Zeelandic

For the British ship, see SS Zealandic.

Zeelandic
Zeêuws
Native to	Netherlands
Native speakers	(undated figure of 220,000)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Frisian, Low Franconian Dutch Zeelandic
Writing system	Zeelandic alphabet (Latin)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	zea
Glottolog	zeeu1238
Linguasphere	52-ACB-af
Distribution of Zeelandic (blue) in the Low Countries

Zeelandic (Zeêuws; Zeeuws in Dutch) is a Low Franconian dialect of Dutch spoken in the southwestern parts of the Netherlands. More specifically, it is spoken in the southernmost part of South Holland (Goeree-Overflakkee) and large parts of the province of Zeeland, with the notable exception of eastern Zeelandic Flanders..

It has notable differences mainly in pronunciation but also in grammar and vocabulary, which separates it clearly from Standard Dutch. They make mutual intelligibility with speakers of Standard Dutch difficult.

Origin

In the Middle Ages and the early modern period, 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. However, Zeelandic is fairly coherent with clear borders, as the broad sea arms form strong isoglosses.

Characteristics

Zeelandic still has three grammatical genders and the final schwa of feminine words. It has kept the monophthongs [i] and [y] for ij and ui, rather than breaking them into [ɛi] and [œy]. It usually umlauts [aː] into [ɛː] and renders the old Germanic [ai] and [au] as falling diphthongs ([ɪə ~ ɪɐ ~ iɐ] and [ʊə ~ ʊɐ ~ uɐ], respectively, with the exact realisation depending on the dialect. Standard Dutch has merged them with etymological [eː] and [oː]. Finally, Zeelandic drops [h].

This table illustrates the differences (note that the orthography is Dutch):

Zeelandic	Dutch	English
d'n boer	de boer	the farmer
de boerinne	de boerin	the farmer's wife
uus	huis	house
kieke(n)	kijken	to look
tweê	twee	two
oôd	hoofd	head
luust'ren	luisteren	to listen
jie	jij	you
piele	eend	duck

Dialects

The province of Zeeland consists of several former islands that were difficult to reach until well into the 20th century. As a result, there is roughly one dialect per island. The respective dialects differ clearly but only slightly. The Goeree-Overflakkee dialect, for example, does not drop the h, and the Walcheren and Zuid-Beveland dialects have umlauted words, unlike the northern dialects (for example: beuter [bøtər] as opposed to boter [botər]. Within the island dialects themselves, dialectal differences also exist, and native speakers can frequently tell the village (at least on their own island) a person is from by the specific dialect that is spoken, even if the differences are inaudible to outsiders.

Geographic distribution and social aspects

Zeelandic bears the burden of being strongly associated with the rural population, as it is spoken mainly in the countryside. The town dialects of Middelburg and Vlissingen are both much closer to Hollandic than the rural variants and are almost extinct. Surveys held in the 1990s found that at least 60% of Zeeland's population still use Zeelandic as their everyday language. There are an estimated 250,000 people who speak it as a mother tongue (West Zeelandic Flemish is included in that count), and although it is in decline, just as other regional languages, it is in no direct danger of extinction since in some villages with strong isolated communities, more than 90% of the youngsters still speak Zeelandic. On the other hand, in several villages with much immigration, the local dialect is spoken only by adults, as children are no longer taught it.

A lobby for recognising the Zeelandic regional language under the European Charter for Minority Languages, has as of 2005, failed to achieve its aim.

Gallery

• 
  Zeelandic sign in Driewege, "Durpsuus", which is Zeelandic for a Community center.
• 
  "Juun", Zeelandic for onion(s)

Further reading

• Berns, J. B. (1999), "Zierikzee", in Kruijsen, Joep; van der Sijs, Nicoline (eds.), Honderd Jaar Stadstaal (PDF), Uitgeverij Contact, pp. 223–232

External links

• Media related to Zeelandic at Wikimedia Commons