Montfortian (locally Mofers or Mofertaans) is a Central Limburgish dialect spoken in the Dutch town of Montfort. It is closely related to the dialects spoken in Echt, Sint Joost, Hingen, Peij, Slek (Echt-Susteren, Limburg) and Koningsbosch.
There are three main variants with only minor differences: Mofertaans (spoken in Aan de Berg and Montfort) Pötbrooks (spoken in Echterbosch, Maria-Hoop and Putbroek) Räötjes (spoken in Reutje, often grouped with the dialect of Sint Odiliënberg)
Phonology
Consonants
LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal Nasal Stop () Affricate Fricative Rhotic Approximant () Lateral approximant
Labiovelar may also be realised as bilabial .
In a front vowel environment, and are fronted to and .
is an allophone of .
The exact realization of depends on the speaker. Older speakers tend to use a trilled in free variation with , while younger speakers tend to use a uvular .
Before rounded vowels, all of the consonants exhibit some degree of labialization.
Vowels
Monophthongs Front Central Back Close Close-mid Open-mid Near-open Open only occurs in unstressed syllables. only occurs in loanwords from English.
+ Montfortian Vowels with Example WordsSymbolExampleIPAIPAorthographyEnglish translationiezer'iron'nieks'nothing'uul'owl'buut'goal'ummer'always'oer'hour'toet'until'in'in'neeste/neêste'to sneeze'meug/meûg'tired'mótte'to have to/must/should have to'doon'to do'dómme'to become stupid'ok'okay'hègk'fence'klèèn'little'dök'often'äörke'little vein'aor'vein'en'and'maer'lake'vaan/vaân'flag' (compare Dutch vaandel)al'all/everything'abber/âbber'but' (obsolete, compare German aber)
Grammar
Like most Limburgish dialects, the grammar of Montfortian is very irregular and less simplified than the Dutch is.
Articles There are two groups of articles: definite articles and indefinite articles. When referring to one particular person or item, the definite article is used (English the) In plural, like in English, there is no indefinite article and the indefinite forms consist of nouns unaccompanied by any article. Articles are conjugated by gender, bdht-vowel-rule, grammatical case and quantity. The form of the article could also be determined by whether a preposition is used.
The bdht-vowel-rule is a grammatical rule of Limburgish that influences the conjugation of the articles and adjectives. Words starting with b, d, h, t or a vowel put an extra 'n' to the article or adjective where possible. The high tree → d'n but the fat man → . This extra 'n' is called naoklank (stress) in Limburgish.
The numeral ein (one) and negative indefinite article gein (no, not a, not any) are conjugated the same as 'n (a) So the nominative will be conjugated as einen, eine, ein, ein, ein, ei and geinen, geine, gein, gein, gein, gei. gein could also be gèn: gènnen, gènne, gèn, gèn, gèn, gèn, but then the neutral unstressed nominative will have a final 'n'.
+ Definite articles Gender → Masculine Feminine Neutral Plural Case ↓ Prep? ↓ stressed unstressed stressed unstressed stressed unstressed stressed unstressed Nominative Yes –There are no prepositions in the nominative – – – – – – – No d'n de de, d'n de 't 't de de Genitive Yes gès gès gèr gèr gès gès gèr gèr No dès, diz-In compounds, today → dizdaags dès dèr, dir- dèr dès, diz- dès dèr, dir- dèr Locative Yes gèès gèès gèès gèès gèès gèès gèès gèès No dèès dèès dèès dèès dèès dèès dèès dèès Dative Yes gèm g'm g'r g'r gèm g'm ge ge No dèm d'm d'r d'r dèm d'm de de Accusative Yes g'n ge ge, g'n ge g'n ge ge ge No d'n de de, d'n de d'n de de de
+ Indefinite articles Gender → Masculine Feminine Neutral Plural Case ↓ Prep? ↓ stressed unstressed stressed unstressed stressed unstressed stressed unstressed Nominative Yes – – – – – – – – No 'nen 'ne 'n 'n 'n e ?Indefinite articles don't have plural ? Genitive Yes 'nes 'nes 'ner 'ner 'nes 'nes ? ? No 'nes 'nes 'ner 'ner 'nes 'nes ? ? Locative Yes nèèsArchaic nèès nèès nèès nèès nèès ? ? No nèès nèès nèès nèès nèès nèès ? ? Dative Yes 'nem 'nem 'ner 'ner 'nem 'nem ? ? No 'nem 'nem 'ner 'ner 'nem 'nem ? ? Accusative Yes 'nen 'n 'n 'n 'n e ? ? No 'nen 'n 'n 'n 'n e ? ?
