South Dutch
The South Dutch (not to be confused with " South Dutch ", which refers to the Belgian-Dutch) is a sub-dialect of the Dutch dialect group , which is mainly found in the Dutch province of South Holland . Most of the South Dutch dialects differ only slightly from the High Dutch.
distribution
In the north, the South Dutch is separated from the sub-dialects Kennemerlands , Zaans and Waterlands . The border is formed by the IJ and the North Sea Canal ; the North Holland cities of Amsterdam and Haarlem are therefore in the South Holland language area. In the east, the South Holland group borders on the Utrechts-Alblasserwaardsen ; the border runs in a line that runs roughly from Weesp to Sliedrecht . To the south, the waters of Haringvliet and Hollands Diep are the limit. Occasionally, the dialect of Oostvoorne (municipality of Westvoorne ) is assigned to Zeeland . The Westhoekse Group, spoken in the north-west of North Brabant , has strong similarities to the South Dutch.
Overview: division into conservative and modern
The South Dutch variants can be divided into two main groups: original dialects, which have retained much of the old Dutch language, and modern urban variants, which have largely adapted to the standard language and now only differ a little from it.
The first group comprises the minority of the South Dutch variants. Such dialects are mainly found in isolated communities where the influence of the Randstad has not yet finally established itself. Often these are (former) fishing villages: Zandvoort ( Zandvoortsch ), Noordwijk aan Zee ( Noordwijksch ), Katwijk aan Zee ( Katwijksch ) and Scheveningen ( Scheveningsch ) are the best examples. The Aalsmeer (see Aalsmeer ), which is spoken more inland, is such a dialect. These dialects are most widespread in the south and east of the provinces ( Voorne-Putten , Hoeksche Waard , Alblasserwaard ), where the conservative dialects are not linguistic islands but are spoken in closed areas. All conservative dialects are threatened to some extent today: they are mostly spoken by a minority of the population and significantly more by old people than by young people. The Aalsmeer may be extinct by now. The Katwijksche, on the other hand, holds up relatively well.
The second group includes variants which, according to the definition commonly used in Germany, should not be considered dialects. In the Netherlands, however, such language systems are mostly understood as "dialects" anyway, although some prefer to speak of "accents". Akzente is also a real name, so to speak, as these variants generally use the same words and phonemes as High Dutch, but which their speakers pronounce differently. This can be explained from the history of the origins of the standard Dutch language. Since the 17th century this has developed within the upper class of Dutch cities such as Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam , based on the Dutch dialect but also with strong influences from Brabantian and High German , two particularly prestigious variants. Many typically Dutch language elements were frowned upon because they were considered uncivilized. The lower class adopted this language, but kept its accent. Today most of the South Dutch dialects have become such accents; the best-known examples are the Amsterdamsche , the Haagsche and the Rotterdamsche .
Phonology
Vowels
Originally, South Dutch had many typical sound shifts in the short and to a certain extent also in the long vowels. But they only appear in the conservative dialects. The conservative South Dutch dialects also have a larger phoneme inventory.
The South Dutch, the Dutch in general, lies on a North Sea Germanic (Ingwaeon) substrate. For Ingwaeon (an old Germanic dialect group, from which among other things English and Frisian emerged) the rule was the rounded front tongue vowel. Remnants of it can still be found today, for example Katwijksch pet for Hochnl. put "source". It also occurs with long vowels: four instead of vuur "fire" (NB: u and uu indicate front tongue vowels [ʏ] and [y] in Dutch spelling).
Umlaut of the short o often occurs before r . In the conservative dialects durp "village" is common. The long oo sometimes becomes eu , e.g. B. in zeun "son". This is represented in all conservative dialects, but not in the modern variants. The shift oo> eu is not an umlaut because it occurred spontaneously.
Rounding of unrounded vowels also occurs, especially when the phonetic region so dictates. Often in the relic dialects it becomes ur : vurf "color", urt "pea". At this point, however, a shift towards or occurs at least as often . Words like dorde "third" (high-level language derde ) and Korsemes "Christmas" (high level language Kerstmis ) can only be found in the southern Dutch language area. This shift is most common in Zandvoort.
The short e can appear in even more forms. In some words it is closed to i [ɪ]: mist "Mist" (standard language mest ), in "and" (standard language s ). A closed e is not only found in relict dialects, however. The e i-like is also pronounced in and around Amsterdam and Haarlem, for example as [e] (high-level language [ɛ]). The word bed "bed" in Amsterdam is like the English bet . In contrast, a more open pronunciation prevails in the south, here and there as [ɑ] ( kark "church" instead of kerk , abandoned for 's-Gravendeel ), but often as [æ]. This pronunciation prevails in Zeeland.
