Venlo dialect

Venlo dialect
Venloos
Pronunciation	[ˈvɛnloːs]
Native to	Netherlands
Region	Venlo
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Weser–Rhine Germanic Low Franconian Limburgish Venlo dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None

Venlo dialect (Dutch and Limburgish: Venloos) is the city dialect and a variant of Limburgish spoken in the Dutch city of Venlo alongside the Dutch language (with which it is not mutually intelligible). It belongs to a group of transitional dialects between Kleverlandish and East Limburgish spoken in the northern part of Netherlands Limburg. That group of dialects is also known by its Dutch name Mich-kwartier ("Mich area", based on the usage of mich /ˈmex/ instead of the Brabantian mij /ˈmɛj/ as the accusative form of ik 'I').

Phonology

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

		Front				Central		Back
		unrounded		rounded
		short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close		i ⟨ie⟩	iː ⟨iê⟩	y ⟨uu⟩	yː ⟨uû⟩			u ⟨oe⟩	uː ⟨oê⟩
Close-mid		e ⟨i⟩	eː ⟨ee⟩	ø ⟨u⟩	øː ⟨eu⟩	ə ⟨e⟩		o ⟨ó⟩	oː ⟨oo⟩
Open-mid		ɛ ⟨e⟩	ɛː ⟨ae⟩	œ ⟨ö⟩	œː ⟨äö⟩			ɒ ⟨o⟩	ɒː ⟨ao⟩
Open							aː ⟨aa⟩	ɑ ⟨a⟩
Diphthongs	closing	ɛj   œj   ɔw
	centering	iə   yə   uə

• /ə/ is restricted to unstressed syllables.
• /oː/ is near-close [o̝ː].
• /ɛ/ is the only "short open E" sound in the dialect. The phonetically open [æ] does not have a phonemic status.
• /ɒ, ɒː/ are phonetically open but phonologically open-mid, the back counterparts of /œ, œː/.
• /aː/ is somewhat 'laxer' [ɐː] than in Standard Dutch. As in most other dialects, it is the phonological long counterpart of /ɑ/.

Pitch accent

Main article: Pitch-accent language § Franconian dialects

As many other Limburgish dialects, the Venlo dialect features a contrastive pitch accent, with minimal pairs such speule /ˈspøːlə/ 'to rinse' vs. speule /ˈspǿːlə/ 'to play' and bein /ˈbɛjn/ 'legs' vs. bein /ˈbɛ́jn/ 'leg', with the first word in each pair featuring Accent 1 (left unmarked) and the second word Accent 2 (transcribed as a high tone).

Bibliography

• Gussenhoven, Carlos; van der Vliet, Peter (1999), "The phonology of tone and intonation in the Dutch dialect of Venlo", Journal of Linguistics, 35: 99–135, doi:10.1017/S0022226798007324
• Peeters, F.J.P. (1951), Het klankkarakter van het Venloos, Nijmegen: Dekker & v.d. Vegt