Zeelandic Flemish
| Zeelandic | |
|---|---|
| Zeêuws | |
| Native to | Netherlands |
|
Native speakers
|
(undated figure of 220,000) |
| Zeelandic alphabet (Latin) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | zeeu1238 |
| Linguasphere | 52-ACB-af |
Distribution of Zeelandic (blue) in the Low Countries
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Zeelandic (Zeêuws in Zeelandic, Zeeuws in Standard Dutch) is a West Flemish dialect of Dutch spoken in the Dutch province of Zeeland and on the South Holland island of Goeree-Overflakkee.
It has notable differences mainly in pronunciation but also in grammar and vocabulary, which sets it clearly apart from Standard Dutch and makes comprehension by unskilled Dutch speakers difficult.
In the Middle Ages and early modern age, Zeeland was claimed by the Count of Holland as well as the Count of Flanders, and the area was exposed to influence from both directions. The dialects clearly show a gradual increase of Hollandic elements as one goes northwards. Yet Zeelandic is fairly coherent with easily defined borders, as the broad sea-arms form strong isoglosses.
The main differences from Standard Dutch are the following: Zeelandic has three rather than two grammatical genders, as a result of the fact that it retained the final schwas in feminine words; it kept the monophthongs [i] and [y] for ij and ui rather than breaking them into [ɛi] and [œy]; it umlauted most [aː] into [ɛː]s; it renders the old Germanic [ai] and [au] as falling diphthongs ([ɪə ~ ɪɐ ~ iɐ] and [ʊə ~ ʊɐ ~ uɐ], respectively - the exact realization depends on the dialect), whereas Dutch merged them with etymological [eː] and [oː]; and finally it drops [h].
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