Kerkrade dialect
Kerkrade dialect (natively Kirchröadsj plat [ˈkeʀəçˌʀœətʃ ˌplɑt] or Kirchröadsj, literally 'Kerkradish', Limburgish: Kirkräödsj [ˈkɪʀ(ə)kˌʀœːtʃ], Standard Dutch: Kerkraads, Standard German: Kerkrader Platt) is a Ripuarian dialect spoken in Kerkrade and its surroundings, including Herzogenrath in Germany. It is spoken in all social classes, but the variety spoken by younger people in Kerkrade is somewhat closer to Standard Dutch.[1][2]
| Kerkrade dialect | |
|---|---|
| Kirchröadsj plat | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈkeʀəçˌʀœətʃ ˌplɑt] |
| Native to | Netherlands, Germany |
| Region | Kerkrade, Herzogenrath |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
The most similar other Ripuarian dialects are those of Bocholtz, Vaals and Aachen.
The only dictionary of the Kerkrade dialect[3] considers it to be a Ripuarian variety, but most native speakers treat it as a Southeast Limburgish dialect and call it Limburgsj ('Limburgish'), Kirchröadsj ('Kerkradish') or simply plat ('dialect').
A distinct East Limburgish dialect called Egelzer plat is spoken in Eygelshoven, in the north of the Kerkrade municipality. One of the biggest differences between the two is the pronunciation of the sound written ⟨g⟩ in Limburgish; in Eygelshoven, it is pronounced as in Limburgish and (southern) standard Dutch (as a voiced velar fricative), whereas in the Kerkrade dialect it is pronounced as in Colognian, as a palatal approximant (where it is spelled ⟨j⟩), except after back vowels. To other Limburgers in general, that is the most striking feature of the Kerkrade dialect. Smaller geographical differences exist within the Kerkrade dialect as well.
Vocabulary
The Kerkrade dialect has many loanwords from Standard High German, a language formerly used in school and church. However, not all German loanwords are used by every speaker.[4]
An example sentence:
| Kerkrade dialect | Jód èse en drinke hilt lief en zieël tsezame[5] [jod ˈɛːsə ʔɛn ˈdʀeŋkə helt ˈliːv ɛn ˈziəl tsəˈzaːmə] |
| Kölsch (the largest Ripuarian variety, spoken in Cologne) | Jod esse un drinke hält Liev un Siel zesamme (note that some of the differences between the Kerkrade dialect and Kölsch are only in spelling, such as the pronunciation of the ⟨s⟩, ⟨z⟩ and ⟨ts⟩)) |
| Standard Dutch | Goed eten en drinken houdt de mens gezond[5] [ɣut ˈeːtə(n) ɛn ˈdrɪŋkə(n) ˈɦʌudə ˌmɛns xəˈzɔnt] |
| Standard Dutch (literal) | Goed eten en drinken houdt lichaam en ziel bij elkaar [ɣut ˈeːtə(n) ɛn ˈdrɪŋkə(n) ˈɦʌut ˈlɪxaːm ɛn ˈzil bɛi ʔɛlˈkaːr] |
| Standard High German | Gut essen und trinken hält Leib und Seele zusammen [ɡuːt ˈʔɛsn̩ ʔʊnt ˈdʁɪŋkŋ̍ hɛlt ˈlaɪp ʔʊnt ˈzeːlə tsuˈzamən] |
| English | Eating and drinking well keeps one healthy |
| English (literal) | Eating and drinking well keeps the body and soul together |
Phonology
As most other Ripuarian and Limburgish dialects, the Kerkrade dialect features a distinction between the thrusting tone (Dutch: stoottoon, German: Schärfung or Stoßton), which has a shortening effect on the syllable (not shown in transcriptions in this article) and the slurring tone (Dutch: sleeptoon, German: Schleifton). In this article, the slurring tone is transcribed as a high tone, whereas the thrusting tone is left unmarked. This is nothing more than a convention, as the phonetics of the Kerkrade pitch accent are severely under-researched. There are minimal pairs, for example moer /ˈmuːʀ/ 'wall' - moer /ˈmúːʀ/ 'carrot'.[6][7]
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Dorsal | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ||
| voiced | b | d | (ɡ) | |||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | tʃ | |||
| voiced | dʒ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | χ | h |
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | ʁ | ||
| Liquid | l | ʀ | ||||
| Approximant | β | j | ||||
- The sounds corresponding to Limburgish /x, ɣ/ are very back after back vowels, more like [χ, ʁ], as in Luxembourgish. In fact, there may be little difference between /ʁ/ and /ʀ/ in the Kerkrade dialect.[8][9]
- Most instances of historical /ɡ/ (/ɣ/ in Limburgish and (southern) Standard Dutch) have merged with /j/, so that the word for green in the Kerkrade dialect is jreun /ˈjʀøːn/ (compare Standard Dutch groen /ˈɣrun/).[10]
- The palatal [ç] is an allophone of /χ/ after consonants, the front vowels and the close-mid central /ø/, which phonologically is a front vowel.[8]
| Front | Central | Back | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||||||
| short | long | short | long | short | short | long | ||
| Close | i | iː | y | yː | u | uː | ||
| Close-mid | e | eː | ø | øː | ə | o | oː | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɛː | œ | œː | ɔ | ɔː | ||
| Open | aː | ɑ | ||||||
| Diphthongs | closing | ɛi œy ɔi ɔu ai au | ||||||
| centering | iə yə uə eə œə oə | |||||||
- /ə/ occurs only in unstressed syllables.
