Zealandic (Zêeuws in Zeelandic, Zeeuws in Dutch) is a regional language spoken in the Dutch province of Zeeland and on the South Holland island of Goeree-Overflakkee. Commonly considered a Dutch dialect, it has notable differences mainly in pronunciation, but as well in grammar and vocabulary, which set it clearly apart from Dutch proper and make easy comprehension by unskilled Dutch speakers impossible. A regional language is a language spoken in a part of a country - it may be a small area, a federal state or province, or a wider area. ... For the U.S. towns of the same name see Zeeland, Michigan and Zeeland, North Dakota respectively. ... This article is about the province of the Netherlands. ... Categories: Islands of the Netherlands | Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta | Netherlands geography stubs ... Grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of a language. ... A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ...

Origin

Zealandic is a transitional regional language between Hollandic and West Flemish. In the Middle Ages and early modern age, Zeeland was claimed by both the count of Holland and the duke of Flanders, and the area laid within either influence. The respective dialects clearly show a gradual increase of Hollandic elements as one goes northwards. Yet Zealandic is fairly coherent and easy to border, as the broad sea-arms form strong isoglosses. Hollandic is together with Brabantic the most frequently used dialect of the Dutch language. ... West Flemish (in West Flemish, Vlaemsch) is a group of dialects, spoken in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. ... Holland is the common name in English referring to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (or exclusively its European part)--although this is incorrect from a Dutch perspective. ... Definitions Flanders (Dutch: Vlaanderen, French: Flandre or Flandres) has two main designations: a historical region (the County of Flanders), and an administrative region of Belgium (the Flemish Region and the Flemish Community). ... An isogloss is the geographical boundary of a certain linguistic feature, e. ...

Hallmarks

The main differences from Dutch proper are the following: Zeelandic has three rather then two grammatical genders; as a result it retained the final schwas in feminine words; it kept the monophthongs [i] and [y] rather than breaking them into [Ei] and [Ey]; it umlauted most [a:]s into [E:]'s; it renders the old Germanic [ai] and [au] as falling diphthongs ([e@] and [O@]), whereas Dutch proper took them together with etymological e's and o's and finally it drops the h. See Schwa (art) for the underground artist. ...

The present table illustrates those differences (note: the orthography is Dutch):

Dialects

The province of Zeeland consists of several former islands which were difficult to reach until well into the 20th century. As a result, there is roughly one dialect per island. The respective dialects differ clearly, but only slightly. The Goeree-Overflakkee dialect, for example, does not drop the h, and the Walcheren and Zuid-Beveland dialects have umlauted words where the northern ones don't (for example: beuter [bøt@r] against boter [bot@r]. Within the island dialects themselves dialectical differences also exist. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Satellite image of the Scheldt estuary Walcheren is a former island in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. ... The Scheldt delta, including Zuid-Beveland (2) Zuid-Beveland is a part of the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands north of the Westerschelde and south of the Oosterschelde. ... Ä ä Ö ö Ü ü The term umlaut is used for two closely related notions: a special kind of vowel modification and a particular diacritic mark. ...

The Zealandic Flanders region contains dialects that are largely outside the definition of Zealandic, but must be considered West Flemish and East Flemish. The West Flemish dialects in this region, hovewer, are yet commonly classified as "Zealandic". Satellite image of the Scheldt delta Zeeuws-Vlaanderen is the part of the Netherlands on the left shore of the Scheldt river (here called Westerschelde), nr. ... West Flemish (in West Flemish, Vlaemsch) is a group of dialects, spoken in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. ... East Flemish is a dialect of the Dutch language, which is a Low Franconian language. ...

Geographic distribution and social aspects

Zealandic bears the burden of being strongly associated with the rural population, being chiefly spoken on the countryside. The town dialects of Middelburg and Vlissingen are both much closer to Dutch proper than the rural variants and on the edge of extinction. Surveys held in the nineties showed that at least 60% of the Zeeland population still uses Zealandic as everyday language. There are an estimated 250.000 people who speak it as mother tongue (taking the West Zealandic Flemish in the count), and though it is in decline, just as any other regional language, it is in no direct danger of extinction, since in some villages with strong isolated communities even more than 90% of the youngsters would speak Zealandic. This is about the city in the Netherlands. ... Flushing (Dutch Vlissingen) is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. ...

There is a lobby for recognising the Zealandic regional language under the European charter for minority languages. As of 2005, they failed so far to achieve this status. 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ...