Concerns the interrelation between the theoretical status and the social dimensions of syntactic variation in Heerlen Dutch. Syntactic variation of Heerlen Dutch consists of a range of dative constructions that are unacceptable in standard Dutch. (Author/JL)

Deals with divergence on the lexical, phonological, and morphological levels in three dialects that were the same until the mid-20th century (Maaseiks in Belgium, Susters in the Netherlands, and Waldfeuchts in Germany) and that have changed under the influence of three different standard languages (Belgian Dutch, Netherlandic Dutch, and Standard…

A discussion of the social network concept in sociolinguistics is examined from the perspective of language variation. This perspective is taken to gain insight into the actual importance of networks in speech communities and a more thorough understanding of a sociolinguistic concept that has drawn increasing attention in recent years. First, the…

Analyzes the devoicing of voiced fricatives in Southern Standard Dutch (spoken in Belgium) and Northern Standard Dutch (spoken in the Netherlands) based on archived recordings of radio broadcasts from 1935-93. Findings reveal a divergence between the two language varieties in the pronunciation of voiced fricatives in this period. (54 references)…

There is a substantial discrepancy between normative and empirical views on Dutch standard pronunciation. The discrepancy between these views can be reduced by looking at the empirical range as being structured from an imagined point of reference. The prescriptive standard then operates as the ultimate model toward which the submodels for standard…

Investigates phonological variation and change in southern and northern spoken Dutch (spoken in Northern Flanders and the Netherlands). The study examines changes in progress from 1935-93 using a combination of insight and techniques from historical linguistics and sociolinguistics. Results indicate that the southern variety remained stable while…

Explores relationships between standard language and arithmetic-test performance and a range of language-related family characteristics in the Netherlands. The sample consists of 7730 pupils from nearly 700 primary schools. The main question is whether pupils who use standard Dutch perform better than pupils from another language variety, such as…

While the concepts of language continuum and diglossia are widely cited and discussed, they remain generally vague and are used in different ways by different linguists. Recent sociolinguistic research on Dutch-speaking Belgium provides a framework for examining the two concepts, a context for proposing a theoretical definition for language…