Limburgish^[a] (Limburgs[ˈlɪm˦bʏʀ(ə)xs] orLèmburgs[ˈlɛm˦-];Dutch:Limburgs[ˈlɪmbʏr(ə)xs]; alsoLimburgian,Limburgic orLimburgan^[1][3]) refers to a group ofSouth Low Franconianvarieties spoken inBelgium and theNetherlands, characterized by their distance to, and limited participation in the formation of,Standard Dutch.^[4] In theDutch province of Limburg, all dialects, despite their differences, have been given collectively aregional language status, including those comprising "Limburgish" as used in this article.

Limburgish shares many vocabulary and grammatical characteristics with bothGerman andDutch. A characteristic feature of many dialects of Limburgish is the occurrence of alexicalpitch accent (Franconian tone accent), which is shared with the adjacentCentral Franconian dialects of German.^[5]

The nameLimburgish (and variants of it) derives only indirectly from the now Belgian town ofLimbourg (Laeboer in Limburgish, IPA: /ˈlæːbuʁ/), which was the capital of theDuchy of Limburg during theMiddle Ages. More directly it is derived from the more modern name of theProvince of Limburg (1815–39) in theKingdom of the Netherlands, which has been split today into aBelgian Limburg and aDutch Limburg. In the area around the old Duchy of Limburg the main language today is French, but there is also a particular cluster of Limburgish (or Limburgish-like, depending on definitions) dialects. The use ofLimburgish is first attested at the close of the 19th century.^[6]

People from Limburg usually call their languageplat,^[7] similar asLow German speakers do. Thisplat refers simply to the fact that the language is spoken in the low plains country, as opposed to the use of "High" in "High German", which are derived from dialects spoken in the more mountainous southerly regions. The word "plat" is therefore associated both with theplatteland (Dutch: "countryside") and can in effect sometimes mean simply "slang" in the sense of any very informal, rustic or locally unique words or expressions.

The termLimburgish can refer to all varieties spoken within either the Belgian or Dutch province of Limburg, the South-East ofFlemish Brabant, the North-East ofLiège as well as in combination with the adjacent Rhineland region in a Limburgian-Ripuarian context.

• In everyday speech,Limburgish refers to the varieties spoken in Dutch and Belgian Limburg. It is likewise legally defined through the Dutch recognition of Limburgish as a regional language under theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.^[8]
• In traditional Dutch and Belgian dialectology,Limburgish is roughly defined as comprising the dialects between theUerdingen line and theBenrath line spoken in Belgium and the Netherlands.
• Flemish linguistJan Goossens suggested to expand the definition ofLimburgish to include allLow Franconian varieties positioned between theUerdingen andBenrath line, although this usage has not been adopted by other scholars.

Regardless of the exact definition used, the termLimburgish itself is specific to the Netherlands and Belgium, where it used by linguists and speakers alike and is strongly connected to the cultural and regional identity of the inhabitants of both Belgian and Dutch Limburg. This regional identity is notably absent from the speakers of closely related Low Franconian dialects in adjacent parts of Germany, who do not refer to their local dialects asLimburgish.^[9] In German linguistic discourse too, the term is uncommon with German linguists instead tending to useSouthern Low Franconian (German:Südniederfränkisch) to refer to the same dialect grouping.

The classification of Limburgish is contended by different national traditions. Within the context of historical linguistics, Limburgish is regarded as one of the five main dialects ofMiddle Dutch,^[10][11] although this is not considered to be a homogeneous language, but a retrofit definition based on the region where Dutch is currently an official language.^[11]

German and French^[12] dialectology considers Limburgish part of theRhenish Fan. Sometimes it is also called a variety ofMeuse-Rhenish, especially among German dialectologists. Belgian/Dutch linguistics considers it in the context of Limburgian-Ripuarian,^[13] together with theRipuarian varieties. The early medieval Limburgish writerHeinrich von Veldeke is claimed by the tradition of both Dutch and German dialectology.^[14]

From the end of the 20th century on, Limburgish has developed a sense of autonomy from the traditional Dutch-German dipole as Limburgish linguists and functionaries consider it explicitly distinct from Dutch and German,^[15][16] as affirmed by the Covenant of the Limburgish language^[17] which politically decouples Limburgish from Dutch in the eyes of the Dutch government.

