Hasselt dialect

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Not to be confused with Hasselt Dutch or a Hasselt accent, the accent/regional variety of Standard Dutch spoken in Hasselt.
Hasselt dialect
Essels, Hessels
Pronunciation[ˈhæsəls]
Native toBelgium
RegionHasselt
Indo-European
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
GlottologNone

Hasselt dialect or Hasselt Limburgish (natively Essels or Hessels,[2] Standard Dutch: Hasselts [ˈɦɑsəlts]) is the city dialect and variant of Limburgish spoken in the Belgian city of Hasselt alongside the Dutch language. All of its speakers are bilingual with standard Dutch.[1]

Phonology[]

Consonants[]

Consonant phonemes[1][3]
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t c k
voiced b d ɟ
Affricate voiceless (tʃ)
voiced dʒ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ x h
voiced v z ɣ
Trill ʀ
Approximant β l j
  • Obstruents are devoiced word-finally. However, when the next word starts with a vowel and is pronounced without a pause, both voiced and voiceless word-final obstruents are realized as voiced.[4]
  • /m, p, b, β/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.[1]
  • The sequences /nt, nd/ are realized as more or less palatalized:
    • In the conservative variety, these are, respectively, [ntʃ] and [ndʒ].[4]
    • Nowadays, [ɲc] and [ɲɟ] are the normal realizations, whereas the conservative [ntʃ, ndʒ] are used only in a few words.[4]
  • /h/ is often dropped.[4]

Realization of /ʀ/[]

According to Peters (2006), /ʀ/ is realized as a voiced trill, either uvular [ʀ] or alveolar [r]. Between vowels, it is sometimes realized with one contact (i.e. as a tap) [ʀ̆ ~ ɾ],[4] whereas word-finally, it can be devoiced to [ʀ̥ ~ r̥].[5]

According to Sebregts (2014), about two thirds of speakers have a uvular /ʀ/, whereas about one third has a categorical alveolar /ʀ/. There are also a few speakers who mix uvular and alveolar articulations.[6]

Among uvular articulations, he lists uvular trill [ʀ], uvular fricative trill [ʀ̝], uvular fricative [ʁ] and uvular approximant [ʁ̞], which are used more or less equally often in all contexts. Almost all speakers with a uvular /ʀ/ use all four of these realizations.[7]

Among alveolar articulations, he lists alveolar tap [ɾ], voiced alveolar fricative [ɹ̝], alveolar approximant [ɹ], voiceless alveolar trill [r̥], alveolar tapped or trilled fricative [ɾ̞ ~ r̝], voiceless alveolar tap [ɾ̥] and voiceless alveolar fricative [ɹ̝̊]. Among these, the tap is most common, whereas the tapped/trilled fricative is the second most common realization.[7]

Elsewhere in the article, the consonant is transcribed ⟨ʀ⟩ for the sake of simplicity and for the sake of consistency with IPA transcriptions of other dialects of Limburgish.

Vowels[]

