Low Franconian Languages - Meuse-Rhenish

Meuse-Rhenish

It is common to consider the Limburgish varieties as belonging to the Low Franconian languages; in the past, however, all these Limburgish dialects were sometimes seen as West Central German, part of High German. This difference is caused by a difference in definition: the latter stance defines a High German variety as one that has taken part in any of the first three phases of the High German consonant shift. Limburgish is also spoken in a considerable part of the German Lower Rhine area, in what could be called German-administered Limburg: from the border regions of Kleve, Aachen, Viersen, Heinsberg stretching out to the Rhine river. At the Rhine near Duisburg, it adjoins a smaller strip of other Low Franconian varieties called Bergisch. Depending on the city in Germany, 50% to 90% of the population speak it (A. Schunck 2001). Together these distinct varieties, now often combined with the Kleve dialects (Kleverländisch) as Meuse-Rhenish ('Rheinmaasländisch'), belong to the greater Low Franconian area between the rivers Meuse and Rhine (A. Welschen 2002). Limburgish straddles the borderline between 'Low Franconian' and 'Middle Franconian' varieties. They are more-or-less mutually intelligible with the Ripuarian dialects, but show fewer 'High German shifts' (R. Hahn 2001). In a number of towns and villages in the north-east of the Belgian province of Liege, such as Hombourg, Welkenraedt, and Eupen, a transitional Limburgish-Ripuarian dialect is spoken, called Low Dietsch (Dutch: Platdiets, Limburgish: Platduutsj, French: Thiois or Platdutch).