Limburgish developed fromOld East Low Franconian, which had evolved itself from earlierWeser–Rhine Germanic, a language which had been spoken in the Low Countries on both sides of theRoman limes since at least the4th century. During theHigh Middle Ages, the dialects which would result in Limburgish were influenced by the High German dialects spoken around the city ofCologne, resulting in certainHigh German features being absorbed by these varieties. It is the adoption of these phonological traits that resulted in Limburgish being classified as East Low Franconian.

In the past, all Limburgish varieties were therefore sometimes seen asWest Central German, part of High German.^[18][19] 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. It is nevertheless most common in linguistics to consider Limburgish as Low Franconian.

The traditional terminology can be confusing as the differences between the historical groupings Old West Franconian and Old East Franconian (which mainly concern certain vowel variations and the presence ofIngvaeonic features) is different from the modern modern dialectal dichotomy between Western and Eastern Low Franconian, which is based on the presence or absence ofHigh German features in Low Franconian, which did not occur until the advent of the Middle Dutch period.^[20][21] The period of High German influence lasted until the 13th century, after which theDuchy of Brabant extended its power, which resulted in a marked Brabantian influence, first among the western (i.e. spoken up toGenk) Limburgish dialects and then also among the eastern variants.^[22]

Currently Limburgish – although being essentially a variety of Low Franconian – still has a considerable distance from Standard Dutch with regards to phonology, morphology and lexicon. Standard Dutch, which developed mostly from West Low Franconian dialects such asFlemish andBrabantic,^[23] serves as the standard language (orDachsprache) for the Limburgish varieties spoken in the Netherlands and Belgium. The speakers of Limburgish or South Low Franconian dialects in Germany use Standard German as their Dachsprache.

Limburgish is far from being homogeneous. In other words, it has numerousvarieties instead of one singlestandard form. Between 1995 and 1999, a uniform standard form called AGL (Algemein Gesjreve Limburgs, "Generally written Limburgish") was developed and proposed, but found too little support.^[24] Today the so-called "Veldeke-spelling" which was first applied in the 1940s is most of the time used to write in a specific Limburgish dialect.^[25] In 2000 the parliament of the province of Dutch Limburg enacted a measure establishing the Limburgish Language Council (Raod veur 't Limburgs), a committee which advises the Parliament of Dutch Limburg on measures in relation to Limburgish. In 2003 the Limburgish Language Council adopted a standard orthography for Limburgish. On the basis of this standard orthography the Limburgish Academy Foundation (Stiechting Limbörgse Academie) is creating Limburgish-Dutch, Limburgish-English, Dutch-Limburgish and English-Limburgish dictionaries.^[26]

Limburgish is spoken by approximately 1.6 million people in theLow Countries and by many hundreds of thousands inGermany.^{[citation needed]} It is especially in the Dutch province of Limburg that Limburgish is used not only in everyday speech, but also often in more formal situations and on the local and regional radio.^[27] According to a study by Geert Driessen, in 2011 Limburgish was spoken by 54 percent of the adults and 31 percent of the children.^[28] Limburgish has no real written tradition, except for its early beginnings.Hendrik van Veldeke wrote in a Middle Limburgish dialect.^[29] Especially in the Netherlands, the cultural meaning of the language is also important. Many song texts are written in a Limburgish dialect, for example duringCarnival.Jack Poels writes most of his texts forRowwen Hèze in Sevenums, a local dialect.

To what degree Limburgish actually is spoken in Germany today remains a matter of debate. Not depending on the city in these parts of Germany, less than 50% of the population speak a local or regional form of Limburgish. Depending on the city in these parts of Belgium, according to A, Schuck (2001) 50% to 90% of the population speak a local or regional form of Limburgish, which seems to be a clear overestimation.^{[citation needed]} Moreover, research into some specific variants seems to indicate a gradual process of development towards the national standardised Dutch, especially amongst younger generations.^[30] In Belgium, the Limburgish dialects are generally considered to be more endangered than in the Netherlands.^[31]

