page_title: Maastrichtian dialect
section_title: Monophthongs
hierarchical_section_title: Maastrichtian dialect / Phonology / Monophthongs
context_page_description: Maastrichtian or Maastrichtian Limburgish is the dialect and variant of Limburgish spoken in the Dutch city of Maastricht alongside the Dutch language. In terms of speakers, it is the most widespread variant of Limburgish, and it is a tonal one. Like many of the Limburgish dialects spoken in neighbouring Belgian Limburg, Maastrichtian retained much Gallo-Romance influences in its vocabulary.
  The French influence can additionally be attributed to the historical importance of French with the cultural elite and educational systems as well as the historical immigration of Walloon labourers to the city. Despite being a specific variant of Limburgish, Maastrichtian remains mutually intelligible with other Limburgish variants, especially those of surrounding municipalities.
  Whilst Maastrichtian is still widely spoken, regardless of social level, research has shown that it is suffering from a degree of dialect loss amongst younger generations. That is the case in dwindling of speakers but also in development of the dialect towards Standard Dutch.
context_section_description: The front vowels /ɪ, eː, æ, aː/ are somewhat retracted [ɪ̞, e̠ː, æ̠, a̠ː], but not retracted enough to be labelled as central vowels. On the other hand, /ʏ/ is so retracted that it is best labelled as central [ɵ].
  Among the central vowels, /ʏ/ is rounded, whereas /ə/ is unrounded.
  /ə/ occurs only in unstressed syllables.
  Among the back vowels, /u, uː, ʊ, oː, ɔ, ɔː/ are rounded, whereas /ɑ/ is unrounded.
  /u, uː, ʊ, oː, ɔ, ɑ/ are somewhat advanced [u̟, u̟ː, ʊ̞, o̟ː, ɔ̟, ɑ̟], but not advanced enough to be labelled as central vowels.
  The qualitative differences between the short /ɪ, ʏ, ʊ/ and long /eː, øː, oː/ close-mid vowels are not very big; the short vowels are slightly higher and somewhat more central. In the case of the /ʏ/–/øː/ pair, the difference is the smallest.
  Among the open-mid vowels, only /ɛː, œː, ɔ/ are open-mid [ɛː, œː, ɔ], whereas /ɛ, œ, ə/ are actually mid [ɛ̝, œ̝, ə].
  The open vowels /æ, ɑ, ɔː/ are somewhat raised (i.e. near-open) [æ, ɑ̝, ɒ̝ː]. /æ/ is similar in quality to /ɛː/; the main difference between them is backness (/æ/ is somewhat more retracted), rather than height.
  The short counterpart of /aː/ is /ɑ/, not /æ/ (which does not have a long counterpart).
caption: Monophthongs of the Maastrichtian dialect, from Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)