This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of IPA for Limburgish on Wikipedia.
It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of IPA for Limburgish in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.
● Low tone in Western dialects ● High tone in Central, Eastern and Northern dialects ● Simple primary stress (in e.g. Wieërts)[c] (Sleeptoon, Accent 2)
^ abcLimburgish is spoken within the soft G (Dutch: zachte G) area, which means that /ɣ/ and /x/ are no more back than cardinal velar [ɣ,x] and can be post-palatal [ç,ʝ] instead. This allophony is not marked in transcriptions linking to this guide. The uvular [χ] occurs only as an allophone of /r/, particularly in the word-final position. This is also not marked in transcriptions.
^ abThe uvular [ʀ] has largely displaced the traditional alveolar [r], which can only be encountered in certain dialects.
^ abcdefghijkSome dialects (such as Wieërts) have lost the pitch accent. In Weert, this gives rise to a phonemic distinction between short /ɑ/ and /æ/ on the one hand and long /ɑː/ and /æː/ on the other. However, /æ/ and /æː/ are raised to [ɛ(ː)] in this dialect (though /æ/ remains [æ] before /j/), whereas /ɛː/ is also slightly raised to [e̞ː], matching the usual quality of the short /ɛ/ in Limburgish, which is [e̞] (in transcriptions of other dialects, it is transcribed with ⟨ɛ⟩). Those now phonemically long /ɑː/ and /æː/ pattern with the short vowels as they are restricted to the position preceding a sonorant. Other short vowels originally combined with Accent 2 merge with the corresponding long vowels (Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:108–111)).
^Much as in Dutch, the vowels can be divided into the short lax /ɑ,æ,ɛ,e,ɔ,o,œ,ø/, the short tense /i,u,y/ and the long /ɑː,aː,æː,ɛː,eː,iː,ɔː,oː,œː,øː,uː,yː/ as well as the schwa /ə/, which normally occurs only in unstressed positions. The first group typically does not occur in the word-final position. Diphthongs (such as /ɛj,œj,ɔw/) pattern with the long vowels. Most (in some dialects: all) vowels occur both short and long.
^ abcdefghIn some dialects (such as Hessels), the nasal vowels /ɑ̃ː,ɛ̃ː,ɔ̃ː,œ̃ː/ occur in loanwords from French. /ɛ̃ː/ is lowered to [æ̃ː] in Hessels. In other dialects (e.g. Maastrichtian), the nasal vowels are nativized to /ɑ,æ~ɛ,ɔ,œ~ø/ followed by a nasal consonant.
^A phonemic /ɑː/ that contrasts with /ɑ/ and /aː/ also appears in West Limburgish dialects such as Hessels and Haëmets (Peters (2006:118), Verhoeven (2007:222)). In some other dialects, [ɑː] appears as a phonetic realization of /aː/.
^ abcdefThe distinction between the open /æ,œ,ɔ/ on the one hand and the close /ɛ,ø,o/ on the other does not exist in all dialects. For instance, Venloos lacks the distinction between /æ/ and /ɛ/, whereas Hessels and Wieërts do not distinguish /o/ from /ɔ/. Furthermore, some Wieërts speakers are not secure in the distribution of /æ,œ/ vs. /ɛ,ø/, which may lead to phonemic mergers in the future, leaving only three vowels behind (as in Standard Dutch) instead of the original six. In Maastricht, all six vowels can be found before obstruents and /l/ but only three before nasals, where they can be identified as /æ,ø,ɔ/ (Gussenhoven & Aarts (1998:158) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFGussenhovenAarts1998 (help), Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:109–110), Peters (2006:118)). In other dialects (such as Valkebergs) /o/ merges not with /ɔ/ but with /u/ (thus knoep/knup/ instead of knóp/knop/).
^ abcdeIn Maastricht, /ɔː/ and /œː/ are lowered to [ɒː] and [ɶː], whereas /ɛː/ remains unchanged. Phonetic [ɔː] and [œː] appear as allophones of /ɔw/ and /œj/ combined with Accent 2. Similarly, /ɛj/ is monophthongized to [ɛː] when it is combined with Accent 2, yielding a phonetic near-merger with /ɛː/ (Gussenhoven & Aarts (1998:161–162) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFGussenhovenAarts1998 (help)). However, /ɛː/ is a marginal phoneme in Maastricht as it has largely been replaced with /eː/ under the influence of Standard Dutch. For this reason, the monophthongized /ɛj/ is not differentiated from /ɛː/ in transcriptions linking to this guide.
^ abcdefAmong the close vowels, the distinction between the short /i,u,y/ on the one hand and the long /iː,uː,yː/ on the other does not exist in some dialects (e.g. Zittesj).
^[ʌ] occurs only as a starting point of the diphthong /ʌʊ/, e.g. in Wieërts.
^ abDiphthong inventories vary greatly from dialect to dialect. The ones commonly found are the closing /ɛj,œj,ɔw/ and the centering /iə,yə,uə/. What counts as a closing diphthong and what as a vowel+glide sequence depends on the analysis. An example diphthong inventory (of Maastrichtian) is /ɛj,œj,ɔw/, among which /ɛj/ and /ɔw/ combined with Accent 1 differ from the vowel+glide sequences /æj/ and /ɑw/ by nothing more than the openness of the first element (apart from the lack of rounding of /ɑ/). Furthermore, /ɔw/ combined with Accent 1 occurs in a free variation with the vowel+glide sequence /ɔj/ as in vojl[vɔjl~vɔwl] 'dirty' (Gussenhoven & Aarts (1998:158–160) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFGussenhovenAarts1998 (help)).
^ abAs the phonetic distinction between closing diphthongs and vowel+glide sequences is not clear-cut, offsets of closing diphthongs should not be written with ⟨ɪ ʏ ʊ⟩ but with ⟨j w⟩ ([ʏ] is usually identified with [j]). Use ⟨ɪ ʏ ʊ⟩ only when the distinction is phonemic, as in Wieërts leîd[lɛɪt] 'sorrow', kuît[kœʏt] 'fun' and oûch[ʌʊx] 'also' (cf. weitj[wæjtʃ] 'the wind blows', Duits[dɶjts] 'German' (adj.), awg[ɑwx] 'eye', with vowel+glide sequences, phonetically shorter than the diphthongs). These (near-)minimal pairs are the result of the loss of phonemic pitch accent, with the former set of words corresponding to words with diphthongs combined with Accent 2 in other dialects and the latter set to words with diphthongs combined with Accent 1 (Heijmans & Gussenhoven (1998:109–110)).
Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht"(PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 29 (2), University of Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies: 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526
Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
Verhoeven, Jo (2007), "The Belgian Limburg dialect of Hamont", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (2): 219–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100307002940
