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Limburgish Limburgs (Plat, Lèmbörgs)
Pronunciation:	[ˈlɛmbœʁxs], [plɑt]
Spoken in:	The Netherlands (Limburg), Belgium (in the province of Limburg and also in some villages in the northeast of the Walloon province of Liege), and adjacent parts of Germany
Region:	Limburg
Total speakers:	1,600,000 (est.)
Language family:	Indo-European  Germanic   West Germanic    Meuse-Rhenish     Limburgish
Official status
Official language in:	the Netherlands (as a regional language); no official status in Belgium or Germany
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	li
ISO 639-2:	lim
ISO 639-3:	lim
Position of Limburgish (orange) among the other minority languages, regional languages and dialects in the Benelux
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

This article is a part of the Dutch dialects series.
Languages of the Netherlands‎ Dutch dialects Meuse-Rhenish Low Franconian Brabantian Hollandic Zeelandic West Flemish French Flemish East Flemish South Guelderish / Low Rhenish Limburgish / Low Rhenish Low Franconian/Ripuarian Southeast Limburgish Low Dietsch Aachen dialect / Eschweiler dialect Low Saxon Dutch Low Saxon Groningan / East Frisian Low Saxon
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Limburgish, or Limburgian or Limburgic (Dutch: Limburgs, German: Limburgisch, French: Limbourgeois) is a group of Franconian varieties, spoken in the Limburg and Rhineland regions, near the common Dutch / Belgian / German border. The area in which it is spoken roughly fits within a wide circle from Venlo to Düsseldorf to Aachen to Maastricht to Hasselt and back to Venlo. Limburgish is recognised as a regional language (Dutch: streektaal) in the Netherlands and as such it receives moderate protection under chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages¹.

Etymology

The name Limburgish (and variants of it) derives from the now Belgian town of Limbourg (Laeboer in Limburgish, IPA: /'læ:buʁ/), which was the capital of the Duchy of Limburg during the Middle Ages. Limburgian people usually call their language Plat, the same way as Low Germans do. This plat basically means: 'not elevated', 'ordinary' or even 'vulgar'. It is opposed to High in High German. The word can also be associated with plattelandj ('countryside'). The general Dutch term for the language of ordinary people in former ages was Dietsch, or Duutsch, as it still exists in the term Low Dietsch (Platduutch).

Meuse-Rhenish

It is common to consider the Limburgish varieties as belonging to the Low Franconian languages; in the past, however, all these Limburgish dialects were sometimes seen as West Central German, part of High German. This difference is caused by a difference in definition: the latter stance defines a High German variety as one that has taken part in any of the first three phases of the High German consonant shift. In German sources, the dialects linguistically counting as Limburgish spoken to the east of the river Rhine are called Bergish (named after the former Duchy of Berg). West of the river Rhine they are called "Low Rhenish", which is considered a transitional zone between Low-Franconian and Ripuarian. Thus, former German linguists tended to call these dialects Low German, whereas, as a matter of fact, they are closer to Dutch than to German. Limburgish is spoken in a major part of the German Lower Rhine area. At the Rhine near Duisburg, it adjoins a smaller strip of other Low Franconian varieties called Bergish. This strip stretches rather deeply eastward off the right bank of the Rhine.

Limburgish is not recognised by the German government as an official language. Limburgish is also spoken in a considerable part of the German Lower Rhine area, in what linguistically, though not in any sense politically, could be called German Limburg: from the border regions of Cleves, Aachen, Viersen, Heinsberg stretching out to the Rhine river. At the Rhine river near Duisburg, Limburgish adjoins a smaller strip of other Low Franconian varieties called Bergish. Modern linguists, both in the Netherlands and in Germany, now often combine these distinct varieties with the Cleves dialects (Kleverländisch). This superordinating group of Low Franconian varieties between the rivers Meuse and Rhine is called Meuse-Rhenish (Dutch: Maas-Rijnlands, Welschen 2002), or in German: Rheinmaasländisch. Both Limburgish and Low Rhenish belong to this greater Meuse-Rhine area, building a large group of southeastern Low Franconian dialects, including areas in Belgium, the Netherlands and the German Northern Rhineland. The northwestern part of this triangle became under the influence of the Dutch standard language, especially since the founding of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. The southeastern part became a part of the Kingdom of Prussia at the same time, and from then it 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 (Welschen 2002).

