Maastrichtian ( ) or Maastrichtian Limburgish ( ) is the dialect and variant of Limburgish spoken in the Dutch city of Maastricht alongside the Dutch language (with which it is not mutually intelligible). In terms of speakers, it is the most widespread variant of Limburgish, and it is a tonal one. Like many of the Limburgish dialects spoken in neighbouring Belgian Limburg,Rob Belemans & Benny Keulen, Taal in stad en land: Belgisch-Limburgs, 2004 Maastrichtian retained many Gallo-Romance (French and Walloon) influences in its vocabulary.
The French influence can additionally be attributed to the historical importance of French with the cultural elite and educational systems as well as the historical immigration of Walloon labourers to the city. Despite being a specific variant of Limburgish, Maastrichtian remains mutually intelligible with other Limburgish variants, especially those of surrounding municipalities.
Whilst Maastrichtian is still widely spoken, regardless of social level, research has shown that it is suffering from a degree of dialect loss amongst younger generations. That is the case in dwindling of speakers but also in development of the dialect (dialect levelling) towards Standard Dutch (like the loss of local words and grammar).
Geographic distribution, social status and sociolects
Maatrichtian being a city dialect, the terminology "Maastrichtian" (Mestreechs) is practically limited to the municipal borders, with the exception of some places within the Maastrichtian municipality where the spoken dialects are in fact not Maastrichtian. These exceptions are previously separate villages and/or municipalities that have merged with the municipality of Maastricht namely Amby, Borgharen, Heer and Itteren.
The social status of Maastrichtian speakers is determined by the type of sociolect spoken by a certain person, with a division between Short Maastrichtian or Standard Maastrichtian (Kort Mestreechs, Standaardmestreechs) and Long/Stretched Maastrichtian (Laank Mestreechs). Short Maastrichtian is generally considered to be spoken by the upper and middle classes, whilst Long Maastrichtian is considered to be spoken by the working class.
A particular feature of Maastrichtian is that it gives its speakers a certain prestige. Research of the dialect showed that people talking the "purest" form of Maastrichtian, i.e. the Short Maastrichtian (Kort Mestreechs) sociolect, were perceived by others to be the well-educated ones.
Written Maastrichtian
The oldest known and preserved text in Maastrichtian dates from the 18th century. This text named Sermoen euver de Weurd Inter omnes Linguas nulla Mosa Trajestensi prastantior gehauwe in Mastreeg was presumably written for one of the carnival celebrations and incites people to learn Maastrichtian. As from the 19th century there are more written texts in Maastrichtian, again mostly oriented towards these carnival celebrations. Nowadays however, many other sources display written Maastrichtian, including song texts not written for carnival as well as books, poems, street signs etc.
Standardisation and official spelling
In 1999, the municipal government recognised a standardised spelling of Maastrichtian made by Pol Brounts and Phil Dumoulin as the official spelling of the dialect.
Dictionaries Aarts, F. (2005). Dictionairke vaan 't Mestreechs. (2nd ed.). Maastricht, the Netherlands: Stichting Onderweg. Brounts P., Chambille G., Kurris J., Minis T., Paulissen H. & Simais M. (2004). De Nuie Mestreechsen Dictionair. Maastricht, the Netherlands: Veldeke-Krink Mestreech. Online Dutch to Maastrichtian translation version of De Nuie Mestreechsen Dictionair
Other literature on Maastrichtian Aarts, F. (2001). Mestreechs. Eus Moojertoal: 'ne Besjrijving vaan 't dialek vaan Meestreech. Maastricht, the Netherlands: Veldeke-Krink. Aarts, F. (2009). 't Verhaol vaan eus Taol. Maastricht, the Netherlands: Stichting Onderweg. Aarts, F. (2019). Liergaank Mestreechs: 'ne Cursus euver de Mestreechter Taol. Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Local anthem In 2002, the municipal government officially adopted a local anthem (Mestreechs Volksleed) composed by lyrics in Maastrichtian. The theme had originally been written by Alfons Olterdissen (1865–1923) as finishing stanza of the Maastrichtian opera "Trijn de Begijn" of 1910. There are claims that the anthem actually originates from "Pe-al nostru steag e scris Unire" by the Romanian composer Ciprian Porumbescu.
Maastrichtian municipal anthem (Mestreechs Volksleed) (2002) 1 Hoera! Vivat! Mestreech!!! Jao diech höbs us aon 't hart gelege, Mestreech, door alle ieuwe heer. Veer bleve diech altied genege En deilde dreufheid en plezeer. Veer huurde nao dien aw histories Te peerd op grampeer ziene sjoet. Ues ouge blónke bij dien glories · Of perelde bij diene noet.
2 En dee vaan diech 't sjoens wèlt prijze, In taol, die al wie zinge klink, Dat dee op nui Mestreechter wijze Zien aajd Mestreech mèt us bezingk. Me zong vaan diech ten alle tije, Eus mojers zonge bij de weeg, En voolte veer us rech tevreie Daan zong ze e leedsje vaan Mestreech.
3 Doe, blom vaan Nederlands landouwe, Gegreujd op 't graaf vaan Sintervaos, Bis weerdig dobbel te besjouwe, Gespiegeld in de blanke Maos. 'n Staar, De witste oet de klaore, Besjijnt diech mèt häör straole zach En, um diech zuver te bewaore, 'nen Ingel hèlt bij diech de wach.
