dutch in public life. Within the modern communities of these provinces, intermediate idiolects are also very common, which combine standard Dutch with
2635-401: The Middle Dutch period. The consonants of Middle Dutch differed little from those of Old Dutch. The most prominent change is the loss of dental fricatives. In addition the sound [z] was phonemicised during this period, judging from loanwords that retain [s] to this day. For descriptions of the sounds and definitions of the terms, follow the links on the headings. Notes: Most notable in
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2720-408: The Middle Dutch period. A new second person plural pronoun was created by contraction of gij/jij and lui ('people') forming gullie/jullie (literally, 'you people'). Note: There are several other forms. Definite Article ( die , dat = the) Middle Dutch mostly retained the Old Dutch verb system. Like all Germanic languages, it distinguished strong , weak and preterite-present verbs as
2805-467: The Middle Dutch vowel system, when compared to Old Dutch, is the appearance of phonemic rounded front vowels, and the merger of all unstressed short vowels. Long vowels and diphthongs cannot be clearly distinguished in Middle Dutch, as many long vowels had or developed a diphthongal quality, while existing diphthongs could also develop into monophthongs. Sometimes, this occurred only in restricted dialects, other developments were widespread. Many details of
2890-511: The Netherlands, failed in the Belgian parliament due to Flemish opposition. Because in Belgium political power is divided according to linguistic lines, recognizing Limburgish as an official language would have had considerable constitutional implications and undermine the small majority Flemish speakers hold over Walloon speakers in the Belgian State. Subdialects of Limburgish in Dutch and Belgian Limburg are: The Limburgish group belongs to
2975-517: The North in the Dutch province of Limburg . These dialects share many features with both the Kleverlandish and Brabantian dialects and are closer to Standard Dutch than the more southern language varieties (see e.g. Hoppenbrouwers 2001). The term Noord-Limburgs is used by Jo Daan for the entire province north of the Uerdingen line, whereas other linguists use it only for the part that has tonality,
3060-624: The Old Dutch long ā , and "soft-long" ā being the result of lengthening. These two vowels were distinguished only in Limburgish and Low Rhenish at the eastern end, and in western Flemish and coastal Hollandic on the western end. The relative backness of the two vowels was opposite in the two areas that distinguished them. The closing diphthong /ɛi̯/ remained from the corresponding Old Dutch diphthong. It occurred primarily in umlauting environments, with /eɛ̯/ appearing otherwise. Some dialects, particularly further west, had /eɛ̯/ in all environments (thus cleene next to cleine ). Limburgish preserved
3145-679: The Ripuarian dialects, but have not been influenced by the High German consonant shift except in isolated words (R. Hahn 2001). South Low Franconian ( Südniederfränkisch , Zuidnederfrankisch ) is the term used by dialectologists in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands to describe the dialect group that encompasses the Limburgish varieties of Belgian and Dutch Limburg, and also the closely related dialects in adjacent areas in Belgium (e.g. Eupen in Liège Province ) and Germany (stretching from
3230-458: The adjacent ones in the Dutch province of Limburg is, however, that the second-person pronoun gij is here used instead of doe , as in "purely" Brabantian dialects. Centraal-Limburgs ( Central Limburgish ) includes the area around Maastricht , Sittard , Roermond , the eastern half of Belgian Limburg, and the Belgian Voeren area, and stretches further Northeast. Belgian linguists use
3315-463: The advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or c. 1550 , there was no overarching standard language , but all dialects were mutually intelligible. During that period, a rich Medieval Dutch literature developed, which had not yet existed during Old Dutch . The various literary works of the time are often very readable for speakers of Modern Dutch since Dutch is a rather conservative language. Several phonological changes occurred leading up to
3400-1170: The area of the dialect group. Thus each has one or more quarters outside, having vernacular languages belonging to adjacent groups, such as Kleverlandish or Ripuarian. A few sample dialects are: Dremmener Platt of Dremmen near Heinsberg , Breyellsch Platt of Breyell in Nettetal , Jlabbacher Platt of central Mönchengladbach , Jriefrother Platt of Grefrath , Viersener Platt of Viersen , Föschelner Platt of Fischeln in Krefeld, Krieewelsch of central Krefeld , Ödingsch of Uerdingen in Krefeld , Düsseldorver Platt of northern and central Düsseldorf , Rotinger Platt of Ratingen , Wülfrother Platt of Wülfrath , Metmannsch Platt of Mettmann , Solinger Platt of Solingen , Remscheder Platt of Remscheid , and many more. The group combines Low Franconian properties with some Ripuarian properties, such as tonal accents,