Spelling
The spelling presented here, which is to a large extent Dutch-based is used in Kirchröadsjer dieksiejoneer, the only dictionary of the Kerkrade dialect. The notes are mostly aimed at native speakers of Dutch (including those that can read Limburgish) and German.
| Spelling | IPA value | Example words | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | /ɑ/ | bakke | In closed syllables. |
| /aː/ | jape | In open syllables. | |
| aa | kaat, sjaa | In closed syllables and word-finally. It is never spelled ⟨ah⟩. | |
| ai | /ai/ | fain | Never spelled ⟨ei⟩, which stands for /ɛi/, as in Standard Dutch. |
| ao | /ɔː/ | kaod | Never spelled ⟨oa⟩, which stands for the diphthong /oə/. |
| äö | /œː/ | kräöche | Never spelled ⟨ö⟩, which stands only for the short /œ/. |
| äu | /ɔi/ | vräud | Never spelled ⟨eu⟩, which stands for the monophthong /øː/. |
| auw | /au/ | kauw | Never spelled ⟨ouw⟩, as it contrasts with the fully rounded /ɔu/, which starts near the open-mid /ɔ/. |
| b | /b/ | ||
| /p/ | Word-finally and before voiceless consonants in compounds. | ||
| ch | /χ/ | maache | Varies between uvular and palatal, depending on the preceding sound. |
| /ʁ/ | Before voiced consonants in compounds. | ||
| d | /d/ | ||
| /t/ | Word-finally and before voiceless consonants in compounds. | ||
| dzj | /dʒ/ | pieëdzje | Always distinct from its voiceless counterpart /tʃ/. |
| e | /ɛ/ | sjtek | In closed syllables. It is never spelled ⟨ä⟩. |
| /ə/ | oavend | In unstressed syllables. The dialect does not possess syllabic consonants. | |
| /eː/ | dene | In open syllables. | |
| ee | deer | In closed syllables and word-finally. It is never spelled ⟨eh⟩. | |
| è | /ɛː/ | nès | Never spelled ⟨ä⟩ or ⟨äh⟩. |
| eë | /eə/ | keëts | Never spelled ⟨ee⟩ or ⟨e⟩, as it contrasts with the monophthongal /eː/. |
| ei | /ɛi/ | knei | The usage depends on the spelling of the Dutch cognate of the word. ⟨ei⟩ never stands for /ai/, which is spelled ⟨ai⟩. |
| ij | jekkerij | ||
| eu | /øː/ | meun | Never stands for /ɔi/, which is spelled ⟨äu⟩. It is never spelled ⟨ö⟩ or ⟨öh⟩; the former stands only for the short open-mid /œ/. |
| f | /f/ | The voiced counterpart of /f/ is normally spelled ⟨v⟩, as in English. The spelling ⟨f⟩ is used before voiced consonants in compounds. | |
| /v/ | |||
| g | /ʁ/ | Occurs only in the intervocalic position. The bare ⟨g⟩ never stands for the plosive /ɡ/ and is a relatively rare letter anyway, as many instances of historical /ɡ/ have merged with /j/ (spelled ⟨j⟩) in Kerkrade. | |
| gk | /ɡ/ | wegke | Never spelled ⟨g⟩. It occurs only in the intervocalic position. |
| h | /h/ | Occurs only in syllable-initial positions. It is never used as a silent letter to denote length. | |
| i | /e/ | rikke | In closed syllables. |
| ie | /i/ | In closed syllables and in unstressed positions. | |
| /iː/ | |||
| ieë | /iə/ | Never spelled ⟨ie⟩, as it contrasts with the monophthongal /iː/. | |
| j | /j/ | Never spelled ⟨g⟩, even when it corresponds to /ɣ/ in Limburgish. | |
| k | /k/ | Never spelled ⟨ck⟩. | |
| l | /l/ | ||
| m | /m/ | Labiodental [ɱ] before /f/ and /v/. | |
| n | /n/ | Dropping of the historical final /n/ is marked in the orthography, so that maache 'to do' is written as such, rather than maachen (cf. Dutch maken [ˈmaːkə(n)], usually pronounced without the final nasal, unlike German machen [ˈmaxn̩], where the schwa tends to disappear instead). | |
| /m/ | Before labial consonants in compounds. It is labiodental [ɱ] before /f/ and /v/. | ||
| /ŋ/ | Before velar consonants. | ||
| ng | /ŋ/ | Occurs only in syllable-final positions. It always stands for /ŋ/, as /ɣ/ occurs only after vowels. | |
| o | /ɔ/ | In closed syllables. It never stands for the close-mid /o/, which is spelled ⟨ó⟩. | |
| /oː/ | In open syllables. | ||
