South Guelderish ( nl, Zuid-Gelders , german: Südgeldersch, ''Kleverländisch'') refers to the easternmost group of

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

dialects spoken along the

lower Rhine The Lower Rhine (german: Niederrhein; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the river Rhine) flows from Bonn, Germany, to the North Sea at Hook of Holland, Netherlands (including the Nederrijn or "Nether Rhine" within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta); ...

(Dutch

Nederrijn 300px, Course of the Nederrijn Nederrijn (; "Lower Rhine"; not to be confused with the section called Lower Rhine further upstream) is the name of the Dutch part of the Rhine from the confluence at the town of Angeren of the cut-off Rhine be ...

and German Niederrhein). In its narrower sense, the term refers strictly to the Rivierenlands ( nl), Nijmeegs, and Liemers sub-dialects; in its broader sense, the term encompasses also North Limburgish in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and Kleverlander (around

Cleves Kleve (; traditional en, Cleves ; nl, Kleef; french: Clèves; es, Cléveris; la, Clivia; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century ...

; Dutch ''Kleverlands'', German ''Kleverländisch'') in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. South Guelderish (in the narrow sense) — especially Rivierenlands — is sometimes included as part of Brabantic, a more widely spoken Dutch dialect and the closest relative of South Guelderish. Alternatively, it is considered to extend southward into Northern Limburg until the

Uerdingen line The Uerdingen Line (german: Ürdinger Linie, Uerdinger Linie, nl, Uerdinger linie; named after Uerdingen by Georg Wenker) is the isogloss within West Germanic languages that separates dialects which preserve the ''-k'' sound in the first perso ...

. It is arguably more appropriate to group South Guelderish (narrow sense), North Limburgish and, Kleverlander into one dialect group—East Dutch. In the Netherlands, South Guelderish is spoken in the following regions: North Limburg, the

Veluwezoom National Park Veluwezoom National Park is a national park of the Netherlands located in the province of Gelderland. This park is the oldest national park of the Netherlands. It has a surface area of 50 square kilometers at the southeastern edge of the Veluwe, ...

, Rijk van Nijmegen, Land van Maas en Waal, the Bommelerwaard, the , the

Betuwe Batavia (; , ) is a historical and geographical region in the Netherlands, forming large fertile islands in the river delta formed by the waters of the Rhine (Dutch: ''Rijn'') and Meuse (Dutch: ''Maas'') rivers. During the Roman empire, it wa ...

Land van Cuijk Land van Cuijk is a municipality in the province of North Brabant, Netherlands, formed from the merger of Boxmeer, Cuijk, Sint Anthonis, Mill en Sint Hubert and Grave. The municipality came into existence on 1 January 2022. It belongs to the regio ...

and Liemers.

Status

The political status of

Low Franconian Low Franconian, Low Frankish, NetherlandicSarah Grey Thomason, Terrence Kaufman: ''Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics'', University of California Press, 1991, p. 321. (Calling it "Low Frankish (or Netherlandish)".)Scott Shay ...

(or East Dutch) dialects, including South Guelderish, has long differed greatly between the Netherlands and Germany. In the Netherlands, East Dutch has long been subject to the influence of Standard Dutch. Since it is a Dutch dialect, it is already similar enough to the standard language to have not been greatly influenced. In Germany, however, since 1713, when Prussia took control of the area, dialects such as Kleverlander have been in retreat under the pressure of Standard German, to which they were previously only distantly related. This influence has been strongest in the vocabulary used, in areas where Low Franconian was previously spoken. Furthermore, large-scale

industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

in the

–

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in ...

area in Germany, as well as the resulting

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

, during the late 19th century and the 20th century, has greatly reduced its use today, leaving very few native speakers. For example, in Duisburg (though traditionally within the South Guelderish area), it has virtually died out. (See Duisburg Platt Dialect). As noted before, South Guelderish is sometimes included within Brabantic. That is because there exists no tight

isogloss An isogloss, also called a heterogloss (see Etymology below), is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Major ...

bundle between the Brabantic and South Guelderish dialects. Instead, change occurs in two individual steps: the ''alt''-''oud'' isogloss, between Groesbeek and

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

, and the ''ies''-''ijs'' and the ''huis-huus'' isoglosses west of Nijmegen.

In diaspora

* A dialect of possibly South Guelderish origin spoken in the United States is Pella Dutch.

External links

The Lower Rhine And South Sleswick: Two Border Regions And Their Relation To Their Neighbours And Minorities
{{Languages of the Benelux Low Franconian languages Languages of Germany Languages of the Netherlands Dutch dialects German dialects History of Gelderland Culture of Gelderland Culture of Limburg (Netherlands) Culture of North Brabant North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland