Southeast Limburgish (Dutch: Zuidoost-Limburgs) is a cover term for the Ripuarian dialects spoken in Dutch Limburg.
In the Netherlands and Belgium this group is often included in the generic term Limburgish. Limburgish was recognised as a regional language in the Netherlands and as such it receives moderate protection under chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Variants of Southeast Limburgish are spoken around Kerkrade, Bocholtz and Vaals in the Netherlands. Closely related Ripuarian varieties are spoken in Herzogenrath and Aachen in Germany and Raeren and Eynatten in Belgium.
See main article: Kerkrade dialect phonology. As most other dialects of Ripuarian and Limburgish, Southeast Limburgish features a distinction between the thrusting tone (Dutch; Flemish: stoottoon, German: Schärfung or German: Stoßton), which has a shortening effect on the syllable (not shown in transcriptions in this article) and the slurring tone (Dutch; Flemish: sleeptoon, German: Schleifton). In this article, the slurring tone is transcribed as a high tone, whereas the thrusting tone is left unmarked. This is nothing more than a convention, as the phonetics of the Southeast Limburgish pitch accent are severely under-researched. There are minimal pairs, for example moer pronounced as //ˈmuːʀ// 'wall' - moer pronounced as //ˈmúːʀ// 'carrot' in the Kerkrade dialect.[1]
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | |||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Liquid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
The sounds corresponding to Limburgish pronounced as //x, ɣ// are very back after back vowels, being uvular pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|χ}}, {{IPAplink|ʁ}}]/ (as in Luxembourgish), rather than velar as in Limburgish. In fact, there is not much of a difference between pronounced as //ʁ// and pronounced as //ʀ// in the Kerkrade dialect.
Most instances of historical pronounced as //ɡ// (pronounced as //ɣ// in Limburgish and (southern) Standard Dutch) have merged with pronounced as //j//, so that the word for green in the Kerkrade dialect is jreun pronounced as //ˈjʀøːn// (compare Standard Dutch Dutch; Flemish: groen pronounced as //ˈɣrun//). The dialect of Lemiers is much more similar to the dialect of Vaals than the dialect spoken in Vijlen (called Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: Vieleter or Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: Vielender) as the former features the High German consonant shift. In Lemiers, the etymological pronounced as //ɡ// (pronounced as //ɣ// in Limburgish and southern Standard Dutch) has not fully shifted to pronounced as //j// in consonant clusters. Thus, the word for big (Standard Dutch Dutch; Flemish: groot in Dutch; Flemish pronounced as /ˈɣroːt/), varies between pronounced as /[ˈɣʁuəs]/ and pronounced as /[ˈjʁuəs]/. A Limburgish dialectologist Will Kohnen recommends the spelling jroeës to cover this variation (cf. Vieleter Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: groeët). In Kerkrade, the shift has been completed and so only the form pronounced as /[ˈjʀuəs]/ occurs.
The palatal pronounced as /link/ is an allophone of pronounced as //χ// after consonants, the front vowels and the close-mid central pronounced as //ø//, which phonologically is a front vowel. In some dialects, pronounced as /link/ is fronted, which may result in a merger with pronounced as /link/. That is the case in the dialect of Vaals, in which the first person singular pronoun is iesj pronounced as /[iʃ]/, rather than Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: ich pronounced as /[ɪç]/ or Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish: iech pronounced as /[iç]/ found in other dialects of Limburgish. In Aachen, pronounced as /link/ is also fronted but without a merger with pronounced as /link/, with the resulting sound being pronounced as /link/, as it used to be the case in Luxembourgish (which is rapidly transitioning towards a full merger). The two sounds are not distinguished in Rheinische Dokumenta.
Before consonants and pauses, pronounced as //ʀ// may be vocalized to pronounced as /link/, especially in Germany. Thus, the name of the Aachen dialect in the dialect itself is Öcher Platt pronounced as /[ˈœɕɐ ˈplɑt]/. In the Netherlands, the consonantal pronunciation is more likely to occur.
| Front | Central | Back | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Diphthongs | pronounced as /ɛɪ œʏ ɔɪ ɔʊ aɪ aʊ/ | ||||||||
| pronounced as /iə yə uə eə œə oə/ | |||||||||