3485-420: The city of Cologne , resulting in certain High German features being absorbed by these varieties. It is the adoption of these phonological traits that resulted in Limburgish being classified as East Low Franconian. In the past, all Limburgish varieties were therefore sometimes seen as West Central German , part of High German. This difference is caused by a difference in definition: the latter stance defines
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3570-404: The close of the 19th century. People from Limburg usually call their language plat , similar as Low German speakers do. This plat refers simply to the fact that the language is spoken in the low plains country, as opposed to the use of "High" in " High German ", which are derived from dialects spoken in the more mountainous southerly regions. The word "plat" is therefore associated both with
3655-491: The consonant clusters sp , st , sl , sm , sn and zw . The same sound is realized as [ s ] elsewhere (e.g. sjtraot / straot , "street"). This is not the case, however, in the dialects of for example Venlo, Weert, Maastricht, Echt, Montfort and Posterholt. The diphthongs /iə ø eɪ æɪ uɪ ɔɪ aɪ ou/ occur, as well as combinations of /uː ɔː ɑː/ + /j/ . /aɪ/ only occurs in French loanwords and interjections . /ou/
3740-413: The dative singular, a remnant of the late Old Dutch inflection. In some rare occasions, the genitive singular was also endingless. Some nouns ended in -e in the singular also; these were primarily former ja-stems, which were masculine or neuter. A few were former i-stems with short stems. Nouns of this type tended to be drawn into the weak inflection by analogy. The following table shows the inflection of
3825-419: The dialect of Maasbracht no diphthongization takes place, so keze means the same here. This difference has been examined in particular by Ben Hermans and Marc van Oostendorp. Other examples include plural Middle Dutch Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch . It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until
3910-439: The diphthong wherever it was preserved in High German. The closing diphthong /ɔu̯/ has two different origins. In the vast majority of the Middle Dutch area, it developed through l-vocalization from older /ol/ and /al/ followed by a dental consonant. In the eastern area, Limburg in particular, it was a remnant of the older diphthong as in High German, which had developed into /oɔ̯/ elsewhere. L-vocalization occurred only in
3995-430: The distinction was mostly lost. Class 3, which retained a clear distinction that did not rely on vowel length, was levelled in favour of the o of the plural. In classes with a lengthened vowel in the present, the singular imperative often appears with a short vowel instead, e.g. les , drach . An alternative form, with final -e by analogy with the weak verbs, also occurs. The eastern dialects occasionally show i in
4080-436: The exact phonetics are uncertain, and seemed to have differed by dialect. The overall system is clear, however, as almost all the vowels remain distinct in modern Limburgish: /iː/ , /iə̯/ , /eɛ̯/ , /eː/ and /aː/ appear in modern Limburgish as /iː/ , /eː/ , /iə̯/ , /æː/ and /aː/ respectively. The vowels /ie̯/ , /yø̯/ and /uo̯/ developed from Old Dutch opening diphthongs, but their exact character in Middle Dutch
4165-569: The eyes of the Dutch government. Limburgish developed from Old East Low Franconian , which had evolved itself from earlier Weser–Rhine Germanic , a language which had been spoken in the Low Countries on both sides of the Roman limes since at least the 4th century . During the High Middle Ages , the dialects which would result in Limburgish were influenced by the High German dialects spoken around
4250-454: The former ja-stems, had an -e even in the strong and copular form, e.g. die vrouwe is clein e "the lady is small". Middle Dutch pronouns differed little from their modern counterparts. The main differences were in the second person with the development of a T-V distinction . The second-person plural pronoun ghi slowly gained use as a respectful second-person singular form. The original singular pronoun du gradually fell out of use during
4335-588: The influence of the Dutch standard language, especially since the founding of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. At the same time, the southeastern portion became part of the Kingdom of Prussia , and was subject to High German language domination. At the dialectal level however, mutual understanding is still possible far beyond both sides of the national borders. The Meuse-Rhenish dialects can be divided into Northern and Southern varieties. Hence, Limburgish
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#17330856739694420-452: The language north of this region then being considered Kleverlandish . The north border of the Limburgish tonality zone lies a little north of Arcen and Horst aan de Maas and just above the meej/mich isogloss, also known as the "mich-kwartier". This makes this Limburgish isogloss the northernmost of all. Venlo lies between the meej/mich isogloss and the Uerdingen line, so the Venlo dialect