Since Limburgish is still the mother tongue of many inhabitants in Dutch and Belgian Limburg, Limburgish grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation can have a significant impact on the way locals speak Dutch in public life.^[32] Within the modern communities of these provinces, intermediateidiolects are also very common, which combine standardDutch with theaccent and some grammatical and pronunciation tendencies derived from Limburgish. This "Limburgish Dutch" is confusingly also often referred to simply as "Limburgish", although in Belgium such intermediate languages tend to be calledtussentaal ("in-between language"), no matter the exact dialect/language with which standard Dutch is combined.^[33]

In March 1997 the Dutch government recognised Limburgish as aregional language (Dutch:streektaal) in theNetherlands.^[34] As such, it receives moderate protection under chapter 2 of theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.^[34]

However, some linguists have argued that this recognition was highly politically motivated and done more onsociolinguistic than purely linguistic grounds. In 1999, theDutch Language Union, thede facto language authority which asserted that it had not been asked for advice, opposed the recognition.^[35] From the Limburgish side^[vague] it has been argued^{[according to whom?]} that the arguments put forth against the recognition of Limburgish were not based on linguistic considerations, but rather a concern for maintaining the dominance of the Dutch language.

On the other hand, Limburgish is not recognised by the German and Belgian national governments as an official language. An attempt at recognition, made after Limburgish had been recognised in the Netherlands, failed in the Belgian parliament due to Flemish opposition.^[34] Because in Belgium political power is divided according to linguistic lines, recognizing Limburgish as an official language would have had considerable constitutional implications and undermine the small majority Flemish speakers hold over Walloon speakers in the Belgian State.^{[according to whom?]}

Subdialects of Limburgish in Dutch and Belgian Limburg are:^[36][37]

• Truierlands
• Lommels (aroundLommel)
• Brabants-Limburgs
  • Noorderkempens
  • Zuiderkempens
  • Getelands
• West-Limburgs (West Limburgish)
  • Dommellands
  • Demerkempens
  • Beringerlands (cp.Beringen)
  • Lonerlands
• Centraal-Limburgs (Central Limburgish)
  • Weertlands
  • Horns
  • Maaskempens
  • Centraal-Maaslands
  • Trichterlands
  • Bilzerlands (cp.Bilzen)
  • Tongerlands (cp.Tongeren)
• Oost-Limburgs (East Limburgish)
  • Noordelijk Oost-Limburgs (Northern East Limburgish)
  • Zuidelijk Oost-Limburgs (Southern East Limburgish)
• Zuid-Gelders Limburgs (around Venlo)
• Noord-Gelders Limburgs orKleverlands

The Limburgish group belongs to the Continental West Germanicdialect continuum. As usual inside dialect continua, neighboring languages have a maximum of similarities, and speakers being used to the rather small individual lingual differences in their immediate neighborhood perceive them as close, and familiar, while more distant ones become gradually harder to understand with distance. That ends, in the Dutch–German continuum at least, most often with incomprehensible dialects. Isoglosses are so dense in this area that practically every village or town has its own distinct dialect of Limburgish. Large cities such asMönchengladbach,Krefeld, andDüsseldorf have several local dialect varieties. The named cities have in common, that they are large enough to in part extend outside the area of the dialect group. Thus each has one or more quarters outside, having vernacular languages belonging to adjacent groups, such as Kleverlandish or Ripuarian.

A few sample dialects are:Dremmener Platt ofDremmen nearHeinsberg,Breyellsch Platt ofBreyell inNettetal,Jlabbacher Platt of centralMönchengladbach,Jriefrother Platt ofGrefrath,Viersener Platt ofViersen,Föschelner Platt ofFischeln in Krefeld,Krieewelsch of centralKrefeld,Ödingsch ofUerdingen inKrefeld,Düsseldorver Platt of northern and centralDüsseldorf,Rotinger Platt ofRatingen,Wülfrother Platt ofWülfrath,Metmannsch Platt ofMettmann,Solinger Platt ofSolingen,Remscheder Platt ofRemscheid, and many more.

The group combinesLow Franconian properties with someRipuarian properties, such as tonal accents, the pronoun "I" translates asech oriech, the word "but" most often asawwer, all like Ripuarian. Contrasting, "time" is translated astied, "to have" mostly ashebbe, "today" asvandag, all typical for Low Franconian.

