Hasselt dialect

Not to be confused with Hasselt Dutch or a Hasselt accent, the accent/regional variety of Standard Dutch spoken in Hasselt.

Hasselt dialect
Essels, Hessels
Pronunciation	[ˈʔæsəls], [ˈhæsəls]^[1]
Native to	Belgium
Region	Hasselt
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Low Franconian Meuse-Rhenish Limburgish West Limburgish^[2] Hasselt dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None

Hasselt dialect or Hasselt Limburgish (natively Essels or Hessels,^[3] Standard Dutch: Hasselts [ˈɦɑsəlts]) is the city dialect and variant of Limburgish spoken in the Belgian city of Hasselt alongside the Dutch language. All of its speakers are bilingual with standard Dutch.^[2]

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes^[2]
		Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal	Postalveolar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ŋ
Plosive / Affricate	voiceless	p	t	k
Plosive / Affricate	voiced	b	d		dʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	x	ʃ	h
Fricative	voiced	v	z	ɣ
Rhotic			r
Approximant		β	l	j

Obstruents are devoiced word-finally. However, when the next word starts with a vowel and is pronounced without a pause, both voiced and voiceless word-final obstruents are realized as voiced.^[1]
/m, p, b, β/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.^[2]
The sequences /nt, nd/ are realized as more or less palatalized:
- In the conservative variety, these are, respectively, [ɲcʃ] and [ɲɟʒ].^[1]
- Nowadays, [nʲtʲ] and [nʲdʲ] are the normal realizations, whereas the conservative [ɲcʃ, ɲɟʒ] are used only in a few words.^[1]
/p, b, t, d, k/ are plosives, whereas /dʒ/ is an affricate.^[2]
/ŋ, k, x, ɣ/ are velar, whereas /j/ is palatal.^[2]
/r/ is either alveolar or, more commonly, uvular - see below.
Word-initial /h/ is often realized as a plosive [ʔ].^[1]

Realization of /r/

According to Peters (2006), /r/ is realized as a voiced trill, either alveolar [r] or uvular [ʀ]. Between vowels, it is sometimes realized with one contact (i.e. as a tap) [ɾ ~ ʀ̆],^[1] whereas word-finally, it can be devoiced to [r̥ ~ ʀ̥].^[4]

According to Sebregts (2014), about two thirds of speakers have a uvular /r/, whereas about one third has a categorical alveolar /r/. There are also a few speakers who mix uvular and alveolar articulations.^[5]

Among uvular articulations, he lists uvular trill [ʀ], uvular trill fricative [ʀ̝], uvular fricative [ʁ] and uvular approximant [ʁ̞], which are used more or less equally often in all contexts. Almost all speakers with a uvular /r/ use all four of these realizations.^[6]

Among alveolar articulations, he lists alveolar tap [ɾ], voiced alveolar fricative [ɹ̝], alveolar approximant [ɹ], partially devoiced alveolar trill [r̥], voiceless alveolar trill [r̥], alveolar tap/trill fricative [ɾ̞ ~ r̝], voiceless alveolar tap [ɾ̥] and voiceless alveolar fricative [ɹ̝̊]. Among these, the tap is most common, whereas the tap/trill fricative is the second most common realization. The partially devoiced alveolar trill occurred only once.^[6]

Vowels

Monophthongs of the Hasselt dialect, from Peters (2006:119)

Monophthong phonemes^[7]
	Front				Central	Back
	unrounded		rounded		unrounded	Back
	short	long	short	long	short	short	long
Close	i	iː	y	yː		u	uː
Near-close	j
Close-mid		eː	ø	øː	ə	ɔ	(oː)
Open-mid	ɛ	ɛː	œ	œː	ə	ɔ	ɔː
Open	æ	aː				ɑ	ɑː

There are also the nasal vowels /œ̃ː, ɔ̃ː, æ̃ː, ɑ̃ː/, which occur only in French loanwords.^[8]
The front vowels /y, yː, ø, øː, œ, œː, aː/ are somewhat retracted [y̠, y̠ː, ø̠, ø̠ː, œ̠, œ̠ː, a̠ː], but not retracted enough to be described as central vowels.^[8]
All of the back vowels are almost fully back.^[7] Among these, /u, uː, oː, ɔ, ɔː/ are rounded, whereas /ɑ, ɑː/ are unrounded.
- /oː/ is a marginal vowel. Its occurrence is restricted to loanwords from standard Dutch and English.^[8]
Before alveolar consonants, the long rounded vowels /uː, øː, œː/ are realized as centering diphthongs [uə, øə, œə].^[8]
/ə, ɔ/ are mid [ə, ɔ̝].^[8]
- /ə/ occurs only in unstressed syllables.^[1]
/æ/ is near-open, whereas /aː, ɑ, ɑː/ are open.^[8]

Diphthongs of the Hasselt dialect, from Peters (2006:119)

Diphthong phonemes^[7]
Starting point	Ending point
Starting point	Front	Central	Back
Close	uɪ	iə
Close-mid	eɪ øɪ		ou
Open-mid	ɔɪ
Open	aɪ

/iə, øɪ, aɪ/ have somewhat retracted first elements [i̠, ø̠, a̠]. In case of /aɪ/, its first element is also somewhat raised. Because of that, it is best described as near-open advanced central [ɐ̟].^[8]
- /aɪ/ and occurs only in loanwords from French and interjections.^[8]
/uɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ have somewhat advanced first elements ([u̟] and [ɔ̟], respectively).^[8]
Before alveolar consonants, /eɪ, ou/ are realized as centering diphthongs [eə, oə]. In case of /eɪ/, this happens only before the sonorants, i.e. /n, l/ and the alveolar allophones of /r/, with the tripthong [ejə] being an alternative pronunciation. In case of /ou/, the centering diphthong is used before all alveolar consonants, not just the sonorants. No triphthongal variants of /ou/ have been reported.^[8]
/øɪ, ɔɪ, aɪ/ occur only word-finally.^[8]
/ou, ɔɪ, aɪ/ have somewhat lowered second elements [u̞, ɪ̞, ɪ̞].^[8]

There are also the sequences /uːj, ɔːj, ɑːj/, which are better analyzed as sequences of /uː, ɔː, ɑː/ and the approximant /j/, rather than diphthongs /uːi, ɔːi, ɑːi/. The sequences /ɔːj, ɑːj/ occur only word-finally.^[8]

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Peters (2006), p. 118.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Peters (2006), p. 117.
↑ Staelens (1989).
↑ Peters (2006). While the author does not state that explicitly, he uses the symbol ⟨r̥⟩ for many instances of the word-final /r/.
↑ Sebregts (2014), p. 96.
1 2 Sebregts (2014), p. 97.
1 2 3 Peters (2006), pp. 118–119.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Peters (2006), p. 119.

Bibliography

Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
Sebregts, Koen (2014), "3.4.4 Hasselt", The Sociophonetics and Phonology of Dutch r (PDF), Utrecht: LOT, pp. 96–99, ISBN 978-94-6093-161-1
Staelens, Xavier (1989), Dieksjenèèr van 't (H)essels (3rd ed.), Hasselt: de Langeman