| Sittard dialect | |
| Nativename: | Zittesj |
| Pronunciation: | in Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish pronounced as /ˈzetəʃ/ |
| States: | Netherlands, Germany |
| Region: | Sittard, Koningsbosch, Selfkant |
| Speakers: | ? |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Germanic |
| Fam3: | West Germanic |
| Fam4: | Istvaeonic |
| Fam5: | Low Franconian |
| Fam6: | Meuse-Rhenish |
| Fam7: | Limburgish |
| Fam8: | East Limburgish |
| Fam9: | Southern East Limburgish |
| Isoexception: | dialect |
| Glotto: | none |
The Sittard dialect (Dutch; Flemish: Sittards, Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: Zittesj, German: Selfkanter Platt, in reference to the variety used in Germany) is a Limburgish dialect spoken mainly in the Dutch city of Sittard. It is also spoken in Koningsbosch and in a small part of Germany (Selfkant), but quickly becoming extinct there. Of all other important Limburgish dialects, the dialect of Sittard is most closely related to that of .
The Sittard dialect belongs to, which means it has a postalveolar consonant at the onset of words beginning with clusters such as sl and st, in contrast with other variants of Limburgish such as Maastrichtian and in Dutch.
The most important characteristic which distinguishes the dialect of Sittard from adjacent Limburgish dialects is the so-called Sittard diphthongization, i.e. the replacement of the close-mid monophthongs pronounced as //eː//, pronounced as //øː// and pronounced as //oː// with the wide diphthongs pronounced as //ɛj//, pronounced as //œj// and pronounced as //ɔw// in some words such as neit pronounced as //ˈnɛjt// ("not", originally neet pronounced as //ˈneːt//), zuike pronounced as //ˈzœjkə// ("to search", originally zeuke pronounced as //ˈzøːkə//) and bloud pronounced as //ˈblɔwt// ("blood", originally blood pronounced as //ˈbloːt//). It resembles the Polder Dutch phenomenon in Standard Dutch, though it is extended to the environment before pronounced as //ʀ// (where an epenthetic schwa is inserted before the consonant), as in beier pronounced as //ˈbɛjəʀ// ("beer"). This phenomenon was first examined thoroughly in the first half of the 1940s by Willy Dols, who showed that this Sittard diphthongization typically occurred in syllables with a push tone. New research at the beginning of the 21st century has shown that the diphthongization once served to emphasize the difference in vowel length which distinguishes syllables with a push tone from those with a dragging tone.[1] [2] [3]
| Front | Central | Back | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ (ie) | pronounced as /link/ (uu) | pronounced as /link/ (oe) | ||||||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ (i) | pronounced as /link/ (ee) | pronounced as /link/ (u) | pronounced as /link/ (eu) | pronounced as /link/ (e) | pronounced as /link/ (ó) | pronounced as /link/ (oo) | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ (è) | pronounced as /link/ (ae) | pronounced as /link/ (ö) | pronounced as /link/ (äö) | pronounced as /link/ (o) | pronounced as /link/ (ao) | |||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ (e) | pronounced as /link/ (aa) | pronounced as /link/ (a) | ||||||
| Diphthongs | pronounced as /ɛj/ (ei/ij) pronounced as /œj/ (ui) pronounced as /ɔw/ (au/ou) pronounced as /aj/ (ai) pronounced as /aw/ (aw) | ||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ (m) | pronounced as /link/ (n) | pronounced as /link/ (nj) | pronounced as /link/ (ng) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive / affricate | pronounced as /link/ (p) | pronounced as /link/ (t) | pronounced as /link/ (tj) | pronounced as /link/ (k) | |||
| pronounced as /link/ (b) | pronounced as /link/ (d) | pronounced as /link/ (dj) | pronounced as /link/ (gk) | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ (f) | pronounced as /link/ (s) | pronounced as /link/ (sj) | pronounced as /link/ (ch) | |||
| pronounced as /link/ (v) | pronounced as /link/ (z) | pronounced as /link/ (zj) | pronounced as /link/ (g) | pronounced as /link/ (h) | |||
| Liquid | pronounced as /link/ (l) | pronounced as /link/ (lj) | pronounced as /link/ (r) | ||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ (w) | pronounced as /link/ (j) | |||||
As many other Limburgish dialects, the Sittard dialect features a contrastive pitch accent, with minimal pairs such as goud pronounced as //ˈɣɔwt// 'gold' (featuring the push tone) vs. goud pronounced as //ˈɣɔwt˦// 'good' (featuring the dragging tone, transcribed as a high tone). The push tone is realized as a rising-falling contour in the declarative pattern, whereas the dragging tone varies between rising (when the sentence focus falls on the syllable that is non-final) and a shallow rising-falling contour when the syllable is sentence-final. The distinction between the two tones is neutralized outside of the sentence focus. In interrogative sentences, the distinction is always made.[3] [4] [5]