4505-524: The language. The general practice was to write long vowels with a single letter in an open syllable and with two letters in a closed syllable. Which two letters were used varied among texts. Some texts, especially those in the east, do not do so and write long vowels with a single letter in all cases (as is the predominant rule in modern German). Middle Dutch nouns inflected for number as well as case . The weakening of unstressed syllables merged many different Old Dutch classes of nominal declension. The result
4590-481: The masculine noun dach "day", feminine dâet "deed" and neuter brôot "bread". Weak nouns were characterised by the ending -en throughout the plural. The singular ended in -e . The following table shows the inflection of the masculine noun bōge "bow, arc". Middle Dutch adjectives inflected according to the gender, case and number of the noun they modified. The Germanic distinction between strong and weak, or indefinite and definite inflection,
4675-469: The modern period in Limburgish, and the distinction between /ol/ and /al/ was preserved, being reflected as ów and aa respectively. Phonological changes that occurred during Middle Dutch: Middle Dutch was not a single homogeneous language. The language differed by area, with different areas having a different pronunciation and often using different vocabulary. The dialect areas were affected by political boundaries. The sphere of political influence of
4760-455: The more modern name of the Province of Limburg (1815–39) in the Kingdom of the Netherlands , which has been split today into a Belgian Limburg and a Dutch Limburg . In the area around the old Duchy of Limburg the main language today is French, but there is also a particular cluster of Limburgish (or Limburgish-like, depending on definitions) dialects. The use of Limburgish is first attested at
4845-421: The neighbouring areas. Middle Dutch has four major dialects groups: Flemish, Brabantic and Hollandic are known as West Franconian, while Limburgic is known as East Franconian (not to be confused with the High German dialect East Franconian ). In a finer classification there are: Brabantian was spoken primarily in the Duchy of Brabant . It was an influential dialect during most of the Middle Ages, during
4930-402: The other. With specific regards to Limburgish, these two accents are traditionally known as sjtoettoen ("push tone") and sjleiptoen ("dragging tone"). For example, [daːx˦˨˧] daãg with a dragging tone means "day" in Limburgish, while in many Limburgish dialects [daːx˦˨] daàg with a push tone is the plural form, "days" (in addition, [daːx] can also be articulated in a neutral tone as
5015-428: The past participle. In classes 6 and 7, there was no distinction between the two different vowels of the past tense. In classes 4 and 5, the difference was primarily one of length, since ā and â were not distinguished in most dialects. The difference between ê and ē , and between ô and ō , found in classes 1 and 2, was a bit more robust, but also eventually waned in the development to modern Dutch. Consequently,
5100-439: The phonetic realisation and the syllable-based distribution of the contrasts between push and dragging tone seem to be mora -bound in the eastern dialects only. This has been examined especially by Jörg Peters. Moreover, in some dialects such as that of Sittard and Maastricht, especially the mid and high vowels tend to diphthongize when they have a push tone. So in the dialect of Sittard keize means "to choose" while in
5185-449: The population speak a local or regional form of Limburgish. Depending on the city in these parts of Belgium, according to A, Schuck (2001) 50% to 90% of the population speak a local or regional form of Limburgish, which seems to be a clear overestimation. Moreover, research into some specific variants seems to indicate a gradual process of development towards the national standardised Dutch, especially amongst younger generations. In Belgium,
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#17330856739695270-490: The presence of Ingvaeonic features ) is different from the modern modern dialectal dichotomy between Western and Eastern Low Franconian, which is based on the presence or absence of High German features in Low Franconian, which did not occur until the advent of the Middle Dutch period. The period of High German influence lasted until the 13th century, after which the Duchy of Brabant extended its power, which resulted in
5355-490: The pronoun "I" translates as ech or iech , the word "but" most often as awwer , all like Ripuarian. Contrasting, "time" is translated as tied , "to have" mostly as hebbe , "today" as vandag , all typical for Low Franconian. Noord-Limburgs (also called ik-Limburgs ) is the Dutch term for a group of dialects spoken north of the Uerdingen line , i.e. from just south of Venlo upward to