The long aa usually remains [a:] as in standard language. In the past, however, the more closed variants [æ:] and [ɛ:] must have been more common. You can find them in the vast majority of conservative dialects. Only very few dialects make a difference between old-long aa (which is also long in German) and extended aa (which was originally short and is still short in German): you can find this in Aalsmeer and Sliedrecht.
The original South Dutch had two types of ee and oo . High Dutch and modern dialects only have one such phoneme. One speaks of soft-long and sharp-long ee and oo. The first correspond to a monophthong (mostly ê or ô ), the second correspond to a diphthong (either eə or oə or ai or au ). This distinction is still made to the north and south of the South Dutch-speaking area.
The ee and oo are lookup sounds in the high-level Dutch language: Diphthongs whose last term is only pronounced briefly ([e i ], [o u ]). Most South Dutch dialects have full diphthongs: [ei] and [ou] or even wider variants. These sounds are considered to be very uncivilized and typical of the lower social class.
Originally, a distinction was made between ei and ij . In High Dutch, however, both are pronounced as [ɛi]. There is no difference in modern dialects either; however, they can be pronounced differently than in high-level language. [ɛ:], [ai] and [ɑi] occur, but are rejected in the high-level language. There is still a difference in many relic dialects, both in the south and at the North Sea: ei becomes [ɑ: (i)], ij remains [ɛi].
Consonants
The h disappears in the fishermen's dialects of Noordwijk and Scheveningen. In addition, H extinction still occurs in Vlaardingen . Vlaardingen used to be a fishing village; however, its dialect has lost much of its conservative language skills in the 20th century. The omission of the h has probably been taken over from Zealand.
Especially in the north, in and around Haarlem and Amsterdam, the initial v- and z- voiced in the standard language have remained voiceless ([f] and [s]). Amsterdammers often have great difficulty pronouncing v and z "correctly".
The thick l [ɫ] typical of Dutch (also heard in Low German and Bern German ) is often a little thicker in South Holland. Especially before [d] and [t] it almost becomes [w]. Therefore, difficulties may arise in understanding the difference between vernieuwd "again" and vernield "destroyed".
The r is mostly rolled, but in the south it is often shown in the final as an approximant [ɹ] (or even [j]). Uvular pronunciation of the r is only found in Rotterdam and The Hague.
Sch- , pronounced [sx] in Dutch, sk- stayed in Katwijk, Noordwijk and Zandvoort. Sk- is also typical for the North Dutch dialects and for Frisian.
Also in Katwijk, Noordwijk and Zandvoort the w is pronounced bilabially, similar to English [w]. This pronunciation must have been general in Dutch earlier; but today it is atypical and one uses the labiodental [ʋ]. That this sound was received exactly here can be explained by English influence; This is also supported by the fact that Egmond's , which is also spoken at the North Sea, also has this sound.
morphology
Both the conservative and modern dialects of South Holland show certain grammatical differences. Traditionally, these peculiarities are not seen as dialectical features, but rather frowned upon as mere speech errors.
Nominal inflection
Most of the excesses do not deviate from the High Dutch. The -n in the plural suffix -en is, as is usually the case in high-level language, not pronounced: man - manne "man - men". In some dialects there is a double plural : mand - mandes ("basket - baskets") with the two plural exits -e and -s . While this is found in conservative dialects, it is also abandoned for modern variants. There is a tendency to pluralize formations differently than the basic word: while the word boom has "tree" (in South Dutch pronunciation about boowm ) as plural simply bome , spoorboom can have "railway barrier" as plural form spoorboom s , opposite the high Dutch spoorbomen .
Like the High Dutch, the South Dutch lacks a proper felling system. However, many dialects show traces of case inflection. Inflected proper names have been given up for numerous places (including Aalsmeer, 's-Gravendeel, Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Katwijk, Sliedrecht, Zoetermeer). There is a form for the nominative and a form for the genitive, dative and accusative together (so-called case obliquus ). In Katwijkschen, for example, one can say:
- Piet lòòpt op straet "Piet is walking on the street"
- Piet e fiets staet teuge de muur " Piet's bike is on the wall"
- Gunt huis is van Piet e "That house belongs to Piet"
- Hè-je Piet e nog ezien? "Did you still see Piet?"
