Vaals dialect
Vaals dialect (natively , Standard Dutch: , ) is a Ripuarian dialect spoken in Vaals. It is very similar to the Kerkrade dialect and the Aachen dialect. Phonology. One of the big differences between the Vaals dialect and the neighboring dialects (even the dialect of Lemiers, called ) is the pronunciation of "ch" after front vowels, which is a palatal fricative in most southern dialects of Dutch. In Vaals, it merges with the postalveolar fricative "sj", as in many Western German dialects. For instance, the first person singular pronoun corresponds to or in Limburgish. However, the dialect of Lemiers is much more  similar to the dialect of Vaals than the dialect spoken in Vijlen (called or ) as the former features the High German consonant shift. In Lemiers, the etymological ( in Limburgish and southern Standard Dutch) has not fully shifted to in consonant clusters. Thus, the word for "big" (Standard Dutch ), varies between and . A Limburgish dialectologist Will Kohnen recommends the spelling to cover this variation (cf. Vieleter ). In Kerkrade, the shift has been completed and so only the form occurs.