Weert dialect

Weert dialect or Weert Limburgish (natively Wieërts or Weerts, Standard Dutch: Weerts [ʋeːrts]) is the city dialect and variant of Limburgish spoken in the Dutch city of Weert alongside Standard language. All of its speakers are bilingual with standard Dutch.[1]

Weert dialect
Wieërts (in the urban dialect)
Weerts (in the rural dialect)
Pronunciation[βiəʀts]
[βeəʀts]
Native toNetherlands
RegionWeert
Official status
Official language in
Limburg, Netherlands: Recognised as regional language as a variant of Limburgish.
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
GlottologNone

There are two varieties of the dialect: rural and urban. The latter is called Stadsweerts in Standard Dutch and the rural dialect and Stadswieërts in the city dialect.[1] Unless otherwise noted, all examples are in Stadsweerts.

Phonology

Consonants
Consonant phonemes[2]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩ (ɲ) ⟨nj⟩ ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive voiceless p ⟨p⟩ t ⟨t⟩ (c) ⟨tj⟩ k ⟨k⟩
voiced b ⟨b⟩ d ⟨d⟩ (ɟ) ⟨dj⟩ ɡ ⟨gk⟩
Fricative voiceless f ⟨f⟩ s ⟨s⟩ (ʃ) ⟨sj⟩ x ⟨ch⟩ h ⟨h⟩
voiced v ⟨v⟩ z ⟨z⟩ (ʒ) ⟨zj⟩ ɣ ⟨g⟩
Liquid l ⟨l⟩ ʀ ⟨r⟩
Approximant β ⟨w⟩ j ⟨j⟩
  • /m, p, b, β/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.[1]
  • /n, l/ are realized as postalveolar [ɲ, ʎ] when they occur before /c, ɟ/.[3]
  • /ɲ, c, ɟ, ʃ, ʒ/ are marginal phonemes.[3]
    • In the syllable onset, /c, ɟ, ʃ, ʒ/ can occur only in proper names and loanwords.[3]
    • /ɲ/ occurs only intervocalically.[3]
  • /ɡ/ occurs only intervocalically. Younger speakers tend to merge it with /ɣ/.[3]
  • Word-initial /x/ is restricted to loanwords.[3]
  • /x, ɣ/ are realized as pre-velar [x̟, ɣ˖] when they are preceded or followed by a front vowel.[3]
  • /ʀ/ is a voiced fricative trill, either uvular [ʀ̝] or pre-uvular [ʀ̝˖]. The fricative component is particularly audible in the syllable coda, where a partial devoicing to [ʀ̝̊ ~ ʀ̝̊˖] also occurs.[3]

Vowels
Short monophthongs of the Weert dialect, from Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110)
Long monophthongs of the Weert dialect, from Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110). As shown on the chart, the close-mid /eː/, /øː/ and /oː/ are typically realized as centering diphthongs.
Monophthong phonemes[4]
Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
short long short long short short long
Close i ⟨ie⟩ iː ⟨iê⟩ y ⟨uu⟩ yː ⟨uû⟩ u ⟨oe⟩ uː ⟨oê⟩
Close-mid ɪ ⟨i⟩ eː ⟨ee⟩ ø ⟨u⟩ øː ⟨eu⟩ oː ⟨oo⟩
Mid ɛ ⟨e⟩ ɛː ⟨èè⟩ œ ⟨ö⟩ œː ⟨äö⟩ ə ⟨e⟩
Open-mid æ ⟨è⟩ æː ⟨ae⟩ ɔ ⟨o⟩ ɔː ⟨ao⟩
Open aː ⟨aa⟩ ɑ ⟨a⟩ ɑː ⟨àà⟩
  • Most of the non-central vowels are more or less centralized, but only /ə/ is phonetically central. The most strongly centralized vowel is /ø/, whereas the least strongly centralized vowels are /i, iː/.[5]
  • Among back vowels, /u, uː, o, oː, ɔ, ɔː/ are rounded, whereas /ɑ, ɑː/ are unrounded.
    • /o/ is used only by older speakers.[6]
  • Phonetically, the tense close-mid monophthongs /eː, øː, oː/ are centering diphthongs [ëə, øə, öə].[7]
    • The first elements of /øː, oː/ are centralized, but are not central enough to be labelled as central.[5]
    • The second elements of /eː/ and especially /oː/ are less central ([e̽, ɤ̽], respectively) than it is the case with other centering diphthongs, of which the second element is more like [ə].[5]
    • Before nasal consonants, /eː, øː/ are monophthongized to [ɪː, øː].[6]
  • The /ø/-/œ/ and /ɛ/-/æ/ contrasts seem to have begun to collapse.[6]
  • /ø/ is similar to the schwa /ə/; besides rounding, practically the only difference between those is that /ø/ is somewhat more front and slightly higher than /ə/. Phonetically, it can be described as close-mid central rounded [ɵ].[5]
  • /ə/ is mid [ə]. It occurs only in unstressed syllables.[8]
  • The open-mid front vowels /ɛ, ɛː, œ, œː/ are somewhat higher than open-mid [ɛ̝, ɛ̝ː, œ̝, œ̝ː], but the back open-mid vowels /ɔ, ɔː/ are actually open-mid [ɔ, ɔː].[5]
    • /œ/ is realized as much more open [ɶ] when it occurs before /j/.[5]
  • /æ, æː/ are best described as somewhat lowered open-mid [ɛ̞, ɛ̞ː].[5]
Closing diphthongs of the Weert dialect, from Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110)
Centering diphthongs of the Weert dialect, from Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110)
Diphthong phonemes[7]
Starting point Ending point
Front Central Back
Front unrounded ɛi ⟨ei/ij⟩ iə ⟨ieë⟩
rounded œy ⟨ui⟩ yə ⟨uuë⟩
Back uə ⟨oeë⟩ ʌu ⟨ou/au⟩
  • The centering diphthongs merge with the phonemic close-mid monophthongs in the rural variety, where /eː, øː, oː/ appear instead of /iə, yə, uə/.[1]
  • The first elements of /uə, ʌu/ are somewhat centralized ([ü, ʌ̈], respectively), but are not central enough to be labelled as central. Among these, the first element of /œy/ is the most strongly centralized.[5]
  • The second elements of /ɛi, œy, ʌu/ are mid-centralized ([ɪ, ʏ, ʊ], respectively).[5]

References
  1. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 107.
  2. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), pp. 107–108.
  3. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 108.
  4. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), pp. 107, 109–110.
  5. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 110.
  6. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), p. 109.
  7. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), pp. 109–110.
  8. Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998), pp. 108, 110.

Bibliography
  • Heijmans, Linda; Gussenhoven, Carlos (1998), "The Dutch dialect of Weert" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 28 (1–2): 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307
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