5440-443: The recognition. From the Limburgish side it has been argued that the arguments put forth against the recognition of Limburgish were not based on linguistic considerations, but rather a concern for maintaining the dominance of the Dutch language. On the other hand, Limburgish is not recognised by the German and Belgian national governments as an official language. An attempt at recognition, made after Limburgish had been recognised in
5525-426: The rounded front vowels /y, yː, ø, øː, œ, œː, œy/ are unrounded to /i, iː, ɪ, eː, ɛ ~ æ, ɛː, ɛi/ in most native words. They are retained in French loanwords such as dzjuus /dʒys/ . The pitch accent means having two different accents used in stressed syllables. The difference between these two accents is used for differentiating both various grammatical forms of a single lexeme and minimal tone pairs one from
5610-411: The second- and third-person singular present indicative forms, instead of e . This is a remnant of older i-mutation in these forms. Umlaut is also sometimes found in the past subjunctive in the east. Middle Dutch retained weak verbs as the only productive class of verbs. While Old Dutch still had two different classes of weak verbs (and remnants of a third), this distinction was lost in Middle Dutch with
5695-478: The so-called "Brabantian expansion" in which the influence of Brabant was extended outwards into other areas. Compared to the other dialects, Brabantian was a kind of "middle ground" between the coastal areas on one hand, and the Rhineland and Limburg on the other. Brabantian Middle Dutch has the following characteristics compared to other dialects: Flemish, consisting today of West and East Flemish and Zeelandic ,
5780-507: The sounds that occur within the Limburgish dialects in writing. Although this spelling also does not have official status, it is used within this dialect association as well as for the spelling of bilingual place name signs. The sound inventory below is based on the variety of West-Limburgs spoken in Montfort. Overall, Limburgish dialects tend to have more consonants than Dutch. They also tend to have more vowels. According to Peter Ladefoged ,
5865-801: The southeast of Limburgish. Other Indo-European pitch accent languages that use tone contours to distinguish the meaning of words that are otherwise phonetically identical include Lithuanian , Latvian , Swedish , Norwegian , Standard Slovene (only some speakers), and Serbo-Croatian . This feature is comparable to tone systems as found e.g. in Chinese or many languages of Africa and Central America, although such "classical" tone languages make much more use of tone distinctions when compared to Limburgish. Historically, pitch accent in Limburgish and Central Franconian developed independently from accent systems in other Indo-European languages. While contrastive accent can be reconstructed for Proto Indo-European , it
5950-529: The standard language (or Dachsprache ) for the Limburgish varieties spoken in the Netherlands and Belgium. The speakers of Limburgish or South Low Franconian dialects in Germany use Standard German as their Dachsprache. Limburgish is far from being homogeneous. In other words, it has numerous varieties instead of one single standard form . Between 1995 and 1999, a uniform standard form called AGL ( Algemein Gesjreve Limburgs , "Generally written Limburgish")
6035-528: The subjunctive became distinguished from the indicative only in the singular but was identical to it in the plural, and also in the past tense of weak verbs. That led to a gradual decline in the use of the subjunctive, and it has been all but lost entirely in modern Dutch. The seven classes of strong verb common to the Germanic languages were retained. The four principal parts were the present tense, first- and third-person singular past tense, remaining past tense, and
6120-407: The term is uncommon with German linguists instead tending to use Southern Low Franconian (German: Südniederfränkisch ) to refer to the same dialect grouping. The classification of Limburgish is contended by different national traditions. Within the context of historical linguistics, Limburgish is regarded as one of the five main dialects of Middle Dutch , although this is not considered to be
6205-406: The three main inflectional classes. Verbs were inflected in present and past tense, and in three moods: indicative, subjunctive and imperative. The weakening of unstressed vowels affected the distinction between the indicative and subjunctive moods, which had largely been determined by the vowel of the inflectional suffix in Old Dutch. In Middle Dutch, with all unstressed vowels merging into one,
6290-435: The underlying phonemic value. However, by and large, spelling was phonetic, which is logical as people usually read texts out loud. Modern dictionaries tend to represent words in a normalised spelling to form a compromise between the variable spellings on one hand and to represent the sounds of the language consistently. Thus, normalised spellings attempt to be a general or "average" spelling but still being accurate and true to