Noord-Limburgs (also calledik-Limburgs)^{[citation needed]} is the Dutch term for a group of dialects spoken north of theUerdingen line, i.e. from just south of Venlo upward to the North in the Dutch province ofLimburg. These dialects share many features with both theKleverlandish andBrabantian dialects and are closer to Standard Dutch than the more southern language varieties (see e.g. Hoppenbrouwers 2001). The termNoord-Limburgs is used by Jo Daan for the entire province north of the Uerdingen line, whereas other linguists use it only for the part that has tonality, the language north of this region then being consideredKleverlandish.

The north border of the Limburgish tonality zone lies a little north ofArcen andHorst aan de Maas and just above themeej/mich isogloss, also known as the "mich-kwartier". This makes this Limburgish isogloss the northernmost of all. Venlo lies between themeej/mich isogloss and the Uerdingen line, so the Venlo dialect is the only one with both formsik andmich/dich. All dialects in the Dutch province of Limburg spoken north of the tonality border are Kleverlandish in linguistic respect.

The dialects spoken in the most southeastern part of the Dutch province ofNorth Brabant (i.e. in and aroundBudel andMaarheeze) also have many Limburgish characteristics. An important difference between these dialects and the adjacent ones in the Dutch province of Limburg is, however, that the second-person pronoungij is here used instead ofdoe, as in "purely" Brabantian dialects.^[38]

Centraal-Limburgs (Central Limburgish) includes the area aroundMaastricht,Sittard,Roermond, the eastern half of Belgian Limburg, and the BelgianVoeren area, and stretches further Northeast.Belgian linguists^{[citation needed]} use a more refined classification.Dutch linguists use the termOost-Limburgs (East Limburgish) for the form of Limburgish spoken in an area from BelgianVoeren south ofMaastricht in the Netherlands to the German border. For them,West-Limburgs (West Limburgish) is the variety of Limburgish spoken inBelgium in the area east of the Uerdingen line, for example in and aroundHasselt andTongeren. It includes areas in Dutch Limburg (likeOol,Maria Hoop andMontfort) and Dutch Brabant. The border ofWest-Limburgs andOost-Limburgs starts a little south of the area between the villages of 's-Gravenvoeren and Sint-Martens-Voeren in the Belgian municipality ofVoeren.

Limburgish is spoken in a considerable part of the German Lower Rhine area. This area extends from the border regions ofCleves,Viersen andHeinsberg, stretching out to theRhine river. Modern linguists, both in the Netherlands and in Germany, now often combine these distinct varieties with the Cleves dialects (Kleverländisch). This superordinating group of Low Franconian varieties (between the rivers Meuse and Rhine) is calledMeuse-Rhenish (Rheinmaasländisch).

Both Limburgish andLow Rhenish belong to this greaterMeuse-Rhine area, building a large group ofLow Franconian dialects, including areas in Belgium, the Netherlands and the German NorthernRhineland. The northwestern part of this triangle came under the influence of the Dutch standard language, especially since the founding of theUnited Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. At the same time, the southeastern portion became part of theKingdom of Prussia, and was subject toHigh German language domination. At the dialectal level however, mutual understanding is still possible far beyond both sides of the national borders.

The Meuse-Rhenish dialects can be divided into Northern and Southern varieties. Hence, Limburgish is Southern Meuse-Rhenish as spoken in Belgium, the Netherlands and the German Lower Rhine. The Northern Meuse-Rhenish dialects as spoken in the Netherlands and in Germany (a little eastward along the Rhine) are unambiguously Low Franconian. As discussed above, Limburgish straddles the borderline between "Low Franconian" and "Middle Franconian" varieties. These Southern Meuse-Rhenish dialects are more-or-less mutually intelligible with the Ripuarian dialects, but have not been influenced by theHigh German consonant shift except in isolated words (R. Hahn 2001).^{[citation not found]}

South Low Franconian (Südniederfränkisch,Zuidnederfrankisch) is the term used by dialectologists in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands to describe the dialect group that encompasses the Limburgish varieties of Belgian and Dutch Limburg, and also the closely related dialects in adjacent areas in Belgium (e.g.Eupen inLiège Province) and Germany (stretching from the Dutch border to theBergisches Land Region nearDüsseldorf east of theRhine).