Umlaut Verbs, nouns and adjectives use an umlaut. Standard umlauts are: root umlaut example translation a e bal bel ball aa ae aaks aeks ax ao äö aor äör vein au/ou öj/ui oug öjg eye ei èè ei èèjer egg ó ö pót pöt pot oo eu radio raedieu radio oe uu oer uur hour oea uue doeas duues box
Nouns Nouns are declined by quantity, size and grammatical case. There are several conjugations for those. Though most grammatical cases got out of use, nominative, locative and genitive still exist. Dative is still attested in De Vastelaoves Gezèt (ca. 1900) but it already contained the accusative of which only a few fragments are found (ca. 1830) Montfortian nouns have a so-called diminutive, (from oer) means little hour. Nouns only possess a plural and not a dual (like the verb imperative and some personal pronouns) Plurals (and also diminutives) always use an umlaut where possible (see also Umlaut above) Also ablauts can occur, like (blood → "bloods") blood is one of the few exceptions of nouns which don't use an umlaut. If blood was regular, the plural would be . Nouns are masculine, feminine or neutral.
There are over 20 different regular conjugations, but these are the six most used. Please note that only the nominative, genitive and locative are still in use today. Accusative and dative have been replaced by the nominative. Instead of the genitive also the preposition could be used and the locative could be replaced by . The fifth conjugation uses tonality, singular is drag tone, plural is push tone. Also note the ablaut of the first conjugation at the dative singular and locative.
+ Nouns in the Montfortian dialect First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Nominative heim heimer blood bloojer tandj tenj las lester daag daag bal bel Genitive heims heimer bloods bloojer tanjes tenj lasses lester daags daag(s) bals bel Locative heives heiveser blodes blodeser tandjes tenjes lastes lesteser dages dages balles belleser Dative heivem heimer blodem bloojer tandj tenj ? ? dagem dagem ballem ? Accusative heim heimern blood ? tandj ? ? ? dagen ? ? ? English home blood tooth burden day ball
The first conjugation group also contains "irregular" words like hoes → hoeze (house) and doef → doeve (dove)
Loanwords Historically, Montfortian and most other Limburgish dialects have borrowed hundreds of words from French (during the First French Empire). These words nowadays have totally been adapted to the difficult noun (and verb) systems of Montfortian. (from French ) means mess. It has totally been adapted to the system and now belongs to the first conjugation. It even has an ablaut at the locative, (mess) → (movement towards the mess)
Some modern-day loanwords, especially those from English, may confuse people. Some people pronounce (singular) with drag tone and put it in the fifth group, whereas others use a push tone. Computer with push tone can therefore mean both one computer and more computers, depending on the speaker. Overall speaking, English loanwords have a push tone and are put in the first or sixth conjugation group, depending on whether an umlaut is possible. Computer with a push tone in the singular will have the following diminutive: . Some speakers might even pronounce it as .
Diminutive In general, diminutives are formed by adding to the root and using an umlaut where possible. . Words ending on j, t or d have as suffix. . Plurals always take -s, .
Sometimes only the diminutive has survived, while the root got out of use. The original form can then be reconstructed. For example, the word (little bread) does not have a root anymore. The word used for bread is (which also has its own diminutive ) If is reversed to its root then it becomes . Modern Montfortian still has the word but its meaning has shifted from normal bread to bread specifically from rye made in Limburg (or Brabant)
Numerals Montfortian uses a decimal numeral system, without octal traces like many other European languages. There are only a few vigesimal traces left.