6375-413: The vowel inventory of the dialect of Weert is perhaps the richest in the world. It has 28 vowels, among which there are 12 long monophthongs (three of which surface as centering diphthongs), 10 short monophthongs and 6 diphthongs. In most of the Limburgish dialects spoken to the southeast of Panningen —for example those of Roermond, Sittard and Heerlen— [ ʃ ] appears at the beginning of words in
6460-608: The vowels merged with the "soft-long" vowels during the early modern Dutch period. The vowels /eː/ , /œː/ and /oː/ , termed "soft-long" and denoted with a macron ē ō , developed through the lengthening of Old Dutch short vowels in open syllables, but also frequently before /r/ . They were simple monophthongs in all Middle Dutch dialects, with the exception of western Flanders where /eː/ later developed into /ei̯/ . They might have been close-mid but also perhaps open-mid [ɛː] , [œː] and [ɔː] , as in modern Limburgish. There were two open vowels, with "sharp-long" â developed from
6545-465: The weakening of unstressed syllables. The past tense was formed with a suffix -ed- , which generally lost its e through syncope and thus came to be directly attached to the preceding stem. This triggered voicing assimilation, so that t appeared whenever the preceding stem ended in a voiceless consonant. This phenomenon remains in modern Dutch. Unsyncopated forms, which retain the fuller suffix -ed- , are sometimes found, especially with stems ending in
6630-585: Was a general distinction between strong and weak nouns. Eventually even these started to become confused, with the strong and weak endings slowly beginning to merge into a single declension class by the beginning of the modern Dutch period. The strong nouns generally originated from the Old Dutch a-stem, i-stem and u-stem inflections. They mostly had a nominative singular with no ending, and a nominative plural in -e or, for some neuter nouns, with no ending. Most strong nouns were masculine or neuter. Feminines in this class were former i-stems, and could lack an ending in
6715-571: Was completely lost in Proto-Germanic . Its reemergence in Limburgish (and Central Franconian ) was phonetically triggered by vowel height , vowel length , and voicing of a following consonant, and became phonemic with sound changes that must have occurred after 1100 CE such as lengthening of short vowels in open syllables, loss of schwa in final syllables, devoicing of consonants in final position, and merger of vowels that had been distinct before. It has been proven by speech analysis that in
6800-505: Was developed and proposed, but found too little support. Today the so-called "Veldeke-spelling" which was first applied in the 1940s is most of the time used to write in a specific Limburgish dialect. In 2000 the parliament of the province of Dutch Limburg enacted a measure establishing the Limburgish Language Council (Raod veur 't Limburgs), a committee which advises the Parliament of Dutch Limburg on measures in relation to Limburgish. In 2003
6885-399: Was fairly minimal in Middle Dutch, appearing only in the masculine and neuter nominative singular. These forms received an -e ending when a definite word (demonstrative, article) preceded, and had no ending otherwise. Adjectives were uninflected when connected through a copula. Thus, even for feminine nouns, no ending appeared: die vrouwe is goet "the lady is good". Some adjectives, namely
6970-465: Was not clearly tied to one political area, instead being divided among various areas, including the Duchy of Limburg (which was south of modern Limburg). It was also the most divergent of the dialects. Kleverlandish ("Kleverlands") was spoken around the area of the Duchy of Cleves , around the Lower Rhine . It represented a transitional dialect between Limburgish and Middle Low German . Middle Dutch
7055-527: Was reflected in the spelling, and clitic pronouns and articles were frequently joined to the preceding or following word. Scribes wrote in their own dialect, and their spelling reflected the pronunciation of that particular scribe or of some prestige dialect by which the scribe was influenced. The modern Dutch word maagd (" maiden ") for example was sometimes written as maghet or maegt , but also meget , magt , maget , magd , and mecht . Some spellings, such as magd , reflect an early tendency to write
7140-484: Was spoken in the County of Flanders , northern parts of the County of Artois and areas around the towns of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer . Though due to their intermediary position between West Flemish and Brabantian , the East Flemish dialects have also been grouped with the latter. Flemish had been influential during the earlier Middle Ages (the "Flemish expansion") but lost prestige to the neighbouring Brabantian in
7225-511: Was written in the Latin alphabet , which was not designed for writing Middle Dutch so different scribes used different methods of representing the sounds of their language in writing. The traditions of neighbouring scribes and their languages led to a multitude of ways to write Middle Dutch. Consequently, spelling was not standardised but was highly variable and could differ by both time and place as various "trends" in spelling waxed and waned. Furthermore,
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