Qualifying the use of Limburgish in Germany and Belgium

The Meuse-Rhenish dialects can be divided into Northern and Southern varieties. Hence, Limburgish is Southwestern Meuse-Rhenish as spoken in Belgium, the Netherlands and the German Lower Rhine. The Northeastern Meuse-Rhenish dialects as spoken in the Netherlands and in Germany a little eastward along the Rhine, are unambiguously Low Franconian and can be considered as Dutch. Limburgish straddles the borderline between 'Low Franconian' and 'Middle Franconian' varieties. These Southwestern Meuse-Rhenish dialects are more-or-less mutually intelligible with the Ripuarian dialects, but show fewer 'High German shifts' (R. Hahn 2001). To what degree Limburgish actually is spoken in Germany today remains a matter of debate. Depending on the city in these parts of Germany, 50% to 90% of the population speak a local or regional form of Meuse-Rhenish, either Limburgish or Bergish, according to A. Schunck 2001. However, this percentage seems to be a clear overestimation, as far as the German situation is concerned. The same holds true for his estimation of the Belgian situation.

Dutch and Belgian Limburgish

Limburgish is spoken by approximately 1,600,000 people in the Low Countries and by many hundreds of thousands in Germany, depending on definition. The varieties of Limburgish spoken within Flemish (Belgian) territory are more influenced by French than those spoken on Dutch and German soil. The language has similarities with both German and Dutch and Hendrik van Veldeke, a medieval writer from the region, is referred to as both one of the earlier writers in German and one of the earliest writers in Dutch.

Tonality as a main trait

Unlike most European languages, Limburgish is clearly a tonal language having two tones to distinguish words. Other European languages known to be marginally tonal are Lithuanian, Livonian, Swedish, Norwegian, some dialects of Slovenian, and the Yugoslav languages Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian. In most cases however, this tonality is better understood as a pitch accent, whereas in Limburgish it plays an important role. Examples are to be found in the paragraph on Phonology, under Tone.

Subdivisions of Limburgish

Noord-Limburgs (ik-Limburgs) from Venlo upward to the North in the Netherlands is the form of Limburgish, which has features of the Zuid-Gelders dialect.

Centraal-Limburgs is a concept used in Germany, which 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 a more refined classification. They use the term Oost-Limburgs 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 is the variety of Limburgish spoken around Hasselt, Veldeke and Tongeren in Belgium. It includes areas in Dutch Limburg (like Ool, Maria Hoop and Montfort) and Dutch Brabant. The border of West-Limburgs and Oost-Limburgs starts a little south of the area between the villages of 's-Gravenvoeren and Sint-Martens-Voeren in the Belgian municipality of Voeren.

Südostniederfränkisch is a concept used in Germany to describe the linguistic situation in a large area in Germany around Heinsberg, Viersen, Mönchengladbach and Krefeld. An area close to Westphalia is considered as being the area where Bergisch is spoken. This area is limited roughly by a line Düsseldorf-Mettmann-Solingen-Remscheid. For a more encompassing view, see the article on Low Rhenish.

Southeast Limburgish (Zuidoost-Limburgs) is spoken around Kerkrade, Bocholtz and Vaals in the Netherlands, Aachen in Germany and Raeren and Eynatten in Belgium, in Germany considered as Ripuarian, not always as Limburgish. According to a contemporary vision, all varieties in a wider half circle some 15 to 20 KM around Aachen, including 2/3 of Dutch South Limburg and also the so-called Low Dietsch area between Voeren and Eupen in Belgium, can be taken as a group of its own, which recently has been named Limburgish of the Three Countries Area (Dutch: Drielandenlimburgs, German: Dreiländerplatt), referring to the place where the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany meet. Its concept was introduced by Ad Welschen, mainly based on research by Jean Frins (2005, 2006). This variety still possesses interesting syntactic idiosyncrasies, probably dating from the period in which the old Duchy of Limburg existed.

If only tonality is to be taken as to define this variety, it stretches several dozen KM into Germany. In Germany, it is consensus to class it as belonging to High German varieties. But this is a little over-simplified. In order to include this variety properly a more encompassing concept is needed. The combination of Meuse-Rhenish and Ripuarian, including their overlapping transitional zones of Southeast Limburgish and Low Dietsch, will do.

Phonology

The phonology below is based on the variety of West-Limburgs spoken in Montfort.

Consonants

/g/ may not show up in the Hasselt dialect, but is well known in other Limburgish dialects, e.g. zègke (Dutch: zeggen) "to say".

Other Limburgish dialects also have the following sounds: /x/ (daag) /ɣ/ (ach, interjection) /χ/ (chemisch) /c/ (landj) /ɲ/ (tenj, teeth)

Instead of /w/ /β̞/ is used in Belgian Limburgish.

Overall, Limburgish dialect tend to have more consonants than Standard Dutch. They also tend to have more vowels.

Vowels

Monophthongs

/ə/ only occurs in unstressed syllables.

