Netherlandic language research

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Chapter Ten
Dialectology

A historical survey of dialect research up to about 1925 is to be found in the Handleiding bij het Noord- en Zuid-Nederlandsch dialectonderzoek by L. Grootaers and G.G. Kloeke (The Hague, 1926), the first volume in the series Noord- en Zuid-Nederlandsche Dialectbibliotheek, edited under the direction of these two scholars. In the Handleiding Kloeke gives an account of Northern Netherlandic activities in the field of dialect research, while Grootaers does the same for Flemish Belgium.

Having referred to this survey, we can restrict ourselves, for the period before 1925, to broad outlines.

A. Dialect research until about 1920

The first attempt at depicting the whole linguistic area of the Low Countries, including Low German and Frisian, was that by J. Winkler, who, in his Algemeen Nederduitsch en Friesch Dialecticon (2 vols, The Hague, 1874), included the Parable of the Prodigal Son in many dialect versions. The book by Joh. A. Leopold and L. Leopold, Van de Schelde tot de Weichsel, Nederduitsche dialecten in dicht en ondicht (3 vols, Groningen, 1881-82), has a different plan, and is more of a dialect reader. Winkler's book has the advantage that it always renders the same text, although there is the risk that the versions are coloured by their biblical origin. Leopold's has the attractions and drawbacks of its literary framework. Winkler's is the more useful for scholars.

The name of the polyhistor Taco H. de Beer is connected with a serious attempt at organizing dialect research, in the periodical Onze Volkstaal, of which three volumes appeared (1882-1890). The standard of scholarship was assured by the collaboration of such scholars as P.J. Cosijn, J.H. Gallée, H. Kern, B. Sijmons, J. Beckering Vinckers and the Fleming J.F.J. Heremans. It was also demonstrated by the extensive Proeve eener Bibliographie der Nederlandsche [i.e. Northern Netherlandic] dialecten by L.D. Petit, published in the first volume. This periodical also contained contributions by interested laymen. Noteworthy publications in it are the Spraakleer van

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het Westvlaamsch Dialect by J. Vercoullie in the second volume, and the contributions by H. van den Brand, partly published under the pseudonym Brabantius, on the dialect of the eastern regions of the province of Noord-Brabant.

The ideal de Beer had in mind was an ‘idioticon’, which he probably visualized as a dictionary comprising all the Netherlandic dialects. Idiotica were also the first results of Flemish dialectological activities. The oldest of this type is the Algemeen Vlaamsch Idioticon by L.W. Schuermans (Louvain, 1865-70; with Bijvoegsel, Louvain, 1882), which was not so much an objective consideration of dialectal data as a collection, from Flemish dialects, of elements that would fit in a supra-dialectal language. A certain particularistic intention also underlay L.-L. de Bo's Westvlaamsch Idioticon (Bruges, 1873, 2nd edition by J. Samyn, Ghent, 1892), to the preparation of which contributions were made by the poet Guido Gezelle, who himself had collected peculiarities of different kinds in his periodical Loquela. The material worked into this periodical was edited in the form of an alphabetical dictionary by J. Craeynest (Amsterdam, 1907, 2nd impression, unchanged, 1946).

The work of these scholars was continued by A. Rutten, Bijdrage tot een Haspengouwsch Idioticon (Antwerp, 1890); J.F. Tuerlinckx, Bijdrage tot een Hagelandsch Idioticon (Ghent, 1886) with a Bijvoegsel by D. Claes (Ghent, 1904); J. Cornelissen and J.B. Vervliet, Idioticon van het Antwerpsch Dialect (Ghent, 1899-1903) with Aanhangsel (Ghent, 1906) and Supplement (3 vols, Turnhout, 1936-38); A. Joos, Waasch Idioticon (Ghent and St.-Niklaas, 1900). Is. Teirlinck's Zuid-Oostvlaandersch Idioticon (3 vols, Ghent, 1908-23), by far the best of its kind, has for its fourth volume a Klank- en Vormleer van het Zuid-Oostvlaandersch dialect (Ghent, 1924).

In the Kingdom of the Netherlands appeared the important study by G.J. Boekenoogen, De Zaansche Volkstaal (Leyden, 1897), in the first place an idioticon, but also containing a grammatical description of the dialect in its extensive introduction. Especially worth mentioning is the chapter on ‘Zaansche eigennamen’, proper names and toponyms.

