Zeelandic ( Zeeuws : Zeêuws ; Dutch : Zeeuws [zeːu̯s] ; West Flemish : Zêeuws ) is a group of language varieties spoken in the southwestern parts of the Netherlands. It is currently considered a Low Franconian dialect of Dutch , but there have been movements to promote the status of Zeelandic from a dialect of Dutch to a separate regional language, which have been denied by the Dutch Ministry of Internal Affairs . More specifically, it is spoken in the southernmost part of South Holland ( Goeree-Overflakkee ) and large parts of the province of Zeeland , with the notable exception of eastern Zeelandic Flanders .
31-546: Oostburg ( Zeelandic Flemish : Wòstburg ) is a city in the south-western Netherlands . It is located in the municipality of Sluis , in the province of Zeeland . As of 1 January 2015, its population is 4731, down from 5008 in January 2005. It received city rights in 1237. Before 1 January 2003, Oostburg was also the name of a municipality. It merged with Sluis-Aardenburg to form the new municipality of Sluis. The municipality covered an area of 224.93 km, of which 1.05 km
62-407: A lesser extent, Terneuzen , Zeelandic dialect is being mostly replaced by Standard Dutch, although elderly people and people from surrounding rural areas can often still speak Zeelandic. There are clear differences between Zeelandic and Hollandic , Brabantine and East-Flemish dialects, but there is more of a dialect continuum with West-Flemish language varieties. The dialects spoken more towards
93-729: A spot in "Eenhoornplantsoen" (Unicorn Place) beyond the northern end of the old market square in the town centre. During the Second World War, approximately 140 Oostburg townsfolk died and most of all the buildings, shops and churches were destroyed. This monument is a tribute to them and the rebuilding of the town. Around the lower part of the monument are the names of those who perished. Zeelandic Flemish It has notable differences from Standard Dutch mainly in pronunciation but also in grammar and vocabulary , which separates it clearly from Standard Dutch. This makes mutual intelligibility with speakers of Standard Dutch difficult. In
124-443: A village roughly on the middle of the island, can use widely different words for something than speakers from Sint-Maartensdijk do, which lies only 5 km to the west of Poortvliet . Zeelandic is strongly associated with the rural population, as it is spoken mainly in the countryside. The town dialects of Middelburg and Vlissingen are both much closer to Hollandic than the rural variants and are almost extinct. Surveys held in
155-448: Is a collective term for the two easternmost subdivisions ("true" East Flemish, also called Core Flemish, and Waaslandic) of the so-called Flemish dialects , native to the southwest of the Dutch language area, which also include West Flemish . Their position between West Flemish and Brabantian has caused East Flemish dialects to be grouped with the latter as well. They are spoken mainly in
186-565: Is an old Zeelandic word that has been attested since the Middle Ages . An early citation by Jacob van Maerlant in his description of Sint-Francis goes as follows: The name Zeeuws has been in use for the language spoken in Zeeland ever since, but in addition to this there are various other names. Speakers often refer to their dialect with the name of their own area, such as Walchers for Walcheren or Plat Axels for Zeelandic-Flanders (named after
217-552: Is based on Dutch orthography with the addition of ̊ to show devoicing and ̆ to show vowel shortening. Notes: Like most other Germanic languages , East Flemish differentiates between strong verbs and weak verbs . Even though there are a few strong verbs in East Flemish that are weak in Standard Dutch , the overall tendency is that East Flemish has more weak verbs. Unlike many other Germanic languages,
248-497: Is no such thing as one homogenous Zeelandic dialect or language. There is a large amount of resistance specifically in Goeree-Overflakkee against calling the local dialect Zeelandic, due to historical animosity between this region which belongs to South Holland , and Zeeland proper. In the past, Zeelandic was also called boers (farmer-like), in contrast to Standard Dutch which was known as op z'n burgers (like civilians, like
279-454: The Middle Ages and the early modern period , Zeeland was claimed by the Count of Holland as well as the Count of Flanders , and the area was exposed to influence from both directions. The dialects clearly show a gradual increase of Hollandic elements as one goes northwards. However, Zeelandic is fairly coherent with clear borders, as the broad sea arms form strong isoglosses . The name Zeeuws
