West-Veluws dialect
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Veluws.png/250px-Veluws.png)
West-Veluwsis aLow Franconian[1][2]dialect of the Dutch province ofGelderland.It is spoken in severalVeluwemunicipalities and villages including:Nunspeet,Putten,Ermelo(Armelo),Harderwijk(Harderwiek),Uddel,Nijkerk(Niekark),Appel,Scherpenzeel(Schaarpezeel), the municipality ofBarneveld(Barreveld) and some villages of the municipality ofEde.
West-Veluws is also spoken in the Utrecht village ofBunschoten(Bunsjoten) and originally inLeusdenandAmersfoortas well, but here the dialect has almost died out. The border between West-Veluwe in the northeast andUtrechtandSouth Gelderlandin the southwest is very frayed: even the dialects of, for instance,Soest,Eemnes,HuizenandLarenstill have Lowlands Saxon characteristics. In the articlesGoois,EemlandsandGeldersevalleisthese transitional dialects are discussed in more detail.
Speakers
[edit]West-Veluws is mainly spoken by older people, the Low Saxondialectis not very popular among the youth. This is true, incidentally, of many other areas in the Netherlands where dialects are largely being exchanged forStandard Dutch.The majority of the Veluwe youth today speak Standard Dutch, but there are still young people who speak the dialect from home, but often with more of a Dutch influence than their parents and grandparents. There is also a small number of second language speakers. In general, West-Veluws is fairly easy to understand for people whose mother tongue is Standard Dutch; the further north or east one goes, the more difficult it becomes for a speaker of Standard Dutch. On the whole, within the West-Veluwe language area, more dialect is spoken in the northern places than in the southern ones.
After the Second World War, Nijkerk developed into a commuter town for Amersfoort, an almost dialect-free city, so that the dialect-speaking community is strongly outnumbered. In fact, this situation applies to the entire border region of Utrecht and Gelderland, except for Bunschoten-Spakenburg. Places like Elburg and Oldebroek, on the other hand, lie deeper in the Lower Saxon language area, adjacent to the Salland and East Veluwe language area, where the dialect has a much larger place.
Dictionary of the dialects of Gelderland
[edit]The last part called Veluwe.De wereld. van het Woordenboek van de Gelderse dialecten (WGD)was published on 7 November 2008. This dictionary series includes words from West Veluwe, East Veluwe, Urkers and dialects from surrounding areas. A version for the river area of Gelderland is also available. In October 2005, the first volumeVeluwe. Het huis van Harrie Scholtmeijerappeared and in November 2006, the second partVeluwe. De mens uit.
Earlier, registration of local dialects has taken place on a small scale, for example inPutten,[3]Nijkerk,[4]Scherpenzeel,[5]Bunschoten,[6]Nunspeet[7]and a book for the entire North-West Veluwe.[8]
Spelling
[edit]Until recently, there was no standardised spelling for theVeluws dialect.However, theIJsselacademiehas developed a spelling for theOverijsseland Veluwe dialects that is largely consistent with Standard Dutch and the other Low Saxon language varieties. Often people still use their own spelling, one of the reasons being that many people are unaware of the existence of the IJsselacademy spelling.
Features
[edit]A characteristic of Western Veluws is that it is a kind of transition area between Lowlands Saxon and Standard Dutch; the more northerly a place is situated, the smaller the Standard Dutch influence and the greater the Lower Saxon influence usually becomes. Veluws is usually considered Lower Saxon, since in terms of vocabulary and grammar it is more in line with Lower Saxon than with Standard Dutch, therefore it is originally a real Lower Saxon dialect. West-Veluws has different words and pronunciations pervillage,so in Nijkerk they saybrochtandverlore/veleure,in Putten and Bunschotenbrochtandverleurenand in Nunspeetbröchandverleuren(brachten(brought) andverloren(lost) in Standard Dutch).
Sounds
[edit]In West-Veluws, the vowel phenomena are strongly influenced by Dutch, more specifically theHollandicdialects of the seventeenth century. West-Veluws shares this influence withOost-Veluws,Sallaans,StellingwarfsandDrèents,where these languages contrast with the more conservativeTweantsandAchterhooks.However, the Dutch influence in West-Veluws is more far-reaching. Characteristic of West Veluws is the Dutchou,which in other dialects is pronounced asol(e.g.houweninstead ofholden); in the border region with Oost-Veluws (e.g. in Nunspeet), these forms are sometimes both used, as well as houwen (to keep/hold), zollen (would). The Dutch ui is almost always pronounced as uu (so muus, huus etc.), however, there are a few exceptions such as: fluit(e), buis(e), spuit(e).