+ Numerals Modern Archaic Modern Archaic Modern Archaic cardinal ordinal cardinal ordinal cardinal ordinal cardinal ordinal cardinal ordinal cardinal ordinal nól nólste 0 geine geinste tieën tieëndje 10 teen teendje doezjendj doezjendjste 1000 doezjend doezjendste ein ieëste 1 ein ieëste èlf èlfdje 11 èlf èlfdje hóngerdj hóngerdjste 100 hóngrèt hóngrètste twieë twieëdje 2 twei tweidsdje twèlf twèlfdje 12 twèlf twèlfdje twintjig twintjigste 20 twintj twinsjdje drie dèrdje 3 dree dördje dèrtieën dèrtieëndje 13 dörteen dörteendje dèrtig dèrtigste 30 halftweitwintj halftweitwinsjdje veer veerdje 4 veer veerdje veertieën veertieëndje 14 veerteen veerteendje veertigPronounced as feertig veertigste 40 tweitwintj tweitwinsjdje vief viefdje 5 vief viefdje vieftieën vieftieëndje 15 viefteen viefteendje vieftigPronounced as fieftig vieftigste 50 halfdreetwintj halfdreetwinsjdje zès zèsdje 6 zès zèsdje zèstieën zèstieëndje 16 zèsteen zèsteendje zèstigPronounced as sèstig zèstigste 60 dreetwintj dreetwinsjdje zeve zevendje 7 zönnef zönnefdje zevetieën zevetieëndje 17 zönnef-èn-teen zönnef-èn-teendje zevetigPronounced as sevetig zevetigste 70 halfveertwintj halfveertwinsjdje ach achste 8 ach achste achtieën achtieëndje 18 ach-èn-halftwintj ach-èn-halftwinsjdje achtigSome people might say tachtig achtigste 80 veertwintj veertwinsjdje nege negendje 9 neuge neugendje negetieën negetieëndje 19 neuge-n-èn-halftwintj neuge-n-èn-halftwinsjdje neugetigSome people might say negetig neugetigste 90 halfvieftwintj halfvieftwinsjdje
The cardinal numerals from 21 to 99 (apart from the tens) are constructed in a regular way, by adding -èn- (and) and the name of the appropriate multiple of ten to the name of the units position. (As in German, the last written digit is actually pronounced first):
28 ach-èn-twintjig (literally "eight and twenty") 83 drie-èn-achtig 99 nege-n-èn-neugetig (-n is added for the sound) 100 is hóngerdj, 200 twieëhóngerdj, 300 driehóngerdj and so on.
Numerals between 101 and 999 are constructed as follows:
112 hóngerdj-èn-twèlf 698 zèshóngerdj-èn-ach-èn-neugetig ("six hundred and eight and ninety") The same system used for naming the hundreds applies to the higher base numbers that are powers of ten. Limburgish dialects always use the long scale system, like Dutch.
1 000 1 000 000 1 000 000 000 1 000 000 000 000 1 000 000 000 000 000 Unlike Dutch, the cardinal numerals of numbers greater than 1000 are not grouped in "multiples of 1000". This would be unnecessary because -èn- (and) is always added. 117 000 000 is written and pronounced as hóngerdjènzevetiëenmiljoen, without glottal stop. When hóngerdj-èn-zevetiëenmiljoen is written and pronounced, it means 100 + 17 000 00 which is 17 000 100, though normally 17 000 100 would be pronounced as zevetieënmiljoen-èn-hóngerdj.
1 2 348 117 401 067 2 tweeduizend driehonderdachtenveertig honderdzeventien miljoen vierhonderdeenduizend zevenenzestig 3 twieëdoezjendj-èn-driehóngerdj-èn-ach-èn-veertig hóngerdjènzevetiëenmiljoen-èn-veerhóngerdjèneindoezjendj-èn-zeve-n-èn-zèstig 1: Number, 2: Dutch, 3: Montfortian
Verbs