It was purely geographical considerations that, in 1879, led the ‘Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap’ (Royal Dutch Geographical Society) to circulate a questionnaire, composed by H. Kern. J. te Winkel, who was charged with the editing of

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the answers, considered the material collected insufficient, and a fresh list of questions was circulated in 1895. The result of this inquiry was te Winkel's publication De Noordnederlandsche tongvallen, two parts of which appeared (Leyden, 1898-1901, with two maps).

Before this, some monographs had been published on Northern Netherlandic dialects - mostly the authors' own - with phonologies on a historical-germanistic basis; such books, when they did not consist merely of a phonology, also contained a short morphology, but little or no syntax. Further, they also as a rule had glossaries of varying size. The doctoral thesis of W. de Vries, Het vocalisme van den tongval van Noordhorn (Groningen, 1895) and that of A. Opprel, Het dialect van Oud-Beierland (The Hague, 1896), are the oldest representatives of this type. Shortly after the turn of the century appeared successively the theses of M. Bruyel, Het Dialect van Elten-Bergh (Utrecht, 1901); A. van de Water, De Volkstaal in het Oosten van de Bommelerwaard (Utrecht, 1904); M.A. van Weel, Het dialect van West-Voorne (Leyden, 1904); W. van Schothorst, Het dialect der Noord-West-Veluwe (Utrecht, 1904), the best of its kind; J.J.H. Houben, Het dialect der stad Maastricht (Maastricht, 1905); J. Gunnink, Het dialect van Kampen en omstreken (Kampen, 1908). A. Verschuur's De klankleer van het Noord-Bevelandsch (Amsterdam, 1902) devotes much space to experimental observations on phonetics.

Different in pattern were the Southern Netherlandic dialect publications emanating from Louvain on the initiative of L. Goemans and Ph. Colinet, published in the Leuvense Bijdragen. These dialect-grammars, intentionally non-historical, were based on the situation at that time. The series was started by Colinet with Het dialect van Aalst (Leuv. Bijdr. I, 1896). Goemans followed with Het dialect van Leuven (Leuv. Bijdr. II, 1897-98); L. Grootaers with Het dialect van Tongeren (Leuv. Bijdr. VIII and IX, 1908-11); J. Dupont with Het dialect van Bree (Leuv. Bijdr. IX, XII and XIV, 1910-22), which was never completed. Composed in the same way was the Klankleer van het Hasseltsch Dialect by L. Grootaers and J. Grauls, published in Louvain in 1930, though it had been completed in 1914 as a prize-winning essay. Other publications on local Southern dialects are H. Smout, Het Antwerpsch Dialect, met eene schets van de geschiedenis van dit dialect in de 17e en de 18e eeuw (Ghent, 1905), and J.B. Bosscherij, De Gentsche Tongval (V.M.V.A. 1907, 613 ff).

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It was chiefly from these older southern and northern dialect grammars that N. van Wijk gathered the material for several most important articles, published between 1905 and 1916 in Ts., on subjects of the history of sounds, in particular the development of vowels before r plus consonant.

B. Dialect research from about 1920

We may say that after about 1920 the geographical method has become generally accepted for dialect studies, though we do meet with some specimens of linguistic geography as early as the 19th century, and accounts of local dialects have been appearing also after 1920.

The Rhineland dialectologist Th. Frings, in collaboration with J. Vandenheuvel, had the sentences used by Wenker for the Deutscher Sprachatlas translated by Belgian prisoners of war into their own dialects. The result was Die südniederländischen Mundarten, of which only the first part, Texte, was published (Marburg, 1921). The second part was to have contained maps, but did not appear. In his article Zur Geschichte des Niederfränkischen in Limburg - for the Zeitschrift für deutsche Mundarten, 1919, 97 ff - Frings showed that Cologne's influence as a cultural centre, which had already been observed of the Rhineland, was also apparent in isoglosses of the Dutch province of Limburg. J. Schrijnen extended De Isoglossen van Ramisch in Nederland (Bussum, 1920) also to the Dutch province of Limburg. J. Ramisch, in his Studien zur niederrheinischen Dialektgeographie (Marburg, 1908), had covered the adjacent part of the Rhineland.

