With 135,000 dialect words from Maastricht, Venlo, Roermond, Sittard and Valkenburg, Limburg has a new dictionary, or dictionary. On a website but also as an app for the phone.
The dictionary not only translates from and into Dutch, but English speakers can now also learn Limburgish.
America
“The idea was actually born in San Francisco,” says Yuri Michielsen. He is chairman of the Limburg Academy, which has compiled the new dictionary. “I lived in America at the time and someone at the university there was involved with dialects and also with Limburgish. But our dialect was difficult for him to access because English-Limburg and vice versa was not yet available. So now it is.”
studying Limburgish
According to Michielsen, there are more people in the world who study Limburgish. “The special thing about our dialect are the punch and drag tones. ‘Breed’ can be eaten and pronounced longer, a ‘brood’ will get married. We also have someone from Italy at the Limburg Academy, for example, who studies Limburgish.”
app
In any case, the dialect still seems very much alive. “Two thirds of Limburgers speak a dialect. Half of young people under the age of 35 use Limburgish. That is very important for a language that continues to be written. That is also one of the goals of our app and the website , that you can easily look up the spelling.”
Also read: Limburgish is doing well, and yet: alarm!
Different dialects
The new dictionary offers words from five Limburg municipalities: Maastricht, Venlo, Roermond, Sittard and Valkenburg. It also contains many sayings and proverbs. And with a location setting on your phone you can conjure up the dialect of the place where you are at that moment.
Official language
In Limburg about 750,000 people speak dialect, in Friesland about 350,000 Frisians speak Frisian. Nevertheless, Frisian is an official language. “Limburgish is also recognized as a regional language, but we should actually also be given the status of an official language. At the moment, the government spends about 77 cents per inhabitant on the language Frisian, and 17 cents on Limburg.” cent. If you do speak a language, you get more and you can also do a lot more culturally and you are assured of money.”
Lobby
The province of Limburg and Limburg MPs in particular should beat the drum harder. “The Frisians do, why don’t we? No idea. Maybe the Limburg modesty, but that’s a shame. Maybe we can breathe new life into that lobby.”