Jan Goossens (born 19 February 1930 in

Genk Genk () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality comprises only the town of Genk itself. It ...

, Belgium) is a Belgian historical linguist and dialectologist. His main interest is the philology and history of

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

and the

Low Franconian In historical linguistics, historical and comparative linguistics, Low Franconian is a linguistic category used to classify a number of historical and contemporary West Germanic languages, West Germanic Variety (linguistics), varieties closely r ...

and

Low Saxon Low Saxon (), also known as West Low German () are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of the German-speaking minority). It is one of two di ...

dialects of the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

and Germany.

Career

Goossens studied

Germanic philology Germanic philology is the philology, philological study of the Germanic languages, particularly from a Comparative method, comparative or historical perspective. The beginnings of research into the Germanic languages began in the 16th century, wi ...

at the

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (; ) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) * Katholieke Universiteit Leuven or KU Leuven (1968 ...

and received a doctoral degree in 1960. In 1961, he became lecturer at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

, in 1965 he became professor in Leuven, and in 1969 he joined

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

where he was professor for Dutch philology until his retirement in 1995. Goossens is a member of the

Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature The Royal Flemish Academy for Dutch Language and Literature (, , abbr. KANTL) is an institution focused on the study and promotion of the Dutch language in Flanders. It is the Dutch-speaking counterpart of the Académie royale de langue et de li ...

. In 1986, he received the ''Großes Verdienstkreuz'' of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2009, Goossens became

honorary citizen Honorary citizenship is a status bestowed by a city or other government on a foreign or native individual whom it considers to be especially admirable or otherwise worthy of the distinction. The honor usually is symbolic and does not confer an ...

of his hometown Genk.

Selected works

* ''Semantische vraagstukken uit de taal van het landbouwbedrijf'' (1963) * ''Strukturelle Sprachgeographie'' (1969) * '' Historische Phonologie des Niederländischen'' (1974) * ''Inleiding tot de Nederlandse dialectologie'' (1970, 1976²) * ''Deutsche Dialektologie'' (1976) * ''Middelnederlandse vocaalsystemen'' (1980) * ''Reynaerts Historie – Reynke de Vos'' (1983) * ''Fränkischer Sprachatlas'' (1981, 1988, 1994, 2002) * ''Fonologische atlas van de Nederlandse dialecten'' (1998, 2000, 2005)

References

Living people 1930 births Linguists from Belgium KU Leuven alumni Academic staff of the University of Münster People from Genk {{Belgium-linguist-stub