Monophthongs of the Hasselt dialect, from Peters (2006:119)
Diphthongs of the Hasselt dialect, from Peters (2006:119)
Marginal monophthongs of the Hasselt dialect, from Peters (2006:119)
Marginal diphthongs of the Hasselt dialect, from Peters (2006:119)
Vocalic phonemes[8][9]
Front Central Back
short long short long
Close i ⟨ie⟩ iː ⟨iê⟩ u ⟨oe⟩ uː ⟨oê⟩
Close-mid ɪ ⟨i⟩ eː ⟨ee⟩ ə ⟨e⟩ ɔ ⟨o⟩
Open-mid ɛ ⟨e⟩ ɛː ⟨ae⟩ ɔː ⟨ao⟩
Open æ ⟨è⟩ aː ⟨aa⟩ ɑ ⟨a⟩ ɑː ⟨àà⟩
Diphthongs ui ⟨oei⟩   ei ⟨eej⟩   ou ⟨oow⟩   ɔi ⟨oi⟩   iə ⟨ieë⟩
Marginal vowel system[9][10]
Front Back
rounded
short long long
Close y ⟨uu⟩ yː ⟨uû⟩
Close-mid ø ⟨u⟩ øː ⟨eu⟩ oː ⟨oo⟩
Open-mid œ ⟨ö⟩ œː ⟨äö⟩
Nasal vowels œ̃ː ⟨un⟩   ɔ̃ː ⟨on⟩   æ̃ː ⟨in⟩   ɑ̃ː ⟨en⟩
Diphthongs øi ⟨euj⟩   ai ⟨ai⟩
  • Among the marginal vowels, the nasal ones occur only in French loanwords (note that /æ̃ː/ is typically transcribed with ⟨ɛ̃⟩ in transcriptions of French and that /œ̃ː/ is very rare, as in Standard Dutch), whereas /oː/ is restricted to loanwords from standard Dutch and English. As in about 50 other dialects spoken in Belgian Limburg, the rounded front vowels /y, yː, ø, øː, œ, œː/ have largely been replaced with their unrounded counterparts [i, iː, ɪ, eː, ɛ, ɛː] and are mostly restricted to loanwords from French. The marginal diphthong /ai/ occurs only in loanwords from French and interjections. /øi/ is also rare, and like /ai/ occurs only in the word-final position.[9][10]
  • /aː/ is near-front [a̠ː].[10]
  • All of the back vowels are almost fully back.[8] Among these, /u, uː, ɔ, ɔː/ and the non-native /oː/ are rounded, whereas /ɑ, ɑː/ are unrounded.
  • Before alveolar consonants, the long monophthongs /uː, øː, œː/ and the diphthongs /ei, ou/ are realized as centering diphthongs [uə, øə, œə, eə, oə]. In the case of /ei/, this happens only before sonorants, with the disyllabic [ei.ə] being an alternative pronunciation. Thus, noêd /nuːt/ 'distress', meud /møːt/ 'fashion', näöts /nœːts/ 'news', keejl /keil/ 'cool' and moowd /mout/ 'tired' surface as [nuət], [møət], [nœəts], [keəl ~ kei.əl] and [moət]. The distinction between a long monophthong and a centering diphthong is only phonemic in the case of the /iː–iə/ pair, as exemplified by the minimal pair briêd /bʀìːt/ 'broad' vs. brieëd /bʀìət/ 'plank'.[10]
  • /ə, ɔ/ are mid [ə, ɔ̝].[10]
    • /ə/ occurs only in unstressed syllables.[4]
  • /æ/ is near-open, whereas /aː, ɑ, ɑː/ are open.[10]
  • /ui/ and /ɔi/ have somewhat advanced first elements ([u̟] and [ɔ̟], respectively). The latter diphthong occurs only in the word-final position.[10]
  • Among the closing-fronting diphthongs, the ending points of /ɔi/ and /ai/ tend to be closer to [e̠] than [i]; in addition, the first element of /ai/ is closer to [ɐ]: [ɔ̟e̠, ɐe̠].[10]

Three long monophthongs can occur before coda /j/ - those are /uː/, /ɔː/ and /ɑː/, with the latter two occurring only before a word-final /j/, as in kaoj /kɔːj/ 'harm' (pl.) and laai /lɑːj/ 'drawer'. An example word for the sequence /uːj/ is noêj /nuːj/ 'unwillingly'.[10]

Stress and tone[]

Main article: Pitch-accent language § Franconian dialects

The location of stress is the same as in Belgian Standard Dutch. In compound nouns, the stress is sometimes shifted to the second element (the head noun), as in stadhäös /stɑtˈhœːs/ 'town house'. Loanwords from French sometimes preserve the original final stress.[11]

As many other Limburgish dialects, the Hasselt dialect features a phonemic pitch accent, a distinction between the 'push tone' (stoottoon) and the 'dragging tone' (sleeptoon). It can be assumed that the latter is a lexical low tone, whereas the former is lexically toneless. Examples of words differing only by pitch accent include hin /hɪn/ 'hen' vs. hin /hɪ̀n/ 'them' as well as bèrg /ˈbæʀx/ 'mountains' vs. bèrg /ˈbæ̀ʀx/ 'mountain'.[12]

A unique feature of this dialect is that all stressed syllables can bear either of the accents, even the CVC syllables with a non-sonorant coda. In compounds, all combinations of pitch accent are possible: Aastraot /ˈaːˌstʀɔːt/ 'Old Street', Vesmèrk /ˈvɛsˌmæ̀ʀk/ 'Fish Market', Ekestraot /ˈèːkəˌstʀɔːt/ 'Oak Street' and Freetmèrk /ˈfʀèːtˌmæ̀ʀk/ 'Fruit Market'.[13]

Spelling[]

The long close vowels /iː/, /uː/ and /yː/ are spelled with the circumflex: ⟨iê⟩, ⟨oê⟩ and ⟨uû⟩ in order to differentiate them from the short /i, u, y/, spelled without the circumflex.