In the early decades of the century, the Northern Netherlandic scholar G.G. Kloeke started publishing articles on north-eastern dialects, based on personal observation, and in a series of these articles he expounded his opinion that Holland, and especially Amsterdam, had been the starting point of linguistic movements from west to east. Later on he worked out his views in more detail, in his ‘proeve eener historisch-dialectgeographische synthese’, De Hollandsche Expansie in de zestiende en zeventiende eeuw en haar weerspiegeling in de hedendaagsche Nederlandsche dialecten (The Hague, 1927). On the one hand he made uu [y.] instead of older oe [u.] move eastward and northward from the lower social circles of 17th century Amsterdam, where the diphthong ui was not yet used; on the other, he explained the diphthongization of former î and û into ij and ui as an imitation

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of the language spoken by the numerous immigrants who had come from the Southern Netherlands for political and economic reasons. Going still further back in history, he also explained uu as a southern import, and even found traces of older oe in Holland. Kloeke's views called forth a lively discussion, to which we shall revert in Chapter XII.

The collaboration between North and South is of long standing. A map of the entire Netherlandic linguistic area, drawn by Kloeke for purposes of research into dialect geography, was accepted by L. Grootaers and used in the publications of the ‘Zuidnederlandse Dialectcentrale’ established in 1920 by Grootaers in Louvain. This ‘Centrale’, which sets itself the task of collecting data from contributors by correspondence, has published several word-maps covering the Southern Netherlandic area. These maps are accompanied by short explanations by the authors. Similar treatment of single words from the standpoint of dialect geography has been made by L. Grootaers, J.L. Pauwels, V. Verstegen, R. Van de Kerckhove, P. D'Haene, M. Carème and P.J. Moet. The activities of the Centrale have for a number of years been reported upon by Grootaers in the Mededelingen van de Zuidnederlandse Dialectcentrale, usually published in the Bijblad to the Leuv. Bijdr.

Grootaers and Kloeke were the editors of the series Noord- en Zuid-Nederlandsche Dialectbibliotheek, of which the Handleiding, mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, was the first volume, and Kloeke's Hollandsche Expansie the second. Other volumes are Die niederfränkischen Mundarten im Nordosten der Provinz Lüttich by W. Welter (The Hague, 1933); Enkele Bloemnamen in de Zuidnederlandsche dialecten by J.L. Pauwels (The Hague, 1933), and Een tegenstelling Noord-Zuid in de praeterita en participia van de sterke werkwoorden by A.R. Hol (The Hague, 1937)¹⁾.

Another centre of dialect research is that in Ghent, founded by E. Blancquaert, whose methods are somewhat different. In short, the system adopted is to send into carefully delimited areas investigators familiar with the dialect, who then put to the inhabitants a number of questions. A large number of small sentences are translated by the local inhabitants into their own dialect, and their versions written down in a strictly phonetic transcription. Blancquaert's Reeks

1) Two volumes in the series deal with Frisian, J.J. Hof's Friesche Dialectgeographie (The Hague, 1933) and T. van der Kooy's De taal van Hindeloopen (The Hague, 1937).

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Nederlandse Dialectatlassen, when finished, will cover the whole Netherlandic area. This great enterprise is making steady progress: investigations of all Southern Netherlandic areas have either been completed or are in preparation, and areas across the frontier have also been covered. Works that have already appeared in this series are the Dialect-atlas van Klein-Brabant by Blancquaert himself (Antwerp, 1925; 2nd edition with supplements by Fr. Vanacker, 1952); Dialect-atlas van Noord-Oost-Vlaanderen en Zeeuwsch-Vlaanderen, also by Blancquaert (1935); id. van Vlaamsch-Brabant by H. Vangassen (1938); van de Zeeuwsche eilanden by Blancquaert and P.J. Meertens (1940-41); van West-Vlaanderen en Fransch-Vlaanderen by W. Pée, assisted by Blancquaert (1946); van Noord-Brabant by A. Weijnen (1952), and van Antwerpen by W. Pée (1958). The Frisian speech area has also been included, in the Dialectatlas van Friesland (1955) by K. Boelens and G. van der Woude, assisted by K. Fokkema and Blancquaert.

In his pamphlet Na meer dan 25 jaar Dialectonderzoek op het terrein (Tongres, 1948), Blancquaert gives a survey of methods and achievements. He also refutes the objection his procedure does not yield concrete, easily surveyable results.

