Brabantian
Brabantisch (Brabantisch Braobans , Dutch Brabants ) is a Lower Franconian dialect within Dutch . The modern standard Dutch language is based in part on Brabant dialects.
Brabant dialect space
Brabantian is spoken in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant , in the Belgian provinces of Antwerp and Flemish Brabant, and in the Limburg-Brabant border areas of the Limburg province . The dialects of Venlo and Venray are now attributed to Limburg for political reasons , although from a linguistic-historical point of view they belong to Brabantian.
In the north-west of the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, a Dutch dialect is mainly spoken in and around Willemstad . The dialect spoken in the northeast of the Dutch province around Cuijk is assigned to Kleverland .
Subdialects
Because of the relatively large language area of Brabantian, it can be roughly divided into three subdialects:
- West Brabants, spoken in the area west of the Donge river : in the west of Noord-Brabant (the area around the cities of Breda , Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom ) and in the north and west of the province of Antwerp in Belgium.
- Oost-Brabants, spoken in the area east of the Donge river: in the middle and east of Noord-Brabant (the area around the cities of Tilburg , Eindhoven , 's-Hertogenbosch and Helmond ), the east of the province of Antwerp and the far west of the Limburg Province.
- Zuid-Brabants, spoken in the province of Flemish Brabant and the south of Antwerp .
Dialect use in the Netherlands and Belgium
About a third of the population with a Dutch mother tongue lives in the Brabant dialect area. In the larger Dutch cities such as Breda and Eindhoven , where many people speak Dutch dialects, Brabant dialects have been dropped, whereas in rural areas many people still speak the local dialect. In Tilburg and 's-Hertogenbosch, however, a large number of residents speak the Brabant dialect.
Dialects are still a commonly spoken language in Belgium . In the capital Brussels , French replaced Dutch in the middle of the 20th century. Even so, there are many cultural activities that use the dialect. In addition, the use of Dutch is being revived among young Dutch-speaking families moving from the suburbs to the old city center.