The Classification of Dutch Dialects Revisited

Abstract

We report on a dialectometric study that we carried out using data from the “Kleiner Niederländischer Sprachatlas” (Veith/Hummel 2017). The data represents a snapshot of the dialect variation in the Dutch language area around the 1920s and 1930s. We pursued four questions. Which dialect areas result quantitatively? Which variants are particularly characteristic for the resulting dialect areas? How do our classifications fit previous classifications of Dutch? To which degree do the dialects differ from Standard Dutch? We discuss our findings against the backdrop of the extant research literature.