Dialectological and toponymical research in Belgium was officially recognized by the establishment of the ‘Koninklijke Commissie voor Toponymie en Dialectologie’ in 1926. This Committee consists of a Flemish and a Walloon section. In the Handelingen, L. Grootaers for a number of years gave annual surveys of dialect research in the widest sense. Later, J.L. Pauwels took over his task, devoting more space in the biblography to appraisal and criticism. The scope of the work, moreover, has been widened since 1956, as can be gathered from the new title De Nederlandse Taalkunde in 1955 (1956), which takes the place of De Nederlandse Dialectstudie in...The survey for 1957, which was published in number XXXII of the Handelingen, was the work of F. van Coetsem. Some noteworthy publications to have appeared in the Handelingen are De Nederlandsche Dialectnamen van de Spin, den Ragebol en het Spinneweb by E. Blancquaert and his students (III and VII); De Nederlandse Benamingen van de Uier by K. Heeroma (X); Van ‘*slut-ila’ naar ‘sleutel’ by Miss C. Vereecken (XII); Tussen ‘Oud’, ‘Old’ and ‘Alt’ by J. Leenen (XV), and De n na de toonloze vocaal in werkwoordsvormen by Miss A.R. Hol (XXI).

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In the Kingdom of the Netherlands the institution, in 1928, of the ‘Dialectencommissie’ in the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences was a first attempt at some form of organization. To this committee P.J. Meertens was appointed permanent secretary. The activities of the ‘Dialectencommissie’ have gradually expanded. The Bijdragen en Mededelingen appear irregularly and contain either reports of the proceedings, called ‘symposia’, which were started at the initiative of J. van Ginneken (the first president of the Dialectencommissie after J.H. Kern), or other, independent contributions. Van Ginneken, from 1923-1945 professor in the University of Nimeguen, started a fourth centre of dialect research there. Several maps, mostly word-maps, covering the entire Netherlandic area, appeared in van Ginneken's periodical Onze Taaltuin, which, since its 7th year, has been the official organ of the Dialectencommissie.

The Taalatlas van Noord- en Zuid-Nederland was started independently by G.G. Kloeke and his pupils at Leyden University, and the maps appearing in it are of admirable quality. The first issue appeared at Leyden in 1939; after the third issue (1943) the work has been carried out in co-operation with the Dialectencommissie. That issue carried maps forming part of both the ‘Akademie-reeks’ and of the ‘Leidse Taalatlas’, whereas the contents of the fourth issue (1948) consisted entirely of maps of the ‘Akademie-reeks’, prepared by P.J. Meertens and Johanna C. Daan. Two more issues appeared, in 1952 and 1956 respectively.

The Taalatlas uses a different system from that of Blancquaert. It contains maps of single words or forms of the whole Netherlandic area, based on written information obtained by means of questionnaires. The maps, executed in bright colours, are excellent from a technical point of view, but as yet they still need to be accompanied by explanatory articles like those of Grootaers' Zuidnederlandse Dialectcentrale.

K. Heeroma, who occupies the chair of Low Saxon Language and Literature in the University of Groningen, is building up a new centre for research into dialect geography. As the language of the eastern part of the Netherlands has much in common with that of the Low German area to the east of the frontier, heeroma has included the latter area in his investigations. The first instalment of a Taalatlas van Oost-Nederland en aangrenzende gebieden, containing 10 maps with commentary, appeared in Assen, 1957. The explanatory part, like many of

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Heeroma's dialect-publications, is very ‘expansiological’. The plan of the atlas required collaboration with German dialect centres, an earlier result of which had already appeared in the form of Westfaalse en Nederlandse expansie by W. Foerste and K. Heeroma (Amsterdam, 1955). Some earlier publications by Heeroma, partly also dealing with the East of the Netherlands, will be mentioned in Chapter XIII under ‘Ingwaeonic’. In the report of the Akademiedagen (annual congresses organized by the Royal Dutch Academy for Sciences together with regional societies), VIII (1955), 80 ff, Heeroma described Het Westoverijselse taallandschap. For the periodical Driemaandelijkse Bladen see below.