310-455: The Old Dutch language area was characterised mainly by differences from east to west, with the east showing more continental Germanic traits and the west having more coastal Germanic features. In East Flanders , it can be noted that not a single typical eastern Low Franconian trait has reached the region, but coastal characteristics are fairly common, albeit less so than more to the west. In
341-624: The 15th century, the dominant position in the Low Countries shifted from the County of Flanders to the Duchy of Brabant , which brought an expansian of linguistic traits from Brabant, the so-called 'Brabantic Expansion'. As the Scheldt delta formed a large barrier in the north, those traits were introduced mainly from South Brabant , particularly the city of Brussels . The Dender area probably already started
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#1733093842054372-399: The 1990s found that at least 60% of Zeeland's population still use Zeelandic as their everyday language. An estimated 250,000 people speak Zeelandic as a mother tongue (West Zeelandic Flemish is included in that count), and although it is in decline, just as other regional languages, it is in no direct danger of extinction since in some villages with strong isolated communities, more than 90% of
403-417: The bourgeoisie), but this nomenclature has fallen out of fashion in recent times. The word plat , which is also used in other dialects to refer to any non-Standard-Dutch dialect, is also frequently used in Zeeland. Zeelandic is spoken in most areas in Zeeland province, excluding East-Zeelandic-Flanders where, traditionally, more East-Flemish dialects are spoken. North of Zeeland, Zeelandic is still spoken on
434-558: The dialects spoken in Voorne-Putten , Hoeksche Waard and Rotterdam . There is hardly any dialectal influence from Zeelandic in the neighbouring Brabantine dialects, however, with the exception of the neighbouring villages of Oud-Vossemeer in Tholen and Nieuw-Vossemeer in North-Brabant . Zeelandic still has three grammatical genders and the final schwa of feminine words. It has kept
465-477: The differences (the orthography is Dutch): The province of Zeeland consists of several former islands that were difficult to reach until well into the 20th century. As a result, there is roughly one dialect per island. The respective dialects differ clearly but only slightly. The Goeree-Overflakkee dialect, for example, does not drop the h , and the Walcheren and Zuid-Beveland dialects have umlauted words, unlike
496-507: The island of Goeree-Overflakkee . Traditionally, the Zeelandic language area also extended further north to the island Voorne-Putten , but the dialect has mostly disappeared from that area due to migration from urban areas such as Rotterdam . In urban areas in Zeeland, the dialect is in decline due to migration from other areas in the Netherlands. In Vlissingen , Goes , Middelburg and, to
527-440: The monophthongs [i] and [y] for ij and ui , rather than breaking them into [ɛi] and [œy] . It usually umlauts [aː] into [ɛː] and renders the old Germanic [ai] and [au] as falling diphthongs ( [ɪə ~ ɪɐ ~ iɐ] and [ʊə ~ ʊɐ ~ uɐ] , respectively, with the exact realisation depending on the dialect. Standard Dutch has merged them with etymological [eː] and [oː] . Finally, Zeelandic drops [h] . This table illustrates
558-422: The northern dialects (for example: beuter [bøtər] as opposed to boter [botər] . Within the island dialects themselves, dialectal differences also exist, and native speakers can frequently tell the village (at least on their own island) a person is from by the specific dialect that is spoken, even if the differences are inaudible to outsiders. For example, within the Tholen dialect, speakers from Poortvliet ,
589-407: The phonemic vowel length distinction, but the distincition is made in the following table for the dialects that have kept it. Also, the central vowel /ə/ occurs only in unstressed syllables and is often heavily reduced or even omitted in many dialects. Notes: The following table shows the common diphthong phonemes in East Flemish, but it also includes some allophones or alternative realisations of
620-422: The process in the 14th century, but Ghent (and probably the rest of the province) resisted those changes for at least another century, as writings from Ghent still indicated a phonology that was typically West Flemish phonology in the mid-16th century. Eventually, two processes caused the spread of Brabantian traits in eastern Flanders: While the second process has caused a fairly wide extension of some traits,