Examples
[edit]West-Veluws | Drèents | Standard Dutch | English |
---|---|---|---|
he-j | hej | heb je | have you |
houwen | holden | houden | hold |
ies | ies | ijs | ice |
laand | laand | land | land |
oek | ok | ook | also |
spoek | spoek | spook | ghost |
tied | tied | tijd | time |
woenen | wonen | wonen | live |
zuunig | zunig | zuinig | frugal |
Dialect comparison
[edit]Puttens | Nunspeets | Standard Dutch | English |
---|---|---|---|
bietje(n) | bietjen | beetje | bit |
beteund | betuun | schaars, beperkt | scarce |
bonk[B 1] | bonke[B 2] | groot stuk | large part |
breekbonen | breekbonen | sperziebonen | green beans |
deern, deretje(n) | deerne, deerntjen | meisje | girl |
duuf | duve, doeve | duif | dove |
eerpel, erepel | eerpel, erepel | aardappel | potato |
eerdbees | eerdbeze | aardbei | strawberry |
frommes, vrouw, wief | frommes, vrouw, wief | vrouw | woman |
frullie | vrouwluui | vrouwen | women |
gedien | gedien | gordijn | curtain |
glaozekleed | glaozekleed | vitrage | net curtain |
hen | hem | hebben | have |
kous | hoze, kouse | kous | sock |
iezig[B 3] | iezig, iezelig | heel, erg | very |
keis, kees | keze | kaas | cheese |
kiender(s) | kienders | kinderen | children |
krang | krang | binnenstebuiten | inside out |
kuum | kuum, teumig | bedeesd, rustig | shy, quiet |
leed, kwaod, hellig | leed, kwaod, hellig | kwaad, boos | angry, upset |
leer | ledder (Elspeet:lere) | ladder | ladder |
luui | luui | lui | lazy |
platte peters | platte peters | tuinbonen | broad beans |
mins | meens | mens | human |
mirreg > smirregs/smirreges/smirges | mirreg > snaomes/snaomiddes/smirregs | middag | afternoon |
moekerig weer | moekerig weer | broeierig weer | sultry weather |
op huus opan | op huus an | naar huis toe | towards home |
overstuur | overstuur | bedorven (eten) | spoilt (food) |
vao(de)r en moe(de)r[B 4] | vaor en moor | vader en moeder | father and mother |
schaal sjaal[B 5] | sjaal | sjaal, das | scarf, tie |
schaol[B 6] | schaole | schaal | scale |
schand[B 7] | schaande | schande | shame |
school[B 8] | schoele | school | school |
sneeg[B 9] | snejig | flink, vlot, gewiekst | brisk, quick, cunning |
strabant | strabant | pittig, vrijpostig | feisty, brash |
sukelao | sukelao | chocolade | chocolate |
de hof, de tuun | de tune, de hof | de tuin | the garden |
tunekrupertje, klein jantje(n) | tunekrupertjen | winterkoninkje | wren |
uui (also calledlooksomething old-fashioned) | ui (also calledlooksomething old-fashioned) | ui | onion |
vulling | vullen | veulen | foal |
wulie | woelie | wij | we |
zog | motte | zeug | sow |
- Notes
Other dialects
[edit]Other dialects | Location | Standard Dutch | English |
---|---|---|---|
oot(jen) | Bunschoten,Nijkerk,formerly alsoPutten | oma | grandma |
kiekkast(e)[C 1] | entire (West-)Veluwe | televisie | television |
- Noten
- ^Usually "tv" or "tillevisie".
Grammar
[edit]In verbs, West-Veluws uses the Dutch suffix -en instead of the original Low Saxon -t, the West-Veluws variant having been blown over from (North) Hollandic with theHollandic expansion.In Oost-Veluws, for example, one sayswie denkt(who thinks) andwie heurt(who hears), while West-Veluws useswie/wulie denkenandwie/wulie heuren;this phenomenon also occurs inStellingwarfs.There are also some differences between them, for example Nunspeets has more Oost-Veluws characteristics. For example, 'cheese' in Putten is keis or kees and in Nunspeet keze (or: kêeze) which is the same as in East Veluwe.
References
[edit]- ^E. Rijpma & F. G. Schuringa, edited by Jan van Bakel,Nederlandse spraakkunst,21st ed., 1967, p. 24, § 8 (alsoonline at dbnl.org)
- ^Wilbert Jan Heeringa,Measuring Dialect Pronunciation Differences using Levenshtein Distance,doctor's thesis, 2004, p. 229 and 231 (online)
- ^Putters Praoten- Puttens Historisch Genootschap
- '^t Niekarks: Umgangstaol, uutdrukkinge en gezegdes- Stichting Oud Nijkerk
- ^Noe begriep 'k joe(1998) - also partially available on theinternet
- ^Woordenboek van Bunschoten-Spakenburg en Eemdijk(1996) - Historische Vereniging Bunscote
- ^Bie Bart in de rie(1996) - is no longer published, but is still available at various libraries including the library ofRadboud University Nijmegenand of course the library of Nunspeet and Elspeet itself
- ^Het Dialect der Noord-West-Veluwe(1904) - Utrecht University Dissertation