One of van Ginneken's prominent pupils, A. Weijnen, has concentrated mainly on the dialects of the province of Noord-Brabant and adjacent regions. His doctoral thesis Onderzoek naar de dialectgrenzen in Noord-Brabant (privately published, Fijnaart, 1937) had been preceded by some articles in Onze Taaltuin, and was followed by several other publications such as Studies over het Achthuizens dialect (Amsterdam, 1946; in the series Bijdragen en Mededelingen van de Dialectencommissie). A general survey of the questions cropping up in dialect research is Weijnen's De Nederlandse dialecten (Groningen-Batavia, 1941). Later, it was replaced by Nederlandse Dialectkunde (Assen, 1958), which, however, must not be regarded as a revision of the 1941 edition. Nederlandse Dialectkunde sets out to give a complete survey of the present situation of, and the methods used in, the whole field of dialect research. Because of its argumentative tone and the rather extensive knowledge that is presupposed, it is more suitable as a book of reference for the expert than as an introductory handbook for the student. One of Weijnen's earlier publications was a summary entitled De dialecten (especially those within the Kingdom of the Netherlands), with extensive bibliography, which formed one chapter of Part II of the Handboek der Geografie van Nederland, edited by G.J.A. Mulder (Zwolle, 1951). A short but comprehensive general survey of De dialecten van Noord-Brabant, also by Weijnen, was published under the auspices of the ‘Provinciaal Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen in Noord-Brabant’ (1952). - Weijnen's teacher van Ginneken wrote a book about dialect research in general, De studie der Nederlandsche Streektalen (Amsterdam, 1943), a highly individual, at times rather bold piece of work, like so many of this brilliant linguist's writings.

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Another member of the school of van Ginneken and Schrijnen is W. Roukens, author of Wort- und Sachgeographie Südost-Niederlands und der umliegenden Gebiete (Nimeguen, 1937) - containing an excellent apparatus - of which only the volumes I A, ‘Text’, and I B, ‘Atlas’, appeared. Roukens does not only deal with the purely linguistic aspect, he pays special attention to folklore, too. Another of van Ginneken's pupils, J.C.P. Kats, made an attempt at a phonemic dialect description, in Het phonologisch en morphonologisch systeem van het Roermondsch dialect (Roermond-Maaseik, 1939). F.J.P. Peeters, in Het klankkarakter van het Venloos (Nimeguen, 1951), adopts an unusual plan in trying to characterize his dialect not only phonemically but also acoustically, constantly stressing points of difference between it and ‘Hollandic’. In Willy Dols' book Sittardse Diftongering (posthumous edition by J.C. van den Bergh, Sittard, 1953), the accent is on historical development.

Some of the above-mentioned works show that dialect research since 1920 has not been exclusively geographical. Nor is it only in Nimeguen that theses have appeared which resemble the useful type of dialect publications current before 1920. F.G. Schuringa described Het dialect van de Veenkoloniën (Groningen-The Hague, 1923), linking it up with the other dialects in the province of Groningen. - At about the same time a Klankleer van den tongval der stad Deventer by P. Fijn van Draat appeared in Ts. XLII, 194 ff. - H.L. Bezoen, in his thesis Klank- en Vormleer van het dialect der gemeente Enschede (Leyden, 1938), took a stand against dialect geography, as can be seen from some of his ‘stellingen’. - Bezoen's Taal en Volk van Twente (Assen, 1948), scholarly but more popular in tone, tells about diverse lexicological and folkloristic matters in the district of Twente. - G. Karsten described Het dialect van Drechterland, supplying in Part I (Purmerend, 1931) a phonology and morphology, with some remarks on syntax, and also giving the first letters of a vocabulary, the remaining letters of which are to be found in Part II (Purmerend, 1934). The structure of this idioticon recalls Boekenoogen's Zaansch Idioticon, but it is on a smaller scale. - In Belgium, G. Mazereel brought out a Klank- en Vormleer van het Brusselsch dialect (Louvain, 1931), in the style of the older Flemish dialect grammars that appeared in Leuv. Bijdr., but more concise than them. - Another work to have appeared in Belgium is the most extensive dialect study we have, Het Dialect van Aarschot en omstreken by J.L. Pauwels (I. Text, II. Maps;