651-566: The province of East Flanders and a narrow strip in the southeast of West Flanders in Belgium and eastern Zeelandic Flanders in the Netherlands . Even though the dialects of the Dender area are often discussed together with the East Flemish dialects because of their location, the latter are actually South Brabantian. Before the occurrence of written records, the dialect continuum that took shape in
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#1733093842054682-465: The province's capital, Ghent , is also different from the language of the surrounding region. The Brabantic expansion is believed to have started in Ghent, which has separated its speech from the other Flemish dialects. Some Brabantic traits were exported to other East Flemish dialects, but many were not. The most notable differences include n -dropping and the more extreme diphthongisation of ii and uu . At
713-401: The rules for the conjugation of the strong preterite are exactly the same as in the present tense. The weak preterite is formed by adding the suffix "- dege " ("- tege " when the stem ends in a voiceless consonant) to the verbal stem. While an -n is usually added in the first-person and the third-person plural, the t-ending is not added except in a few southwestern dialects. The dialect of
744-489: The town of Axel , but also used in other towns in this region to distinguish it from the West-Zeelandic-Flemish dialects spoken in the region surrounding Breskens ), or sometimes with the name of their own village, such as Wasschappels for Westkapelle . This practice stems from the idea that each village has their own dialect, which is markedly different even from the dialect in the adjacent village, and that there
775-582: The traits spread by the first process have reached only the eastern quarter of the province: the Dender and Waasland areas. Having been dominated by the French , the Austrians and the Spanish , their languages have been other influences on the vocabulary of East Flemish. A special mention should go to continental West Flemish, which, despite being a West Flemish dialect, has some East Flemish colouring, as Kortrijk
806-410: The unicorn's presence is represented by a sculpture produced by artist Liesbeth Messer-Heijbroek who for many years, with her husband, lived in the area: she evidently took inspiration from the name of a former inn. The sculpture has been repositioned at least once since it first appeared in 1952 during the postwar reconstruction: at one stage it adorned a small car park. It shares with a modern fountain
837-407: The vowels mentioned above. Notes: As in many other southern Dutch dialects , verbal constructions can take several forms, depending on stress, the position of the subject and the next word. Unlike West Flemish , however, there is no subjunctive mood . The following table gives the general rules of conjugation in the present tense and the regular example of zwieren ("to toss"). The spelling
868-484: The western coastal region of Zeelandic-Flanders, locally referred to as Bressiaans , resemble the West-Flemish dialects spoken across the border more than the dialects spoken around Terneuzen and Axel, which preserve more Zeelandic features while also exhibiting West-Flemish features. Although these similarities are greater than those between Zeelandic and Hollandic dialects, there are some minor dialectal influences in
899-569: The youngsters still speak Zeelandic. On the other hand, in several villages with much immigration, the local dialect is spoken only by adults, as children are no longer taught it. A lobby for recognising the Zeelandic regional language under the European Charter for Minority Languages was, as of 2005, unable to achieve that status. [REDACTED] Media related to Zeelandic language at Wikimedia Commons East Flemish East Flemish ( Dutch : Oost-Vlaams , French : flamand oriental )
930-624: Was historically governed under Ghent . Even though the East Flemish dialect area is one of the most diverse linguistic landscapes in Belgium, the dialects share some traits that set them apart from Standard Dutch as well as the neighbouring dialects: As the realisation of phonemes can be quite divergent in different East Flemish dialects, the phonemes represented here are based on the most common Core East Flemish realisations. Notes: The following table gives an overview of some common phonemes in stressed syllables. Many East Flemish dialects have lost
961-422: Was water. As well as the town of Oostburg, the former municipality also included the following towns, villages and townships: Oostburg is typically a tourist town very close to the beaches at Cadzand . Every Wednesday is market day all year round but in the summer the city is busy and has many events. Oostburg's symbol is the unicorn , from which the townsfolk are said to derive strength and courage. In reality,