Goossens (1965) distinguished the following subdialects:^[39]

• ostlimburgisch-ribuarisches Übergangsgebiet (East Limburgish - Ripuarian transitional area; Uerdingen, Düsseldorf, Solingen, Remscheid, Mönchengladbach, Eupen)
• Ostlimburgisch (East Limburgish; Panningen, Krefeld, Dülken, Sittard)
• Zentrallimburgisch (Central Limburgish; Maastricht, Vroenhoven)
• westlimburgisch-zentrallimburgisches Übergangsgebiet (West Limburgish - Central Limburgish transitional area; around and southern of Genk)
  • Tongerländisch (Tongeren)
  • Bilzerländisch (Genk, Bilzen)
• Westlimburgisch (West Limburgish; Veldeke, Hasselt, St.-Truiden, Loon)
• südbrabantisch-westlimburgisches Übergangsbiet (South Brabantian - West Limburgish transitional area)
  • Ostgeteländisch (Beringen)
  • Westgeteländisch (Tienen)

There is no standardized form of Limburgish, nor is there an official standard spelling for the individual Limburgish dialects. The dialect association Veldeke Limburg developed an advisory spelling in 2003 that is endorsed by the Limburgish Language Council and aims at uniformly representing all the sounds that occur within the Limburgish dialects in writing. Although this spelling also does not have official status, it is used within this dialect association as well as for the spelling of bilingual place name signs.^[40][41]

The sound inventory below is based on the variety of West-Limburgs spoken in Montfort.

• /ɡ/ may not show up in the Hasselt dialect, but is common in other Limburgish dialects, e.g.zègke (Dutch:zeggen) "to say".
• Other Limburgish dialects also have the following sounds:[c] (landj);[ɲ] (tenj, teeth).
• /w/ is realized as[β̞] in Belgian Limburgish.
• [ɫ] is a common allophone of/l/, especially in coda position. It is rare in the Montfortian dialect.
• [ç] and[ʝ] are allophones of/x/ and/ɣ/, occurring in a front-vowel environment. This is termedSoft G in Dutch dialectology.
• [ɦ] is an allophone of/h/. In some dialects, it may be the usual realization of/h/.
• In most modern dialects,/r/ isuvular.

Overall, Limburgish dialects tend to have more consonants than Dutch. They also tend to have more vowels. According toPeter Ladefoged, the vowel inventory of the dialect of Weert is perhaps the richest in the world. It has 28 vowels, among which there are 12 long monophthongs (three of which surface as centering diphthongs), 10 short monophthongs and 6 diphthongs.^[42][43]

In most of the Limburgish dialects spoken to the southeast ofPanningen—for example those of Roermond, Sittard and Heerlen—[ʃ] appears at the beginning of words in the consonant clusterssp,st,sl,sm,sn andzw. The same sound is realized as[s] elsewhere (e.g.sjtraot/straot, "street"). This is not the case, however, in the dialects of for example Venlo, Weert, Maastricht, Echt, Montfort and Posterholt.

• /ə/ only occurs in unstressed syllables.
• /øːœːuː/ are realised as[øəœəuə] before alveolar consonants.^{[citation needed]}

The diphthongs/iəøeɪæɪuɪɔɪaɪou/^{[clarification needed]} occur, as well as combinations of/uːɔːɑː/ +/j/./aɪ/ only occurs in French loanwords andinterjections.

/ou/ is realized as[oə] before alveolar consonants./eɪ/ can be realized as[eə] or[ejə]. In the dialect ofGeleen,/eː/ is realized as[iɛ] and/oː/ as[ɔː]. In many dialects such as that of Maastricht and Sittard, the long vowel/aː/ in Dutchcognates is most of the time realized as[ɒː], as innao ("after", "to, towards"). The Standard Dutch equivalents arena[naː] andnaar[naːr].

In about 50 Belgian Limburgish dialects, the rounded front vowels/y,yː,ø,øː,œ,œː,œy/ are unrounded to/i,iː,ɪ,eː,ɛ~æ,ɛː,ɛi/ in most native words. They are retained in French loanwords such asdzjuus/dʒys/.^[44]

The pitch accent means having two different accents used in stressed syllables. The difference between these two accents is used for differentiating both various grammatical forms of a singlelexeme andminimal tone pairs one from the other.^[45]

With specific regards to Limburgish, these two accents are traditionally known assjtoettoen ("push tone") andsjleiptoen ("dragging tone"). For example,[daːx˦˨˧]daãg with a dragging tone means "day" in Limburgish, while in many Limburgish dialects[daːx˦˨]daàg with a push tone is the plural form, "days" (in addition,[daːx] can also be articulated in a neutral tone as a third possibility. In this case, it means "bye-bye" ["good day"]). In the preceding example, the difference is grammatical, but not lexical. An example of a lexical difference caused only by tone is the word[biː˦˨]biè which is articulated with a push tone and means "bee", which forms a tonal minimal pair with[biː˦˨˧]biẽ, which is articulated with a dragging tone and means "at". This contrastive pitch accent also occurs inCentral Franconian dialects spoken to the southeast of Limburgish.