Among the long monophthongs, /eː/, /aː/, /ɑː/ and /oː/ are spelled with a single letter: ⟨e⟩, ⟨a⟩, ⟨à⟩ and ⟨o⟩ whenever they occur in an open syllable (unless they are simultaneously morpheme-final and word-internal within a compound word, as in Standard Dutch). Word-final /eː/ is spelled ⟨ee⟩, as in Standard Dutch. A single ⟨e⟩ is used in word-internal open syllables. For the sake of simplicity, the allophonic diphthongization of /uː, øː, œː/ as well as the change in the tongue movement in /ei/ and /ou/ is not marked in the orthography used in this article, so that moowd [moət] 'tired' is written as such (rather than as moad), as the underlying phoneme is assumed to be /ou/, a closing diphthong.

The sequence /ɑːj/ is spelled ⟨aai⟩, following Standard Dutch conventions. This is both because Dutch /aː/ surfaces as [ɑː] in some regions (Utrecht, Amsterdam, Brabant) and because /ɑː/ is the only open vowel that can occur before /j/ in Hasselt (/ai/, spelled ⟨ai⟩ is analyzed as a diphthong, cf. Dutch /ɑj/). The other two /Vːj/ sequences, /ɔːj/ and /uːj/, are spelled ⟨aoj⟩ and ⟨oêj⟩.

In the orthography, the grave accent is not used to mark tone (which is ignored in the orthography, as in Swedish and Norwegian) but vowel quality. It is used on ⟨e⟩ and the digraphs ⟨ee⟩ and ⟨aa⟩ to denote the openness of /æ/ (spelled ⟨è⟩) as well as the backness of /ɑː/ (written ⟨àà⟩ or just ⟨à⟩ in open syllables). Thus, bèrg is ambiguous between the singular ('mountain', pronounced /ˈbæ̀ʀx/) and plural ('mountains', pronounced /ˈbæʀx/). As in Standard Dutch, the bare ⟨e⟩ and ⟨aa⟩ are used for /ɛ/ and /aː/ in closed syllables. In addition, an unstressed ⟨e⟩ denotes /ə/ in both types of syllables.

The narrow closing diphthongs /ei, ou, øi/ are spelled ⟨eej⟩, ⟨oow⟩ and ⟨euj⟩ even though there are no Dutch-like */ɛi, ɔu, œy/ to rival them. This is because the Hasselt dialect has undergone both the Old Saxon monophthongization (which has turned the older eik and boum into eek and boom) and the monophthongization of the former /ɛi/ and /œy/ to /ɛː/ and /œː/. The latter two vowels have mostly collapsed to /ɛː/ in Hasselt, leaving /œː/ only in some words, mostly those loaned from French.

Sample[]

The sample text is a reading of the first sentence of The North Wind and the Sun.

Phonetic transcription[]

[də ˈnɔːʀdəʀˌβɛ̀nt ən də ˈzɔn | βøːʀən ɑn dɪskəˈtɛːʀə | ˈèːvəʀ ˈβiə vɔn ɪn ˈtβɛː ət ˈstæ̀ʀəkstə βøːʀ || ˈtuːn ˈkum təʀ ˈdʒys ˈèimɑnt vʀ̩ˈbɛ̀ː | ˈdiː nən ˈdɪkə ˈβæʀmə ˈjɑs ˈɑ̀ːnhaː][14]

Orthographic version[]

De naorderwend en de zon weuren an disketaere ever wieë von hin twae het stèrkste weur, toên koem ter dzjuus eejmand verbae diê nen dikke, wèrme jas àànhaa.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Peters (2006), p. 117.
  2. ^ Staelens (1989).
  3. ^ Sebregts (2014), pp. 96–97.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Peters (2006), p. 118.
  5. ^ Peters (2006). While the author does not state that explicitly, he uses the symbol ⟨r̥⟩ for many instances of the word-final /ʀ/.
  6. ^ Sebregts (2014), p. 96.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b Sebregts (2014), p. 97.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Peters (2006), pp. 118–119.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b c Belemans & Keulen (2004), p. 34.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Peters (2006), p. 119.
  11. ^ Peters (2006), pp. 119–120.
  12. ^ Peters (2006), pp. 120–121.
  13. ^ Peters (2006), p. 120.
  14. ^ Peters (2006), p. 123.

Bibliography[]

  • Belemans, Rob; Keulen, Ronny (2004), Belgisch-Limburgs, Lannoo Uitgeverij, ISBN 978-9020958553
  • Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
  • Sebregts, Koen (2014), "3.4.4 Hasselt" (PDF), The Sociophonetics and Phonology of Dutch r, Utrecht: LOT, pp. 96–99, ISBN 978-94-6093-161-1
  • Staelens, Xavier (1989), Dieksjenèèr van 't (H)essels (3rd ed.), Hasselt: de Langeman

Further reading[]

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