Southern Meuse-Rhenish

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Southern Meuse-Rhenish
Spoken in: Netherlands, Belgium and Germany 
Region: Limburg, North Rhine-Westphalia
Total speakers: 1,600,000 (est.)
Language family: Indo-European
 Germanic
  West Germanic
   Low Franconian
    Southern Meuse-Rhenish
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: gem
ISO/FDIS 639-3: —
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Southern Meuse-Rhenish, or <more obsolete> Zuidrijnmaasfrankisch, also to be defined as South-east Low Franconian, is a subdivision of what recently has been named Meuse-Rhenish. All three these terms denote a rather compact grouping of Low Franconian varieties, spoken in the Limburg and Rhineland regions, near the common Dutch/Flemish (Belgium) and Dutch/German borders. In the Netherlands and Belgium it is simply called Limburgish. Limburgish is recognised as a regional language (streektaal) in the Netherlands and as such it receives moderate protection under chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The border of this category to the South is the Benrath line, to the North it is the Uerdingen line.

Contents

[edit] Subdialects

Centraalnederlimburgs is a variety of Limburgish around Maastricht and Heerlen in the Netherlands and Genk in Belgium. Centraal-Limburgs is a concept used in Germany, which includes the area around Maastricht and stretches further North. In Germany there is a concept of a variety of Limburgish around Genk. There also is the German concept of a variety of Limburgish between Genk and Hasselt. Oostlimburgs-Ripuarisch Overgangsgebied is a concept used in Germany to describe the linguistic area in Belgium around Eupen, including Welkenraedt, Lontzen and Moresnet, in the Netherlands between Ubach and Brunssum and a large area in Germany including Mönchengladbach. Oost-Limburgs is a concept used in Germany, which includes an area from Belgian Voeren South of Sittard in the Netherlands to an area in Germany including Dülken and central Krefeld.

Westnederlimburgs is the variety of Limburgish spoken around Hasselt and Veldeke in Belgium. In Germany West-Limburgs is a concept including the Limburgish spoken around Hasselt and Veldeke in Belgium and including areas in Dutch Limburg and Dutch Brabant. The border of West-Limburgs and Oost-Limburgs starts few South of the area between the villages of 's-Gravenvoeren and Sint-Martens-Voeren in the Belgian municipality of Voeren.

The at least to the largest extent non-tonal varieties of Oost-Getelands, West-Getelands and Bilzerlands are considered as being parts of Zuidrijnmaasfrankisch. Oost-Getelands, which is spoken around St Truiden in Belgium iis considered a variety of Zuidrijnmaasfrankisch. West-Getelands spoken up to the Uerdingen Line, which reaches the Dutch-Walloon linguistic border at Bierbeek in Belgium also is considered a variety of Zuidrijnmaasfrankisch. The other varieties, that are considered variants of Zuidrijnmaasfrankisch are Bilzerlands spoken around Genk in Belgium and Tongerlands spoken around Tongeren in Belgium.

[edit] Classification

[edit] See also

[edit] Source

  • Ad Welschen 2000-2005: Course Dutch Society and Culture, International School for Humanities and Social Studies ISHSS, Universiteit van Amsterdam (permission granted)

[edit] Reference

  • Georg Cornelissen 2003: Kleine niederrheinische Sprachgeschichte (1300-1900) : eine regionale Sprachgeschichte für das deutsch-niederländische Grenzgebiet zwischen Arnheim und Krefeld [with an introduction in Dutch]. Geldern / Venray: Stichting Historie Peel-Maas-Niersgebied, ISBN 90-807292-2-1
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