Enkele beschouwingen over processen van dialectverandering en regiolectvorming in Belgisch- en Nederlands-Limburg

Abstract

Although the border between Dutch and Belgian Limburg is younger than the remainder of the border between both countries, its influence has been illustrated repeatedly for e.g. lexical oppositions. This article deals with the question whether the border between the Netherlands and the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium might play a diverging role in the formation of regiolects in the Dutch and Belgian province of Limburg. Hinskens (1992) has been able to describe several instances of dialect levelling and regiolectization in the southeast Dutch Limburg dialect of Rimburg that take place in the direction of either Standard Dutch or the more western Limburg dialects. The same goes for e.g. the decline of the Sittard diphtongization. In Belgian Limburg, however, there as to be no sign yet of the formation of regiolects, at least as fas as concerns some phonological developments. This can be partly due to the less strong influence of the standard language and the orientation towards an own Belgian substandard, but might probably also be related to the fact that the dialect landscape in Belgian Limburg consists of many more smaller scaled areas than in Dutch Limburg and lacks a widely spread or prestigious variant. Furthermore, it seems that there is no significant difference with regard to the pace at which changes take place in dialects or regiolects. In contrast to what e.g. Hoppenbrouwers (1983) previously assumed, language change in dialects does not develop relatively slow, as can be shown by means of some internally conditioned dialect changes in Zutendaal in the second half of the twentieth century.