East Brabantian

East Brabantian(Dutch:Oost-Noord-BrabantsorOost-Brabants) is one of the main divisions of theBrabantiandialect group recognized by theWoordenboek van de Brabantse dialecten.East Brabantian dialects are mainly spoken in the eastern part of the province ofNorth Brabant.Classifications of Brabantian recognize it as a separate dialect group. Sometimes it is calledMeierijs,after theBailiwickofDen Bosch.

East Brabantian dialects are further subdivided intoKempenlands(in a large area east and south east ofEindhoven,includingArendonkandLommelinBelgium), Noord-Meierijs(in an area south of's-HertogenboschintoEindhoven),Peellands(inHelmondand surroundings),GeldropsandHeeze-and-Leendes.The last two are small local dialects that are found as separate groups in few other classifications.

Characteristics

East Brabantian dialects are distinct from the more western variants, Central Brabantian and West Brabantian, and also from dialects of southern Brabant likeSouthern Brabantian,KempensandGetelands.Some peculiarities are typical eastern and shared with the Limburgish dialects while others only occur locally.

East Brabantian dialects have been somewhat influenced by theCologne languageexpansion and thus share some features with it which are absent from western varieties. Such differences includeumlautindiminutivesand theconjugationofGermanic strong verbs(like inLimburgish). Typical of East Brabantian are forms such asgeleuvenvs Dutchgeloven"believe",bruurvs Dutchbroer"brother" andzukevs Dutchzoeken"search". Also diminutives such asmenneke(withi-umlautof the stem vowel) vs Dutchmannetje"little man" andjeskevs Dutchjasje"little coat". Conjugations such asveltvs Dutchvalt"falls" are typically East Brabantian. (CompareStandard Germanfällt,also showing the effects of the final *iin the reconstructedCommon West Germanicprotoform *fallidi.)

• East Brabantian dialects featureumlautin diminutive formation (póp-pupke) and some words which end in-iin their historical West Germanic forms (e.g.:keesvs Dutchkaas"cheese", both representing the reconstructedProto-West-Germanicform *kāsī).
• The variantswèanddèare used in East Brabantian forwhatandthat.(Western Brabantian useswaandda,andLimburgishde).
• East Brabantian exhibits a more eastern-tingedvocabulary(e.g.radvs.wiel"wheel" ).
• As in most other Brabantian dialects, longôundergoesfronting(gruunvs.Markiezaatsuses onlygroen"green" ).
• Typical of theMeierijis the preservation of theskwhere standard Dutch has shifted to thesch(skoewnvs.schoen "shoes") and the shortening of many original longvowels(torrevs.toren"tower" ).
• Thediphthongs/ɛi/and/œy/are here oftenmonophthongedinto[ɛː]and[œː](èèsandhèùsvs. West Brabantianaisandois).
• Unlike in West Brabantian,hhas been preserved in East Brabantian, the most common departing greet beinghoudoe(meaning "take care" ) (vs. the West Brabantianoudoe).
• Thesvarabhaktivocal is almost always pronounced (mellekvsmelk"milk" ).
• As all Brabantian dialects, East Brabantian uses asoftG.