Eupen dialect (, german: Eupener Platt) is a Ripuarian dialect spoken in

Eupen Eupen (, ; ; formerly ) is the capital of German-speaking Community of Belgium and is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of Liège, from the German border ( Aachen), from the Dutch border (Maastricht) and from the " High Fe ...

Classification

The Eupener dialect is part of a dialect continuum between

Limburgish Limburgish ( li, Limburgs or ; nl, Limburgs ; german: Limburgisch ; french: Limbourgeois ), also called Limburgan, Limburgian, or Limburgic, is a West Germanic language spoken in the Dutch and Belgian provinces of Limburg and in the neig ...

and Ripuarian. While Limburgish dialects are considered

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 ...

(like well as Dutch), Ripuarian is considered to be

West Central German West Central German (german: Westmitteldeutsch) belongs to the Central, High German dialect family of German. Its dialects are Franconian and comprise the parts of the Rhinelandic continuum located south of the Benrath line isogloss, includin ...

. The dialects in between are called Low Dietsch.

Geographic distribution

Today, it is used less than other similar dialects in adjacent municipalities, like the dialects of Welkenraedt, Gemmenich or Montzen east of Eupen. The younger residents of Eupen tend to speak

Standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (not to be confused with High German dialects, more precisely Upper German dialects) (german: Standardhochdeutsch, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the standardized variety ...

instead. West of Eupen, Wallonian dialects of French are spoken.

Status

As the Eupen dialect is used by the German minority in Belgium, it is considered to be a dialect of German just like Kölsch. This contrasts with the treatment of the related Dutch Ripuarian dialects (e.g. the Vaals dialect), which fall under the umbrella of Limburgish (see Southeast Limburgish), which is a statutory provincial language in the Netherlands.

Linguistic features

One of the characteristics of the Eupen dialect is diphthongization to ; compare Eupen , , and with

(spoken further north in the Netherlands) , , and Nouns are always capitalized, following German conventions.

References

Bibliography

* * * Central German languages German dialects German-speaking Community of Belgium Ripuarian language City colloquials {{germanic-lang-stub