OtherIndo-European pitch accent languages that usetone contours to distinguish the meaning of words that are otherwise phonetically identical includeLithuanian,Latvian,Swedish,Norwegian, StandardSlovene (only some speakers), andSerbo-Croatian. This feature is comparable totone systems as found e.g. inChinese or many languages of Africa and Central America, although such "classical" tone languages make much more use of tone distinctionswhen compared to Limburgish.^[46]

Historically, pitch accent in Limburgish and Central Franconian developed independently from accent systems in other Indo-European languages. While contrastive accent can be reconstructed forProto Indo-European, it was completely lost inProto-Germanic.^[47] Its reemergence in Limburgish (andCentral Franconian) was phonetically triggered byvowel height,vowel length, andvoicing of a following consonant, and became phonemic with sound changes that must have occurred after 1100 CE such as lengthening of short vowels in open syllables, loss ofschwa in final syllables, devoicing of consonants in final position, andmerger of vowels that had been distinct before.^[48]

It has been proven^{[according to whom?]} by speech analysis that in the Belgian Limburgish dialect ofBorgloon, the dragging tone itself is bitonal, while it has also been proved that this is not the case in the adjacent Limburgish dialects ofTongeren andHasselt.

Other research has indicated that the push tone has a steeper fall in the eastern dialects of Limburgish (e.g. those of Venlo, Roermond and Maasbracht) than it has in western dialects. In addition, both the phonetic realisation and the syllable-based distribution of the contrasts between push and dragging tone seem to bemora-bound in the eastern dialects only. This has been examined especially by Jörg Peters.^[49]

Moreover, in some dialects such as that of Sittard and Maastricht, especially themid andhigh vowels tend todiphthongize when they have a push tone. So in the dialect of Sittardkeize means "to choose" while in the dialect ofMaasbracht no diphthongization takes place, sokeze means the same here. This difference has been examined in particular by Ben Hermans and Marc van Oostendorp.^[50]

Other examples include plural

• [stæɪn˦˨˧]steĩn "stone"
• [stæɪn˦˨]steìn "stones"

and lexical

• [ɡraːf˦˨] "grave"
• [ɡraːf˦˨˧] "hole next to a road"

Verbs distinguish mood with tone:

• [weːʁ˦˨˧ˈkɪ˦˨və˧] "We conquer!"
• [weːʁ˦˨˧ˈkɪ˦˨˧və˧] "May we conquer!"

The difference between push tone and dragging tone may also purely mark grammaticaldeclension without there being any difference in meaning, as in the dialect of Borgloon:gieël ("yellow", with dragging tone) as opposed toen gieël peer ("a yellow pear", with push tone). This tonal shift also occurs when the adjective gets an inflectional ending, as innen gieëlen appel ("a yellow apple").^[51]

In some parts of Limburg, the tonal plural is being replaced with the Dutch forms among the younger generation, so that the plural fordaag becomesdage ([daːʝə]).

The sample texts are readings of the first sentence ofThe North Wind and the Sun.

[dəˈnɔːʀdəʀˌβɛntʃ˨əndəˈzɔn|βøːʀənɑndɪskəˈtɛːʀə|ˈeː˨vəʀˈβiəvɔnɪnˈtβɛːətˈstæʀ˨əkstəβøːʀ||ˈtuːnˈkumtəʀˈdʒysˈei˨mɑntvʀ̩ˈbɛː˨|ˈdiːnənˈdɪkəˈβæʀməˈjɑsˈɑːn˨ɦaː]^[52]

De naorderwèndj en de zon weuren an disketaere ever wieë von hin twae het sterrekste weur, toên koem ter dzjuus eejmand verbae diê nen dikke, werme jas àànhaa.^{[citation needed]}

