Maastrichtian dialect


Maastrichtian or Maastrichtian Limburgish is the dialect and variant of Limburgish spoken in the Dutch city of Maastricht alongside the Dutch language. In terms of speakers, it is the most widespread variant of Limburgish, and it is a tonal one. Like many of the Limburgish dialects spoken in neighbouring Belgian Limburg, Maastrichtian retained much Gallo-Romance influences in its vocabulary.
The French influence can additionally be attributed to the historical importance of French with the cultural elite and educational systems as well as the historical immigration of Walloon labourers to the city. Despite being a specific variant of Limburgish, Maastrichtian remains mutually intelligible with other Limburgish variants, especially those of surrounding municipalities.
Whilst Maastrichtian is still widely spoken, regardless of social level, research has shown that it is suffering from a degree of dialect loss amongst younger generations. That is the case in dwindling of speakers but also in development of the dialect towards Standard Dutch.

Geographic distribution, social status and sociolects

Maatrichtian being a city dialect, the terminology "Maastrichtian" is practically limited to the municipal borders, with the exception of some places within the Maastrichtian municipality where the spoken dialects are in fact not Maastrichtian. These exceptions are previously separate villages and/or municipalities that have merged with the municipality of Maastricht namely Amby, Borgharen, Heer and Itteren.
The social status of Maastrichtian speakers is determined by the type of sociolect spoken by a certain person, with a division between Short Maastrichtian or Standard Maastrichtian and Long/Stretched Maastrichtian. Short Maastrichtian is generally considered to be spoken by the upper and middle classes, whilst Long Maastrichtian is considered to be spoken by the working class.
A particular feature of Maastrichtian is that it gives its speakers a certain prestige. Research of the dialect showed that people talking the "purest" form of Maastrichtian, i.e. the Short Maastrichtian sociolect, were perceived by others to be the well-educated ones.

Written Maastrichtian

The oldest known and preserved text in Maastrichtian dates from the 18th century. This text named Sermoen euver de Weurd Inter omnes Linguas nulla Mosa Trajestensi prastantior gehauwe in Mastreeg was presumably written for one of the carnival celebrations and incites people to learn Maastrichtian. As from the 19th century there are more written texts in Maastrichtian, again mostly oriented towards these carnival celebrations. Nowadays however, many other sources display written Maastrichtian, including song texts not written for carnival as well as books, poems, street signs etc.

Standardisation and official spelling

In 1999, the municipal government recognised a standardised spelling of Maastrichtian made by Pol Brounts and Phil Dumoulin as the official spelling of the dialect.

Dictionaries

In 2002, the municipal government officially adopted a local anthem composed by lyrics in Maastrichtian. The theme had originally been written by Alfons Olterdissen as finishing stanza of the Maastrichtian opera "Trijn de Begijn" of 1910. There are claims that the anthem actually originates from "Pe-al nostru steag e scris Unire" by the Romanian composer Ciprian Porumbescu.
Maastrichtian municipal anthem

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Wikimedia

  • Wikipedia: Maastrichtian is included in the Limburgish Wikipedia. Since there are only standardised 'variants' of Limburgish but no widely accepted/recognised standardised Limburgish itself, each article is tagged as being written in a certain variant of the language. All articles in Maastrichtian can be found :li: Categorie:Gesjreve in 't Mestreechs|here.
  • Wiktionary: For an overview of some Maastrichtian dialect specific words, their English translations and their origins :wiktionary:Category:Maastrichtian Limburgish|proceed to this Wiktionary category.

    Phonology

The phonology of the Maastrichtian dialect, especially with regards to vowels is quite extensive due to the dialect's tonal nature.

Monophthongs

  • The front vowels are somewhat retracted, but not retracted enough to be labelled as central vowels. On the other hand, is so retracted that it is best labelled as central.
  • Among the central vowels, is rounded, whereas is unrounded.
  • * occurs only in unstressed syllables.
  • Among the back vowels, are rounded, whereas is unrounded.
  • * are somewhat advanced, but not advanced enough to be labelled as central vowels.
  • The qualitative differences between the short and long close-mid vowels are not very big; the short vowels are slightly higher and somewhat more central. In the case of the pair, the difference is the smallest.
  • Among the open-mid vowels, only are open-mid, whereas are actually mid.
  • The open vowels are somewhat raised . is similar in quality to ; the main difference between them is backness, rather than height.
  • The short counterpart of is, not .

    Diphthongs

Diphthongs in Maastrichtian are having closer starting points than the equivalent three in Standard Dutch. The start point of is rounded unlike standard Dutch.

Consonants

  • are bilabial, whereas are labiodental.
  • * In the syllable onset, is articulated with spread lips. However, in the syllable coda, the lips are weakly rounded.
  • Voiceless plosives are unaspirated, whereas the voiced plosives are fully voiced.
  • Word-initial and especially can be only partially voiced but without merging with, respectively, and.
  • are laminal postalveolar. Phonemically, they can be analysed as.
  • are velar, whereas is palatal.
  • * Word-initial is restricted to loanwords.
  • is a voiced fricative trill, either uvular or pre-uvular. The fricative component is particularly audible in coda, where a partial devoicing to also occurs.
  • A non-phonemic glottal stop can be heard when separating a preceding unstressed vowel from other following vowel sounds.

    Orthography




Vocabulary

Maastrichtian contains many specific words ample or not used in other Limburgish dialects some being creolisations/"limburgisations" of Dutch, French and German words while others cannot be directly subscribed to one of these languages.

(Historical) Vocabulary influences from other languages

Maastrichtian vocabulary, as the language family it belongs to suggests, is based on the Germanic languages. However, what sets Maastrichtian apart from other variants of Limburgish is its relatively strong influences from French. This is not only because of geographic closeness of a Francophone region to Maastricht but also because of French being the predominant spoken language of the Maastrichtian cultural elite and the higher secondary educational system of the region in the past. Some examples:

Francophone influence

Germanophone influence

Other examples of Maastrichtian vocabulary

Some examples of specific Maastrichtian vocabulary:

Expressions and Titles

Some examples of Maastrichtian expressions:
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