Rhinelandic is a term occasionally used for linguistic varieties of a region on both sides of the

Middle Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...

and

Lower Rhine Lower Rhine (, ; kilometres 660 to 1,033 of the Rhine) is the section of the Rhine between Bonn in Germany and the North Sea at Hook of Holland in the Netherlands, including the '' Nederrijn'' () within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta; alternat ...

river in Central West

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, and

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, including some varieties of the

Limburgish language Limburgish ( or ; ; also Limburgian, Limburgic or Limburgan) refers to a group of South Low Franconian varieties spoken in Belgium and the Netherlands, characterized by their distance to, and limited participation in the formation of, ...

group,

Kleverlandish Kleverlandish ( or ; ) is a group of Low Franconian dialects spoken on both sides of the Dutch-German border along the Meuse and Rhine rivers. Extent and terminology Kleverlandish varieties are spoken in the Netherlands in the northernmost part ...

Moselle Franconian Moselle Franconian (; ) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish. Overview Moselle Franconian is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the course of the Moselle, i ...

and Ripuarian. The

Local language Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

s of villages or cities are commonly referred to as "the dialects" or "dialect". One of the meanings of ''Rhinelandic'' is that of a group of local languages in an area called the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

. Another meaning is that of the regiolect being used by the people approximately of the same area.

Rhinelandic Local Languages

Alternatively, if ''Rhineland'' is seen as the territory of the former Prussian

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. ...

(1815/1816–1945), there are 5 dialect areas:Michael Elmentaler, ''Sprachgrenzen und Sprachschichtungen im Rheinland: Zur sprachlichen Genese des »Rheinischen«'', in: Bernd Kortländer, Gunter E. Grimm (eds.), Joseph A. Kruse (series-ed.), ''»Rheinisch«: Zum Selbstverständnis einer Region'' (= ''Heinrich-Heine Institut Düsseldorf: Archiv, Bibliothek, Museum'' vol. 9), Verlag J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar, 2001, p. 119ff., here p. 120ff. * Kleverländisch * South Low Franconian * Ripuarian * Moselle Franconian * a small area with a part of

Rhine Franconian __NOTOC__ Rhenish Franconian or Rhine Franconian ( ) is a dialect chain of West Central German. It comprises the varieties of German spoken across the western regions of the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, northwest Baden-Württember ...

One can't speak of a Rhenish dialect area. Its northern areas are also covered by the more modern term of

Meuse-Rhenish In linguistics, Meuse-Rhenish () is a term with several meanings, used both in literary criticism and dialectology. As a dialectological term, it was introduced by the German linguist Arend Mihm in 1992 to denote a group of Low Franconian di ...

, which exclusively refers to 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 ...

varieties mentioned above. The eastern areas in the North are also said to speak Bergish, a term which has its roots in political history and regional pride rather than linguistic similarities. Likewise, the

Eifel The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...

inhabitants say, they were speaking Eifelplatt, while linguists rather refer to the Ripuarian varieties of the North, and the Moselle-Franconian ones of the South of the Eifel. All these local languages and local language groups existed long before Standard German, and developed in parallel since the latter came into existence.

Rhinelandic Regiolect

Also the Regiolect of the

, geographically roughly coinciding with the former Prussian

, is being called Rhinelandic. It is of comparatively recent origin, and derives from

Standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the umbrella term for the standard language, standardized varieties of the German language, which are used in formal contexts and for commun ...

but takes up some lexical and

grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the goal of which is to formu ...

and

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

features of the local languages, that Standard German normally does not have. Most of those features are not used in other German regiolects, and are often hardly or not understood in other regiolect areas. ''Rhenish'' ({{lang, de, Rheinisch) is a regiolect.Elvira Topalović, Julia Settinieri, ''Sprachliche Bildung'' (= ''LinguS - Linguistik und Schule: Von der Sprachtheorie zur Unterrichtspraxis'' vol. 8), Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, Tübingen, 2023, chapter ''3.1 Innere und äußere Mehrsprachigkeit'', in the definition of ''Standardvarietäten oder Standardlekte'': „ ..''Regiolekten'' (z. B. Rheinisch), ''Dialekten'' (z. B. Kölsch), ..��

References

Low Franconian languages Ripuarian language Central German languages

Rhinelandic Local Languages

Rhinelandic Regiolect

See also

References