[dəˈnoːʀ˦dəˌβɪnt˦ændəˈzɔnɦɑdənənˈdʀœkədɪsˈkʏsiˈøː˦vəʀdəˈvʀɒːx|ˈβeːvaːnɦynənˈtβijədəˈstæʀ˦kstəβɒːʀ|tunˈʒysiːmɑntvøːʀˈbɛː˦kɒːm|deːnənˈdɪkəˈβæʀməˈjɑsˈɒːnɦɑt]^[53]

De noordewind en de zon hadde en drökke discussie euver de vraog wee vaan hunen twieje de sterkste waor, toen zjuus iemand veurbij kaom dee nen dikke, werme jas aonhad.^{[citation needed]}

Limburgish has three grammatical genders. In some of the Limburgish dialects^[which?],den is used before masculine words beginning withb,d,h,t or with a vowel and in many other dialectsder is used before all masculine words. In most dialects, the indefinite article iseine(n) for masculine nouns,ein for feminine nouns andei or'n for neuter nouns. Without stress, these forms are most of the time realized asne(n),n ande.

For some nouns, Limburgish usessimulfixes (i.e.umlaut) to form the plural:

• broor –breur (brother – brothers)
• sjoon –sjeun (shoe – shoes): note this can also be 'sjoon' withsjtoettoen (pushing tone).

For some nouns, there exists a separate conjugation as well:

• thoos -turrest -tezennest /tehurrest -tozzest -toerrest -tehunnest (my home - your home - his home / her home - our home - their home)

Plural and diminutive nouns based on Umlaut start to prevail east towards Germany. However, towards the west, the phonemic distinction between dragging and pushing tone will stop just beforeRiemst.^[54]

The diminutive suffix is most often-ke, as in Brabantian, or-je/-sje after a dental consonant. For some nouns an umlaut is also used and inbreurke for 'little brother' andsjeunke for 'little shoe'.

According to their declension, Limburgish adjectives can be grouped into two classes. Adjectives of the first class get the ending-e in their masculine and feminine singular forms and always in plural, but no ending in their neuter singular form. When combined with a masculine noun in singular adjectives may also end on-en, under the same phonological conditions which apply to articles. To this class belong most adjectives ending on a-ch[t],-d,-k,-p,-t or-s preceded by another consonant or with one of the suffixes-eg,-ig and-isch. The other declension class includes most adjectives ending on-f,-g,-j,-l,-m,-n,-ng,-r,-w or-s preceded by a vowel; these adjectives only get the ending-e(n) in their masculine singular form.

When used as apredicate, Limburgish adjectives never get an ending:Dee mins is gek (Maastrichtian: "That man is crazy"). Except for neuter adjectives which sometimes get -t: "'t Eint of 't angert", though this is dying out.

In the masculine singular forms ofmien,dien,zien andoos, final-n is added under the same phonological conditions which apply to articles and adjectives. Deletion of the final-n in the neuter forms ofmien,dien,zien no longer occurs in the dialect of Venlo and is also disappearing in the dialect of Roermond.

The most common demonstrative pronouns in Limburgish are:

Most of the modern Limburgish vocabulary is very similar to that ofStandard Dutch or to that ofStandard German due to a heavy influence from the two. However, some^[vague] of the basic vocabulary is rooted in neighboringCentral German dialects.

Historically, the vocabulary of the varieties of Limburgish spoken within current Belgian territory has been more influenced byFrench than that of the Limburgish dialects spoken on Dutch and German soil, as appears form words such asbriquet ("cigarette-lighter"),camion ("truck") andcrevette ("shrimp"). The language has similarities with both German and Dutch, andHendrik van Veldeke, a medieval writer from the region, is referred to as both one of the earlier writers in German and one of the earliest writers in Dutch.

• Limburgish Wikipedia
• Southeast Limburgish

• On Limburgish Tones (in Dutch)
• Map of dialects spoken in Dutch Limburg
• Limburgish Wiktionary – De Limburgse Wiktionair
• Limburgish Academy Foundation (Stiechting Limbörgse Academie) with dictionaries Limburgish-Dutch, Limburgish-English, Dutch-Limburgish and English-Limburgish and a history of the Limburgish language
• Veldeke Genk (in Genk dialect and Dutch)