Weert dialect

Weert dialect or Weert Limburgish (natively Wieërts, Standard Dutch: Weerts [ʋeːrts]) is the city dialect and variant of Limburgish spoken in the Dutch city of Weert alongside the Dutch language (with which it is not mutually intelligible). All of its speakers are bilingual with standard Dutch.[1]

Not to be confused with Weert Dutch or a Weert accent, the accent/regional variety of Standard Dutch spoken in Weert.
Weert dialect
Wieërts
Pronunciation[βiəʀts]
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

It has two varieties: Stadsweerts, spoken in the city centre, and the more rural dialect.[1]

Phonology

Consonants
Consonant phonemes[2]
Labial Alveolar Postalveolar Dorsal Glottal
Nasal m n (ɲ) ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t (c) k
voiced b d (ɟ) ɡ
Fricative voiceless f s (ʃ) x h
voiced v z (ʒ) ɣ
trill ʀ
Approximant β l 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]
  • /ŋ, k, ɡ, x, ɣ/ are velar, whereas /j/ is palatal.[1]
    • /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
Monophthongs of the Weert dialect, from Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110). /ʊ/ is not shown.
Monophthong phonemes[4]
Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
short long short long short long
Close i iː y yː ə u uː
Close-mid ɪ eː ʏ øː (ʊ) oː
Mid ɛ ɛː œ œː ɔ ɔː
Open-mid æ æː
Open aː ɑ ɑː
  • Most of the non-central vowels are more or less centralized, but only /ə/ is phonetically central. The most strongly centralized vowel is /ʏ/, whereas the least strongly centralized vowels are /i, iː/.[5]
  • Among back vowels, /u, uː, ʊ, oː, ɔ, ɔː/ are rounded, whereas /ɑ, ɑː/ are unrounded.
    • /ʊ/ is used only by older speakers.[6]
  • Phonetically, the tense close-mid monophthongs /eː, øː, oː/ are centering diphthongs [ëə, øə, öə],[7] and that is the reason for which they are illustrated on diphthong charts below.
    • 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, ʏː].[6]
  • The /ʏ/-/œ/ and /ɛ/-/æ/ contrasts seem to have begun to collapse.[6]
  • /ʏ/ is similar to the schwa /ə/; besides rounding, practically the only difference between those is that /ʏ/ 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]
Part 1 of the Weert dialect diphthongs, from Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110)
Part 2 of the Weert dialect diphthongs, from Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:110)
Diphthong phonemes[7]
Starting point Ending point
Front Central Back
Front unrounded ɛi iə
rounded œy yə
Back uə ʌu
  • The rural variety monophthongizes /iə, yə, uə/ to [eː, øː, oː].[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: 107–112, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006307
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