Westhoeks

Under Westhoek or Noordwesthoeks is Dutch dialect of the villages Fijnaart , Dinteloord , Klundert and Willemstad in the northwest of the Dutch province of North Brabant understood. Despite its location outside the Holland area, it is assigned to the Dutch dialect group , but has strong Brabant influences. This is essentially a transition dialect between South Holland and Northwest Brabant .

History of origin

The Westhoek language area disappeared in 1421 in a storm surge. During the 16th century the area was again drained (" polded "). Although most of the workers and settlers in this polder area came from the Brabant highlands, the landowners were of Dutch and Zeeland origin. The population adapted their language to that of the upper class. This created a kind of Creole Dutch, combining elements of the Dutch and Brabant dialect.

Since the Westhoek differed greatly from the rest of Brabant in religion and customs, its population became somewhat isolated. This enabled their language to be preserved to the present day.

features

Phonology

The Westhoek phonology is predominantly Brabant, it is particularly related to the surrounding Northwest Brabant dialects.

The high Dutch aa [ a: ] occurs mostly as ao [ ɑ: ], raom 'window' versus high-level language raam . Where this sound corresponds to an etymological e in high-level language, Westhoek's has an ae [ ɛ: ]: paerd 'horse' (high-level language paard ). The sound ao is rather untypical for Dutch, but very common in Brabantian.

Like Brabant, Zealand and the conservative Dutch dialects, Westhoek distinguishes two types of long ee and oo . This difference also existed in Middle Dutch; it has only disappeared in high-level language in modern times. The first ee is essentially a diphthong [ ei ]: beek 'Bach' is pronounced [ beik ]. The second ee is written êê and is a monophthong [ e: ]: bêên 'Bein' [ be: n ]. The same goes for the oo , which is a diphthong [ ou ], and the ôô , which is pronounced [ o: ].

The standard language h disappears everywhere. This so-called H-extinguishing is widespread everywhere in the west of North Brabant, but only occurs occasionally in Holland.

The cluster sp is reversed to ps : weps 'Wespe' versus High Dutch wesp . This also occurs all over western Brabant.

grammar

The plural formation is roughly the same as in High Dutch. Since the -n is not pronounced at the end of a word after a Schwa (as in the vast majority of Dutch and Brabant dialects!) -E is the most common plural ending. Words that form their plural with -eren in High Dutch get -ers in Westhoek : kind - kinders .

The diminutive formation behaves partly according to Dutch, partly according to Brabant principles. The typical Dutch ending -ie does not occur. Compare:

High Dutch	South Dutch 1	Northwest Arabian	Westhoeks	German
man - mannetje	man - mannetje	man - manneke	man - manneke	'Man - male'
vrouw - vrouwtje	vrouw - vrouwtje	vrouw - vrouwke	vrouw - vrouwke	'Woman - Misses'
huis - huisje	huis - huisie	uis - uiske	uis - uisje	'House - Little House'
lap - lapje	lap - lappie	lap - lapke	lap - lapje	'Lappe - Läppchen'
deur - deurtje	deur - deurtje	deur - deurke	deur - deurtje	'Door - door'

¹ : within South Holland, the diminutives are also formed differently. Details can be found in the article about the South Dutch .

Personal pronouns jij 'du' and jullie 'ihr' stand out in the pronouns . These unmistakably Dutch forms contrast with the Brabant gij and gullie . It is above all this peculiarity that has led dialectologists to assign the Westhoeksche to the Dutch.

Another 'Hollandism' can be found in verbs. In the south of the South Dutch-speaking area, for example in Rotterdam, verbs often have a single singular in addition to the unit plural : ik doet, jij doet, hij doet 'I do, you do, he does' (high-level language: ik doe without t!). Such forms can also be found in the Westhoekschen.

swell

This article is based in part on nl: Westhoeks and nl: Fijnaarts ; another source was http://www.brabants.org/taalvariatie.php