Hasselt dialect

Hasselt dialect
	Essels, Hessels
Pronunciation	[ˈʔæsəls], [ˈhæsəls][1]
Native to	Belgium
Region	Hasselt
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Istvaeonic Low Franconian Meuse-Rhenish Limburgish West Limburgish[2] Hasselt dialect; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None

Hasselt dialect or Hasselt Limburgish (natively Essels or Hessels,[3] Standard Dutch: Hasselts [ˈɦɑsəlts]) is the city dialect and variant of Limburgish spoken in the Belgian city of Hasselt alongside the Dutch language. All of its speakers are bilingual with standard Dutch.[2]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes[2]
		Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal	Postalveolar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ŋ
Plosive / Affricate	voiceless	p	t	k
Plosive / Affricate	voiced	b	d		dʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	x	ʃ	h
Fricative	voiced	v	z	ɣ
Rhotic			r
Approximant		β	l	j

Obstruents are devoiced word-finally. However, when the next word starts with a vowel and is pronounced without a pause, both voiced and voiceless word-final obstruents are realized as voiced.[1]
/m, p, b, β/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.[2]
The sequences /nt, nd/ are realized as more or less palatalized:
- In the conservative variety, these are, respectively, [ɲtʃ] and [ɲdʒ].[1]
- Nowadays, [nʲtʲ] and [nʲdʲ] are the normal realizations, whereas the conservative [ɲtʃ, ɲdʒ] are used only in a few words.[1]
/p, b, t, d, k/ are plosives, whereas /dʒ/ is an affricate.[2]
/ŋ, k, x, ɣ/ are velar, whereas /j/ is palatal.[2]
/r/ is either alveolar or, more commonly, uvular - see below.
Word-initial /h/ is often realized as a plosive [ʔ].[1]

Realization of /r/

According to Peters (2006), /r/ is realized as a voiced trill, either alveolar [r] or uvular [ʀ]. Between vowels, it is sometimes realized with one contact (i.e. as a tap) [ɾ ~ ʀ̆],[1] whereas word-finally, it can be devoiced to [r̥ ~ ʀ̥].[4]

According to Sebregts (2014), about two thirds of speakers have a uvular /r/, whereas about one third has a categorical alveolar /r/. There are also a few speakers who mix uvular and alveolar articulations.[5]

Among uvular articulations, he lists uvular trill [ʀ], uvular fricative trill [ʀ̝], uvular fricative [ʁ] and uvular approximant [ʁ̞], which are used more or less equally often in all contexts. Almost all speakers with a uvular /r/ use all four of these realizations.[6]

Among alveolar articulations, he lists alveolar tap [ɾ], voiced alveolar fricative [ɹ̝], alveolar approximant [ɹ], partially devoiced alveolar trill [r̥], voiceless alveolar trill [r̥], alveolar tapped or trilled fricative [ɾ̞ ~ r̝], voiceless alveolar tap [ɾ̥] and voiceless alveolar fricative [ɹ̝̊]. Among these, the tap is most common, whereas the taped/trilled fricative is the second most common realization. The partially devoiced alveolar trill occurred only once.[6]

Vowels

Monophthongs of the Hasselt dialect, from Peters (2006:119)

Monophthong phonemes[7]
	Front				Back
	unrounded		rounded		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	y	yː	u	uː
Close-mid	ɪ	eː	ø	øː		(oː)
Open-mid	ɛ	ɛː	œ	œː	ɔ	ɔː
Open	æ	aː			ɑ	ɑː
Unstressable	ə

There are also the nasal vowels /œ̃ː, ɔ̃ː, æ̃ː, ɑ̃ː/, which occur only in French loanwords.[8]
/aː/ is near-front [a̠ː].[8]
All of the back vowels are almost fully back.[7] Among these, /u, uː, oː, ɔ, ɔː/ are rounded, whereas /ɑ, ɑː/ are unrounded.
- /oː/ is a marginal vowel. Its occurrence is restricted to loanwords from standard Dutch and English.[8]
Before alveolar consonants, the long rounded vowels /uː, øː, œː/ are realized as centering diphthongs [uə, øə, œə].[8]
/ə, ɔ/ are mid [ə, ɔ̝].[8]
- /ə/ occurs only in unstressed syllables.[1]
/æ/ is near-open, whereas /aː, ɑ, ɑː/ are open.[8]

Part 1 of Hasselt diphthongs, from Peters (2006:119)

Part 2 of Hasselt diphthongs, from Peters (2006:119)

Diphthong phonemes[7]
Starting point		Ending point
Starting point		Front	Central	Back
Close		uɪ	iə
Close-mid	unrounded	eɪ
Close-mid	rounded	øɪ		ou
Open-mid		ɔɪ
Open		aɪ

/iə, øɪ, aɪ/ have somewhat retracted first elements [i̠, ø̠, a̠]. In the case of /aɪ/, its first element is also somewhat raised. Because of that, it is best described as near-open advanced central [ɐ̟].[8]
- /aɪ/ and occurs only in loanwords from French and interjections.[8]
/uɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ have somewhat advanced first elements ([u̟] and [ɔ̟], respectively).[8]
Before alveolar consonants, /eɪ, ou/ are realized as centering diphthongs [eə, oə]. In the case of /eɪ/, this happens only before the sonorants, i.e. /n, l/ and the alveolar allophones of /r/, with the triphthong [ejə] being an alternative pronunciation. In the case of /ou/, the centering diphthong is used before all alveolar consonants, not just the sonorants. No triphthongal variants of /ou/ have been reported.[8]
/øɪ, ɔɪ, aɪ/ occur only word-finally.[8]
/ou, ɔɪ, aɪ/ have somewhat lowered second elements [u̞, ɪ̞, ɪ̞].[8]

There are also the sequences /uːj, ɔːj, ɑːj/, which are better analyzed as sequences of /uː, ɔː, ɑː/ and the approximant /j/, rather than diphthongs /uːi, ɔːi, ɑːi/. The sequences /ɔːj, ɑːj/ occur only word-finally.[8]

References

Peters (2006), p. 118.
Peters (2006), p. 117.
Staelens (1989).
Peters (2006). While the author does not state that explicitly, he uses the symbol ⟨r̥⟩ for many instances of the word-final /r/.
Sebregts (2014), p. 96.
Sebregts (2014), p. 97.
Peters (2006), pp. 118–119.
Peters (2006), p. 119.

Bibliography

Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
Sebregts, Koen (2014), "3.4.4 Hasselt", The Sociophonetics and Phonology of Dutch r (PDF), Utrecht: LOT, pp. 96–99, ISBN 978-94-6093-161-1
Staelens, Xavier (1989), Dieksjenèèr van 't (H)essels (3rd ed.), Hasselt: de Langeman