/øː œː uː/ are realised as [øə œə uə] before alveolar consonants.

Diphthongs

The diphthongs /iə øɪ 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/ is realized as [oə] before alveolar consonants, and /eɪ/ is realized as [eə] or [ejə] before

Tone

Limburgish distinguishes two tones on stressed syllables, traditionally known as sjtoettoen ("pushing tone") and sjleiptoen ("dragging tone"). This is used for grammatical distinctions as well as distinguishing words. For example, [daː˦˨˧x] daa~g with sjleiptoen is "a day", while [daː˦˨x] daa\g with sjtoettoen is the plural "days". An example of a lexical difference is [biː˦˨] bie\ with sjtoettoen means "bee", while [biː˦˨˧] bie~ with sjleiptoen means "at".

Other examples include plural

• [stæɪ˦˨˧n] stei~n "stone"
• [stæɪ˦˨n] stei\n "stones"

and lexical

• [graː˦˨f] "grave"
• [graː˦˨˧f] "hole next to a road"

Verbs distinguish mood with tone:

• [weː˦˨˧ʁˈkɪ˦˨və˧] "We conquer!"
• [weː˦˨˧ʁˈkɪ˦˨˧və˧] "May we conquer!"

In some parts of Limburg, the tonal plural is being replaced with the Dutch forms among the younger generation, so that the plural for daag becomes dage ([daːʝə]).

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (May 2008)

Umlaut

Limburgish uses for some nouns Umlaut to form the plural. This use of Umlaut is also known in English : man - men ; goose - geese. In most dialects of Limburgish, you will find Umlaut for some nouns. The more you go to the east, towards Germany, the more you will find plural and dimunitive nouns based on Umlaut.

• broor - breurke - breur (brother - little brother - brothers)
• sjoon - sjeunke - sjeun (shoe - little shoe - shoes): note this can also be 'sjoon' with sjtoettoen (pushing tone).

Notes

See also

• Meuse-Rhenish
• Low Rhenish
• Southern Meuse-Rhenish
• Zuidoost-Limburgs on the Dutch Wikipedia
• Low Dietsch

References

• Bakkes, Pierre (2007: Mofers Waordebook. ISBN 978-90-9022294-3 (Dutch)
• Cornelissen, Georg (2003). Kleine niederrheinische Sprachgeschichte (1300-1900) : eine regionale Sprachgeschichte für das deutsch-niederländische Grenzgebiet zwischen Arnheim und Krefeld : met een Nederlandstalige inleiding. Geldern / Venray: Stichting Historie Peel-Maas-Niersgebied.  (German)
• Frins, Jean (2005): Syntaktische Besonderheiten im Aachener Dreilãndereck. Eine Übersicht begleitet von einer Analyse aus politisch-gesellschaftlicher Sicht. Groningen: RUG Repro [Undergraduate Thesis, Groningen University] (German)
• Frins, Jean (2006): Karolingisch-Fränkisch. Die plattdůtsche Volkssprache im Aachener Dreiländereck. Groningen: RUG Repro [Master's Thesis, Groningen University] (German)
• Grootaers, L.; Grauls, J. (1930). Klankleer van het Hasselt dialect. Leuven: de Vlaamsche Drukkerij.  (Dutch)
• Gussenhoven, C.; Aarts, F. (1999). "The dialect of Maastricht". Journal of the International Phonetic Association 29: 155–166.  (English)
• Gussenhoven, C.; van der Vliet, P. (1999). "The phonology of tone and intonation in the Dutch dialect of Venlo". Journal of Linguistics 35: 99–135. doi:10.1017/S0022226798007324.  (English)
• Peters, Jörg (2006). "The dialect of Hasselt". Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (1): 117–124. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428.  (English)
• Staelens, X. (1989). Dieksjneèèr van 't (H)essels. Nederlands-Hasselts Woordenboek. Hasselt: de Langeman.  (Dutch)
• Welschen, Ad 2000-2005: Course Dutch Society and Culture, International School for Humanities and Social Studies ISHSS, Universiteit van Amsterdam.

External links

Limburgish edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Limburgish edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus

• On Limburgish Tones (in Dutch)
• Map of dialects spoken in Dutch Limburg
• Advice of recognition of the Limburgish as regional language (in Dutch)
• The visit of the ladies of Charity by Alphonse Olterdissen translated from the dialect of Maastricht into English for Crossroads, a web magazine for expatriates in Maastricht, the Netherlands
• Limburgish Dictionary from Webster's Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition, a simple list of words and phrases, that can only give a first impression
• Limburgish Wiktionary - De Limburgse Wiktionair

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 1 December 2008, at 17:13.

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