# Getelands

Getelands (Dutch pronunciation:, Limburgish: Getelandjs) or West Getelands (Dutch: Westgetelands, Limburgish: Wesgetelandjs) is a South Brabantian dialect spoken in the eastern part of Flemish Brabant as well as the western part of Limburg in Belgium. It is a transitional dialect between South Brabantian and West Limburgish.
The dialect is named after the river Gete. It is an endangered language.

## Characteristics

The first person singular pronoun is typically the Limburgish ich, instead of Brabantian/Standard Dutch ik. The diminutive forms are formed as in Limburgish, using the umlaut. In Truierlands (sometimes called East Getelands), the plural is also formed by using the umlaut (pot /pɔt/ vs. pöt /pœt/), in contrast to Getelands plurals formed the Standard Dutch way (pot /pɒt/ vs. potte /ˈpɒtə/). Both dialects share the lack of pitch accent found in most varieties of Limburgish.
Word accent in the Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect shows phonetic features of accent 2 (the dragging tone) of the neighboring West Limburgish dialects.

## Phonology

This section shows the phonology of the Orsmaal-Gussenhoven dialect, which is spoken in the Linter municipality. The dialect of Melkwezer has a similar phonology, except for the fact that the diphthong /uɪ/ is realized with a mid onset: [ɔɪ].
Consonant phonemes :
| | | Labial | Alveolar | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Dorsal | Dorsal | Glottal |
| | | Labial | hard | soft | Postalveolar | hard | soft | Glottal |
| Nasal | Nasal | m ⟨m⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ | | | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | | |
| Stop | fortis | p ⟨p⟩ | t ⟨t⟩ | tʲ ⟨tj⟩ | | k ⟨k⟩ | kʲ ⟨kj⟩ | |
| Stop | lenis | b ⟨b⟩ | d ⟨d⟩ | | | | | |
| Fricative | fortis | f ⟨f⟩ | s ⟨s⟩ | | ʃ ⟨sj⟩ | x ⟨ch⟩ | | |
| Fricative | lenis | v ⟨v⟩ | z ⟨z⟩ | | ʒ ⟨zj⟩ | ɣ ⟨g⟩ | | ɦ ⟨h⟩ |
| Approximant | Approximant | w ⟨w⟩ | l ⟨l⟩ | | | | j ⟨j⟩ | |
| Trill | Trill | | r ⟨r⟩ | | | | | |
* /ʒ/ is restricted to word-initial position, and occurs only in loanwords from French. It tends to either devoice to [ʃ] or be affricated to [dʒ].
* The exact place of articulation of /x, ɣ/ varies:
** Velar [x, ɣ̊] before and after back vowels and, in the case of /x/, also when it is preceded by a back vowel in an intervocalic position between stressed and unstressed syllable.
** Palatal [ç, ʝ̊] before and after front vowels and, in the case of /x/, also after /ə/.
* /ɦ/ may be dropped by some speakers.
* /r/ has a few possible realizations, none of which are uvular. This stands in contrast to most varieties of Limburgish, where /r/ is a uvular trill or fricative.
** Apical trill [r] or an apical fricative [ɹ̝] before a stressed vowel in word-initial syllables.
** Intervocalically and in the onset after a consonant, it may be a tap [ɾ].
** Word-final /r/ is highly variable; the most frequent variants are an apical fricative trill [r̝], an apical fricative [ɹ̝] and an apical non-sibilant affricate [dɹ̝]. The last two variants tend to be voiceless ([ɹ̝̊, tɹ̝̊]) in pre-pausal position.
** The sequence /ər/ can be vocalized to [ɐ] or [ə].
Vowel phonemes :