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Tongres, 1958). In this handsomely produced book we find a discussion of the phonology and morphology and, briefly, of the word formation of the dialect, while points of syntax are dealt with in the morphology. A very important Appendix to this was mentioned at the end of chapter IX. - J. Broekhuysen, in Studies over het dialect van Zelhem in de Graafschap Zutfen (Groningen-Djakarta, 1950), gives only the vocalism of grammar in the pure sense, but geographically expands his project with maps covering the whole ‘Achterhoek’ (Graafschap Zutfen). The author also shows the growing influence of the standard language by comparing the usage of the older and younger generations. - H.C. Landheer, in Klank- en Vormleer van het dialect van Overflakkee (Assen, 1951), differs from the last two authors by discussing the sound system of his dialect phonemically, too. His book was later enlarged by the addition of an extensive glossary, and appeared in its new form under the title Het dialect van Overflakkee (Assen, 1954). - Though his treatment is on a smaller scale, W.G.J.A. Jacob also gave phonemics its due in Het dialect van Grave (Bois-le-Duc, 1937). - A. de Vin, in his thesis Het dialect van Schouwen-Duiveland (Assen, 1952), in some respects a parallel to Landheer's book, leaves phonemics undiscussed, as does Th.W.A. Ausems in Klank- en Vormleer van het dialect van Culemborg (Assen, 1953). - The Phonologie des Dialektes von Tilligte in Twente takes rather a special place among dialect studies, nor is it, as its title would suggest, an ordinary phonemic description. The subject of the first volume, by P.Th. Ribbert, is Wortformvorstellungen (Nimeguen, 1933), that of the second, by Th. Baader and P.Th. Ribbert, Morphologie, Phonetik und Phonemenlehre (Nimeguen, 1938). The third, by Th. Baader, is entitled Historisch-dialektgeographische Einordnung (Nimeguen, 1939).

K. ter Laan's Proeve van een Groninger Spraakkunst (Winschoten, 1953) stands by itself, it may be characterized as a description of the ϰοινὴ of the province of Groningen.

J. van Ginneken projected a series of historical dialect publications, presenting specimens of regional dialects from the Middle Ages up to the present day. Of this series, De Nederlandsche dialecten van de oudste tijden tot heden, only one volume appeared, J. Jacobs' Het Westvlaamsch van de oudste tijden tot heden (Groningen, 1927), which was mentioned in Ch. IV.

We have a guide to phonemic dialect research in the ‘phonologische

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vragenlijst voor de dialecten in Nederland’ with examples, by N. van Wijk and K. Heeroma, Onze Taaltuin IX, 77 ff.

B. van den Berg put forward his doctoral thesis Oude tegenstellingen op Nederlands Taalgebied (Leyden, 1938) as ‘een dialektgeografisch onderzoek’, but in so far as he brings out points where ‘oude tegenstellingen’ are still manifest, his work should really be considered as a reaction against the sort of picture, so often drawn by dialect geographers, in which all is fluid, and where dividing lines are continually being blurred.

A little different from the usual type of dialect studies is that by Johanna C. Daan of the former island of Wieringen, Wieringer land en leven in de taal (Alphen a/d Rijn, 1950), where grammar proper is granted relatively little space, and much attention is paid to vocabulary, grouped according to profession, family and social position. This book also contains a list of place and field names of Wieringen. C.C.W.J. Hijszeler's Boerenvoortvaring in de Oude Landschap (Assen, 1940), a description of the farming vocabulary of Drente, reminds one a little of Miss Daan's book.

Another attempt at a systematic description of a dialect vocabulary was made by J. van Ginneken. In the years 1942-43, together with a group of students, he conducted investigations in loco into the dialects of Volendam, Monnikendam and Marken, fishing-villages on the former Zuyder Zee. At the time of his death, in 1945, the results had not yet been fully worked up. They were made ready for the press by A. Weijnen, who took care of the part ‘grammatica-phonologie-klankleer’, and Mrs M. van den Homberg-Bot, who prepared the second and more extensive part, ‘de structuur van de woordenschat’, after she had edited some chapters from it as her Nimeguen thesis: Structuur in de woordenschat van drie Waterlandse dialecten (Alphen a/d Rijn, 1954). The whole work was published, rightly, under van Ginneken's name, Drie Waterlandse dialecten (2 vols, Alphen a/d Rijn, 1954). The book is typical of this brilliant scholar: its scope is impressive, its presentation attractive, but its details not unfrequently leave something to be desired.

