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Rhinelandic


Rhinelandic is a term occasionally used for linguistic varieties of a region on both sides of the Middle and Lower Rhine river in Central West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It has at least two distinct meanings which often can only be determined from the fine grain context in which the term is used. (This could be complicated at times since in German publications, local languages of villages or cities are commonly referred to as "the dialects" or "dialect", whereas the regiolects, which are dialects of Standard German in a linguistic sense, are hardly called so, but referred to using terms like "Rhinelandic", "Hessian" or "Bavarian", etc., that also name large compounds of related local languages ) One of the meanings of Rhinelandic is that of a group of local languages in an area called the Rhineland. Another meaning is that of the regiolect being used by the people approximately of the same area.

Rhinelandic is used for a collection of local languages and their varieties in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, including some varieties of the Limburgish language group (of which Low Bergish is a subgroup), South Guelderish or Cleverlands (of which East Bergish is a subgroup), Moselle Franconian, and Ripuarian (which includes South Bergish as a subgroup, that is also referred to as East Ripuarian).

Its northern areas are also covered by the more modern term of Meuse-Rhenish, which exclusively refers to the Low Franconian varieties, that are Limburgish including Low Bergish, and South Guelderish including East Bergish.


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