| | | Front | Front | Front | Front | Central | Central | Back | Back |
| | | unrounded | unrounded | rounded | rounded | | Central | Central | Back | Back |
| | | short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long |
| Close | Close | | iː ⟨ie⟩ | | yː ⟨uu⟩ | | | u ⟨oe⟩ | uː ⟨oê⟩ |
| Close-mid | Close-mid | ɪ ⟨i⟩ | eː ⟨ee⟩ | ʏ ⟨u⟩ | øː ⟨eu⟩ | ə ⟨e⟩ | | ʊ ⟨ó⟩ | oː ⟨oo⟩ |
| Open-mid | Open-mid | ɛ ⟨e⟩ | ɛː ⟨ae⟩ | œ ⟨ö⟩ | œː ⟨äö⟩ | ə ⟨e⟩ | | ɒ ⟨o⟩ | ɒː ⟨ao⟩ |
| Open | Open | | | | | a ⟨a⟩ | aː ⟨aa⟩ | | |
| Marginal | Marginal | y ⟨uu⟩ o ⟨oo⟩ | y ⟨uu⟩ o ⟨oo⟩ | y ⟨uu⟩ o ⟨oo⟩ | y ⟨uu⟩ o ⟨oo⟩ | y ⟨uu⟩ o ⟨oo⟩ | y ⟨uu⟩ o ⟨oo⟩ | y ⟨uu⟩ o ⟨oo⟩ | y ⟨uu⟩ o ⟨oo⟩ |
| Diphthongs | closing | uɪ ⟨oei⟩ aɪ ⟨ai⟩ aʊ ⟨aw⟩ | uɪ ⟨oei⟩ aɪ ⟨ai⟩ aʊ ⟨aw⟩ | uɪ ⟨oei⟩ aɪ ⟨ai⟩ aʊ ⟨aw⟩ | uɪ ⟨oei⟩ aɪ ⟨ai⟩ aʊ ⟨aw⟩ | uɪ ⟨oei⟩ aɪ ⟨ai⟩ aʊ ⟨aw⟩ | uɪ ⟨oei⟩ aɪ ⟨ai⟩ aʊ ⟨aw⟩ | uɪ ⟨oei⟩ aɪ ⟨ai⟩ aʊ ⟨aw⟩ | uɪ ⟨oei⟩ aɪ ⟨ai⟩ aʊ ⟨aw⟩ |
| Diphthongs | centering | iə ⟨ieë⟩ eə ⟨eë⟩ ɛə ⟨aeë⟩ ɔə ⟨oa⟩ | iə ⟨ieë⟩ eə ⟨eë⟩ ɛə ⟨aeë⟩ ɔə ⟨oa⟩ | iə ⟨ieë⟩ eə ⟨eë⟩ ɛə ⟨aeë⟩ ɔə ⟨oa⟩ | iə ⟨ieë⟩ eə ⟨eë⟩ ɛə ⟨aeë⟩ ɔə ⟨oa⟩ | iə ⟨ieë⟩ eə ⟨eë⟩ ɛə ⟨aeë⟩ ɔə ⟨oa⟩ | iə ⟨ieë⟩ eə ⟨eë⟩ ɛə ⟨aeë⟩ ɔə ⟨oa⟩ | iə ⟨ieë⟩ eə ⟨eë⟩ ɛə ⟨aeë⟩ ɔə ⟨oa⟩ | iə ⟨ieë⟩ eə ⟨eë⟩ ɛə ⟨aeë⟩ ɔə ⟨oa⟩ |
* Peters gives six more diphthongs, which are [eɪ, øʏ, əʊ, ɛɪ, œʏ, ɔʊ]. He gives no evidence for their phonemic status. As Brabantian dialects are known for both diphthongizing /eː, øː, oː/ and especially monophthongizing /ɛɪ, œʏ, ɔʊ/, the distinction between the closing diphthongs and the monophthongs is ignored elsewhere in the article, with ⟨eː, øː, oː, ɛː, œː, ɒː⟩ being used as cover symbols for both.
* The open central vowels are phonologically back in that they trigger the velar allophones of /x/ and /ɣ/.
* Among the long rounded vowels, /yː, uː, ɒː/ before /t, d/ within the same syllable vary between monophthongs [yː, uː, ɒː] and centering diphthongs [yə, uə, ɒə], which often are disyllabic [ʏy.ə, ʊu.ə, ɒʊ.ə] (with the first portion realized as a closing diphthong). At least in the case of [yə] and [uə], the tongue movement may be so slight that they are sometimes better described as lip-diphthongs [yi, uɯ]. In the same environment, /øː/ can be disyllabic [øʏ.ə]. For the sake of simplicity, those allophones are transcribed [yə, uə, ɒə, øə] in phonetic transcription.
* There are two additional short tense vowels [y] and [o], which are tenser (higher and perhaps also more rounded) than the native short /ʏ, ʊ/ (with the latter being [o̞] phonetically). They appear only in a few French loanwords. Their status as phonemes separate from the long tense /yː/ and /oː/ is unclear; Peters treats them as marginal phonemes.
* /ɔə/ occurs only before alveolar consonants. Phonetically, it varies between [ɔə ~ ɔʊ.ə ~ ɔʌ].
* Stressed short vowels cannot occur in open syllables. Exceptions to this rule are high-frequency words like wa /wa/ 'what' and loanwords from French.