| oo | In closed syllables. It is never spelled ⟨oh⟩. | ||
| ö | /œ/ | In closed syllables. It never stands for either of the long mid front rounded vowels. | |
| ó | /o/ | In closed syllables. It is sometimes transcribed with ⟨ʊ⟩ in IPA, but never spelled ⟨u⟩ in the Kerkrade dialect. | |
| oa | /oə/ | Never spelled ⟨oo⟩ or ⟨o⟩, as it contrasts with the monophthongal /oː/. It never stands for the monophthong /ɔː/, which is spelled ⟨ao⟩. | |
| öa | /œə/ | ||
| oe | /u/ | Stands for either sound in stressed closed syllables, for the long /uː/ in stressed open syllables and for the short /u/ in unstressed positions. Neither sound is ever spelled ⟨u⟩ or ⟨uh⟩. | |
| /uː/ | |||
| oeë | /uə/ | Never spelled ⟨oe⟩, as it contrasts with the monophthongal /uː/. | |
| ouw | /ɔu/ | Never spelled ⟨auw⟩, as it contrasts with /au/, which starts near the open /ɑ/. | |
| p | /p/ | ||
| r | /ʀ/ | Always pronounced as a consonant; may be allophonically devoiced to [ʀ̥] before pauses and in contact with voiceless consonants. It is unclear whether [ʀ] and [ʀ̥] are consistently distinguished from [ʁ] and [χ]. | |
| s | /s/ | The voiced counterpart of /s/ is normally spelled ⟨z⟩, as in Dutch. | |
| /z/ | Before voiced consonants in compounds. | ||
| sj | /ʃ/ | Never spelled ⟨sch⟩ in native words. | |
| /ʒ/ | Before voiced consonants in compounds. | ||
| t | /t/ | ||
| ts | /ts/ | Never spelled ⟨z⟩, which denotes /z/. Allophonically voiced to [dz] before voiced consonants in compounds. | |
| tsj | /tʃ/ | Never spelled ⟨tsch⟩. | |
| u | /ø/ | Stands for the short close-mid central /ø/ in closed syllables and the long close front /yː/ in open syllables. It never stands for the close-mid back /o/. | |
| /yː/ | |||
| uu | In closed syllables. | ||
| ü | /y/ | Never stands for the long /yː/, which is spelled ⟨u⟩ in open syllables and ⟨uu⟩ in closed syllables. | |
| üe | /yə/ | Never spelled ⟨uu⟩ or ⟨u⟩, as it contrasts with the monophthongal /yː/. | |
| ui | /œy/ | ||
| v | /v/ | Always voiced, as in English. | |
| w | /β/ | Always distinct from ⟨v⟩. It is similar to English ⟨w⟩, but without velarization. | |
| z | /z/ | Always a voiced fricative, as in English. | |
| zj | /ʒ/ | Always distinct from its voiceless counterpart /ʃ/. It is spelled ⟨sj⟩ before voiced consonants in compounds. |
References
- "Gemeente Kerkrade | Kirchröadsj Plat". Archived from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997), p. 9.
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997).
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997), p. 10.
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (2003), p. 94.
- Fournier, Rachel; Gussenhoven, Carlos; Peters, Jörg; Swerts, Marc; Verhoeven, Jo. "The tones of Limburg". Archived from the original on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997), p. 19.
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997), p. 17.
- Gilles & Trouvain (2013), p. 68.
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997), pp. 17, 126.
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997), pp. 15–17.
Bibliography
- Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013). "Luxembourgish" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (1): 67–74. doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278.
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (1997) [1987]. Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer. (in Dutch and Ripuarian) (2nd ed.). Kerkrade: Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer. ISBN 90-70246-34-1. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2015-06-10.
- Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer (2003). Benders, Jo; Hirsch, Herman; Stelsmann, Hans; Vreuls, Frits (eds.). Kirchröadsjer Zagenswies. (in Dutch and Ripuarian). Kerkrade: Stichting Kirchröadsjer Dieksiejoneer. ISBN 90-70246-47-3.