Everything about Zeeuws totally explained
Zeelandic (
Zeêuws in Zeelandic,
Zeeuws in Dutch) is a
regional language spoken in the
Dutch province of
Zeeland and on the
South Holland island of
Goeree-Overflakkee. Commonly considered a
Dutch dialect, it has notable differences mainly in pronunciation, but as well in
grammar and
vocabulary, which set it clearly apart from Dutch proper and make easy comprehension by unskilled Dutch speakers impossible.
Zeelandic is included within
West Flemish by some observers.
Origin
Zeelandic is a transitional regional language between
Hollandic and
West Flemish. In the
Middle Ages and early modern age, Zeeland was claimed by both the Count of
Holland and the Count of
Flanders, and the area laid within either influence. The respective dialects clearly show a gradual increase of Hollandic elements as one goes northwards. Yet Zeelandic is fairly coherent and easy to border, as the broad sea-arms form strong
isoglosses.
Hallmarks
The main differences from Dutch proper are the following: Zeelandic has three rather than two grammatical genders, as a result of which it retained the final
schwas in feminine words; it kept the monophthongs [i] and [y] for
ij and
ui rather than breaking them into [ɛi] and [œy]; it umlauted most [aː]s into [ɛː]s; it renders the old Germanic [ai] and [au] as falling diphthongs ([eə] and [ɔə]), whereas Dutch proper took them together with etymological e's and o's and finally it drops the h.
The present table illustrates those differences (note: the orthography is Dutch):
| Zeelandic |
Dutch (proper) |
English |
| d'n boer |
de boer |
the farmer |
| de boerinne |
de boerin |
the farmer's wife |
| uus |
huis |
house |
| kieke(n) |
kijken |
to look |
| tweê |
twee |
two |
| oôd |
hoofd |
head |
|
Dialects
The province of Zeeland consists of several former islands which were difficult to reach until well into the 20th century. As a result, there's roughly one dialect per island. The respective dialects differ clearly, but only slightly. The Goeree-Overflakkee dialect, for example, doesn't drop the h, and the
Walcheren and
Zuid-Beveland dialects have
umlauted words where the northern ones don't (for example:
beuter [bøtər] against
boter [botər]. Within the island dialects themselves dialectical differences also exist: native speakers can frequently tell which village (at least on their own island) a person is from by the specific dialect he or she speaks, even if this is unintelligible to outsiders.
The
Zeelandic Flanders region contains dialects that are largely outside the definition of Zeelandic, but must be considered
West Flemish and
East Flemish. The West Flemish dialects in this region, hovewer, are yet commonly classified as "Zeelandic".
Geographic distribution and social aspects
Zeelandic bears the burden of being strongly associated with the rural population, being chiefly spoken on the countryside. The town dialects of
Middelburg and
Vlissingen are both much closer to Dutch proper than the rural variants and on the edge of extinction. Surveys held in the nineties showed that at least 60% of the Zeeland population still uses Zeelandic as everyday language. There are an estimated 250,000 people who speak it as mother tongue (taking the West Zeelandic Flemish in the count), and though it's in decline, just as any other regional language, it's in no direct danger of extinction, since in some villages with strong isolated communities even more than 90% of the youngsters would speak Zeelandic. On the other hand, in several villages that have seen much immigration, the local dialect is only spoken by the adult population, as children are not taught it any longer.
There is a lobby for recognising the Zeelandic regional language under the European charter for minority languages.
As of 2005, they failed so far to achieve this status.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Zeeuws'.
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