Although not uncommon in Germany ( Fritz, Fritzens, Fritzen ), this type of inflection is unknown in High Dutch, where there can only be one genitive for proper names.
Further remnants of the cases can be found in fixed expressions. Most of the time it is a dative case. While conservative dialects have more such expressions (e.g. Katwijksch uit-ter zàè "from the sea", nae den ete "after dinner") they also occasionally appear in modern variants: in de midde ("in the middle" from middle . inden middene ), uit de licht ("from the light [e]" from mean. uyten lighte ). Fixed expressions in the dative are more common in the south of the South Dutch language area than in the north. They are also very common in Zealand.
Like the colloquial High Dutch, most South Dutch dialects have only two genera: sociable and neuter. Three sexes still occur only south of Rotterdam (e.g. in Oud-Beijerland).
As in all of Dutch, diminutive are often formed with -ie . The exit -ie is a vocalization of the High Dutch equivalent -je . In many especially conservative South Dutch dialects, all diminutives are formed in -ie ; but mostly this feature occurs only after certain consonants. Compare:
| High Dutch | Rotterdamsch | Oud-Beijerlandsch | German |
| kammetje | kammetje | kammechie | "Comb" |
| ringetje | ringetje | ringchie | "Ring" |
| boompje | boompie | bôômpie | "Sapling" |
| haantje | haantje | haentjie | "Chicken" |
| additionally | zussie | together | "Little sister" |
| lampje | lampie | lampie | "Lamp" |
| kettinkje | kettinkie | kettinkie | "Chain" |
-jie in diminutive is found mainly in the south and east of the province, as well as in large parts of the province of Utrecht .
Pronouns
In the pronouns, the personal pronoun for the third person plural is particularly noticeable. In the standard language this is zij , which is also the personal pronoun of the third person feminine singular (like the German she ). As an alternative, there are different pronouns for the third person plural in the South Dutch dialects alone: zullie , hullie and hun . The last pronoun in particular has become very popular over the last few decades, including in the everyday language of many people who otherwise speak High Dutch. Expressions like hun hebbe (n) dat gedaan are therefore more of a sub-standard language than dialect.
The reflexive pronoun "sich" is missing. While dat High Dutch took the word zich from Limburg and High German, South Dutch uses the form z'n / d'r eige (n) (literally "his / her own").
Enclitic personal pronoun
The personal pronoun hij , if it is unstressed, enclitically to -tie or -the be. In the south of South Holland speaking countries may also , depending in particular environments are taken enclitically, as a -ie . Examples: loop-ie "are you running ", loop-ie "he is running"; hebbie "do you have" heb-ie "he has"; da-je "that you" (without sound shift ever> ie !), dattie "that he". In the north of the South Holland language area (Katwijk, Aalsmeer, Amsterdam) there is no change from depending on ie : Rotterdamsch hebbie is opposite Amsterdamsch hè-je .
Verbal conjugation
In the south of the language area, the -t in the second and third person singular is often missing . The t can also appear in the first person singular. In addition to a unit plural, many verbs also have a certain unit singular. In Rotterdam it says: ik loowp, jai loowp, hai loowp ("I run, you run, he runs") and ik doet, jai doet, hai doet ("I do, you do, he does"). Such conjugation forms are also given for The Hague and Leiden , but are absent in Amsterdam. For Amsterdam, on the other hand, forms such as ik doen "I do" are recorded, with the one-body infinitive serving as the finite verb form for the first person singular.
Especially in the south, the personal pronoun hij (see above) can be included in the verb form in the past tense of weak verbs . To do this, the verb is broken: maakte hij "made he" becomes maakt-ie-de . This construction is unique for the Dutch dialects, for the Germanic languages in general.
Other peculiarities are hij heb "he has" (formerly typical for Amsterdam, today represented in all modern dialects; high-level language hij heeft ) or alter hij het, hij means , wij, jullie, zullie benne "we are, you are, they are" (old-fashioned; high-level language wij, jullie, zij zijn ) and the loss of the difference between "know" and "can" (both know ) and "lie" and "lay" (both legge ).
literature
- Cor van Bree, Taal in stad en land: Zuid-Hollands , Den Haag 2004. Popular scientific introduction to the South Dutch dialects. (Used as a source for this article)
- J. Daan, K. Heeroma, Zuidhollands. Bijdragen en Mededelingen of the Dialectencommissie van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen XXX , Amsterdam 1965.