Modern High German and Modern Dutch Standardization Processes in the Rhine-Maas Region during the Early Modern Period. A Variable-Analytic Investigation

As part of a Duisburg (Germany) University research project on the origin of the German-Dutch language boundary, a technique of variable analysis is applied to data representing characteristic phonological & lexical changes during the 1510-1660 period at 12 sites in the Rhine-Maas region, extending from Nijmegen (The Netherlands) up the Maas to include Dutch & Belgian Limburg & up the Rhine through Neuss, Germany. Results are argued to reflect five distinct types of language change conditioned by contact between local dialects & the standard varieties of Dutch & German that were evolving in neighboring regions: (1) continual accommodation culminating in full convergence with the standard, seen in western cities; (2) in the southeast, stagnation at an intermediate stage of accommodation to Ripuarian German; (3) revised accommodation with a new wave of borrowing, (4) language shifts in eastern cities; & (5) a combination of language shift to Modern Standard German with simultaneous accommodation to Standard Dutch, found in Emmerich (Germany). Figures, References. Adapted from the source document