4 Wie dèks woorste neet priesgegeve, Mèh heels dien kroen toch opgeriech En ongeknak bis te gebleve, Door euze band vaan trouw aon diech. Daorum de hand us tòwgestoke, 't Oug geriech op 't stareleech; En weur dat oug daan ins gebroke, Daan beidt veur us het aajd Mestreech.
Wikimedia
Wikipedia: Maastrichtian is included in the Limburgish Wikipedia. Since there are only standardised 'variants' of Limburgish but no widely accepted/recognised standardised Limburgish itself, each article is tagged as being written in a certain variant of the language. All articles in Maastrichtian can be found here. Wiktionary: For an overview of some Maastrichtian dialect specific words, their English translations and their origins proceed to this Wiktionary category.
Phonology
As many other Limburgish dialects, the Maastrichtian dialect features a distinction between Accent 1 and Accent 2, limited to stressed syllables. The former can be analyzed as lexically toneless, whereas the latter as an underlying high tone. Phonetically, syllables with Accent 2 are considerably longer. An example of a minimal pair is 'to rinse' vs. 'to play'. The difference is not marked in the orthography, so that both of those words are spelled speule.
+ Maastrichtian consonants Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal Nasal () Plosive () () Fricative () () Liquid Approximant are bilabial, whereas are labiodental. is realized as a bilabial approximant in the onset and as labio-velar in the coda. In this article, both are transcribed with , following the recommendations of Carlos Gussenhoven regarding transcribing the corresponding Standard Dutch phone. can be analysed as .
+ Maastrichtian vowels Front Central Back Close Close-mid Open-mid () () Open Diphthongs The long mid monophthongs are monophthongal when combined with Accent 2. When combined with Accent 1, they are all diphthongal: . Phonologically, the first three are close-mid monophthongs , whereas the latter two are diphthongs . Elsewhere in the article, the diphthongality of the first three is ignored and they are always transcribed with . The open-mid front is diphthongized to in words with Accent 2 when it is a realization of the underlying . The underlying does not participate in tonal distinction, and neither do and . has mostly merged with under the influence of Standard Dutch. A phonemic appears in French loanwords such as tête 'brawn'. Most phonetic instances of in the dialect are monophthongized . The open-mid contrast not only with the close-mid but also with the open in (near)-minimal pairs such as eus 'ours' vs. struis vs. käös 'choice'. occurs only in unstressed syllables.
Orthography Consonantsbchdfggkhjklmnngprssjtvwz Vowels (both monophthongs and diphthongs)aaaaajajaoaojäöäöjajauaweèeeeiejeuewiieiewoóöoeoooojouuuiuu
Vocabulary
Maastrichtian contains many specific words ample or not used in other Limburgish dialects some being creolisations/"limburgisations" of Dutch, French and German words while others cannot be directly subscribed to one of these languages.
(Historical) Vocabulary influences from other languages
Maastrichtian vocabulary, as the language family it belongs to suggests, is based on the Germanic languages (apart from the Limburgish language family this also includes varying degrees of influence from both archaic and modern Dutch and German). However, what sets Maastrichtian apart from other variants of Limburgish is its relatively strong influences from French. This is not only because of geographic closeness of a Francophone region (namely Wallonia) to Maastricht but also because of French being the predominant spoken language of the Maastrichtian cultural elite and the higher secondary educational system of the region in the past. Some examples:
Francophone influence
English Dutch French Maastrichtian to advance vooruitkomen avancer avvencere bracelet armband bracelet brazzelèt errand boodschap commission kemissie jealous jaloers jaloux zjelous to remember (zich) herinneren se rappeler (ziech) rappelere washbasin wastafel lavabo lavvabo
Germanophone influence
English Dutch German Maastrichtian bag zak, tas Tüte tuut ham ham Schinken sjink liquorice candy drop Lakritze krissie plate bord Teller teleur ready, done klaar fertig veerdeg swing (for children) schommel Schaukel sjógkel
Other examples of Maastrichtian vocabulary
Some examples of specific Maastrichtian vocabulary:
English Dutch French German Maastrichtian Notes approximately, roughly ongeveer appoximativement, environ ungefähr naoventrint bag tas sac Tasche kalbas completely helemaal, gans tout à fait ganz gans (historically) Common in Germanic languages frame (of doors and windows) lijst cadre (or chambranle) Rahmen sjabrang grandmother / grandfather grootmoeder / grootvader grand-mère / grand-père Großmutter / Großvater bomma(ma) / bompa(pa) sieve vergiet passoire Sieb zeiboar (sometimes written zeijboar) where? waar? où? wo? boe?
Expressions and Titles
Some examples of Maastrichtian expressions:
Maastrichtian Expression Meaning (Approx.) Notes Neet breid meh laank Literally "Not broad but long". Commonly used to indicate the characteristic of the Maastrichtian dialect to "stretch" vowels (in speech and writing). The word laank (long) is the example in this case whereas it would be written as either lank or lang in other variants of Limburgish and lang in Dutch. Noondezju A minor swear word and /or an expression of surprise From Eastern Walloon "nondidju", meaning "(in) name of God" Preuvenemint Name of an annual culinary festival held in Maastricht A contraction of the Maastrichtian words preuve (to taste) and evenemint (event)
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links Veldeke Krink Mestreech site in Maastrichtian