Everything about Hollandic totally explained
Hollandic or
Hollandish (
Dutch:
Hollands) is, together with
Brabantian, the most frequently used dialect of the
Dutch language. The other important
Low Franconian dialects are
East Flemish,
West Flemish and
Limburgish.
Development
Originally in the later county of
Holland,
Old Frisian was spoken.
Low Franconian settlers only came in the
12th century and
13th century when
Flemish settlers (
Frankish speaking) played an important part in draining the
swamplands between the coast of Holland and
Utrecht. They mixed with the original inhabitants and a
Hollandic dialect was created that was partly Franconian, partly Frisian.
In the 16th century the
Dutch language was standardized, the Brabantian Dutch of
Antwerp being the most influential. In that time the written language of the county of
Holland, then the most urbanised province in Europe, imitated this
Brabantish standard. During the
Eighty Years' War and especially after
1585, the
sack of Antwerp, and the successes of the
Duke of Parma in the 1580's between 100,000 and 200,000 of Brabantish and Flemish
Calvinist (and other) refugees and emigrants settled in the cities of Holland proper, which had the result of creating a mixture of their Dutch with the Dutch of the residents before this immigration. This new language perhaps locally destroyed most of the original Hollandic dialects, further diluting the Frisian influences on the Dutch langauage, and certainly slowed linguistic change through the influence on spoken language of the very conservative written standard.
Distance to standard language
As a result the colloquial Dutch in Holland proper (for example the area of the old county), spoken in the urban dialects, is today closer to the standard than any Dutch spoken elsewhere; traditionally the Dutch of the urbanity of
Haarlem is seen as the most "pure", though this has no basis in linguistic fact. The Dutch in Belgium has diverged more during the last centuries, which is partly because there the Dutch standard language most of the time had no official status between the 17th and 20th century. The language of administration was
French.
Shades of other dialects
In
Friesland there are areas and cities where Hollandic is spoken, strongly influenced by Frisian. In the north of
North Holland province (especially
West Friesland),
Scheveningen,
Katwijk and other coastal places the original
Frisian substrate of the Hollandic dialect is still an important part of the local
West Frisian dialect group. On the
South Holland province island of
Goeree-Overflakkee West Flemish is spoken. In the east and south the Hollandic dialects graduate into more Brabantian forms like the
South Guelderish. Utrechts-Alblasserwaards, spoken in the area immediately east of the coastal districts, is variously considered a subdialect of Hollandic or a separate dialect.
List of the subdialects
- Amsterdams
- Bildts, Midslands, Stadsfries, and Amelands
- Kennemerlands
- South Hollandic
- Utrechts-Alblasserwards
- Westhoeks
- West Frisian
- Waterlands and Volendams
- Zaans
- Huizers
Further Information
Get more info on 'Hollandic'.
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