After having published some short articles on the dialect of Drente in Onze Taaltuin, J. Naarding wrote Terreinverkenningen inzake de dialectgeografie van Drente (Assen, 1947; also published under the title De Drenten en hun taal), dealing more with historical aspects than with the present situation.

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A.P. Kieft's doctoral thesis Homonymie en haar invloed op de taalontwikkeling (Groningen-Batavia, 1938), though dealing with a matter of general linguistic interest, should be mentioned here because the author bases his theories partly on data furnished by Netherlandic dialect geography. This work induced C.G.N. de Vooys to sound a warning note against overestimating the influence of ‘homonymophobia’, in N.Tg. XXXIII, 1 ff, reprinted in his Verz. Taalk. Opst. III, 184 ff.

G.G. Kloeke returned to the area in which he started his dialect research, with Het taallandschap van onze noordoostelijke provinciën (Amsterdam, 1955). His book Een oud sjibboleth: de gewestelijke uitspraak van ‘heeft’ (Amsterdam, 1956) covers the whole Netherlandic speech area, but especially the eastern and the neighbouring Low German parts. In his article De overgang van Hollands naar noordoostelijk Nederlands, N.Tg. XLVII, 1 ff, he is, in his own words, ‘op zoek naar een aanvaardbare taalscheiding in Nederland-boven-derivieren (searching for an acceptable linguistic division in the part of the Netherlands north of the great rivers)’.

Since 1920, several dialect dictionaries have appeared, of which we have already mentioned those by G. Karsten on Drechterland and by H.C. Landheer on Overflakkee. The excellent Nieuw Groninger Woordenboek by K. ter Laan (2nd edition, Groningen, 1952) gives more details. In the same class is H.J.E. Endepols' Woordenboek of Diksjenaer van 't Mestreechs (Maastricht, 1955). - L. Goemans composed Leuvensch Taaleigen; Woordenboek, Deel I, A-F (Brussels, 1936); the second part, G-Z, was finished by L. De Man (Tongres, 1954), after the author's death. The book conforms to the older types of South Netherlandic idiotica which were mentioned above in section A. - L. Lievevrouw-Coopman's Gents Woordenboek (2 vols, Ghent, 1950-55) reminds one of the same type. - G.H. Wanink composed a Twents-Achterhoeks Woordenboek (Zutfen, 1948), of modest size, but not quite up to modern standards of scholarship. - S. Keyser's Het Tessels (Leyden, 1951) is for the greater part taken up by a dictionary; this is preceded by a short introduction and followed by some texts. - A small dictionary of the Katwijk dialect will be mentioned below. - Of the study Dialekt van Kempenland by A.P. de Bont, which was planned on a large scale, the first instalment of Part II has appeared, Vocabularium (Assen, 1958); the second instalment will complete the work. - The Woordenboek der

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Zeeuwse Dialecten (1st instalment The Hague, 1959), ‘edited’ by Miss Ha. C.M. Ghijsen, as the title page rather modestly has it, will appear in three instalments.

The lexicographical work by J. Goossenaerts, De taal van en om het Landbouwbedrijf in het Noordwesten van de Kempen, which has been appearing in instalments since 1956 at Ghent, will shortly be completed. This work is different from the other dialect dictionaries in that it is chiefly concerned with the speech of farmers, and also in that it gives many folkloristic, historical and ‘local’ details.

Some recent monographs are in general outline comparable with Goossenaerts' work. In Woord en wereld van de boer (Utrecht-Antwerp, 1958), J. Elemans has placed the dialect material of the village of Huisseling against its sociological and historical background, also giving an accurate phonemic description of the dialect. In two books about the jargon of special trades, De vlasserij in het Nederlands van de eerste helft der twintigste eeuw (Nimeguen, 1957) by A.P.J. Brouwers and De vaktaal van de Nederlandse klompenmakers (Assen, 1958) by J.J.A. van Bakel, much attention is paid to the trades today and their historical development. These last two books can hardly be called ‘dialectological’ in the strict sense of the word. Miss A.H. van Vessem's study of one aspect of farmer's speech, Oogstgerei-benamingen (Assen, 1956), is written in accordance with the principles of dialect geography.

Syntax takes a rather unimportant place in dialect research, and grammars usually do not give more than a few local peculiarities. A deliberately syntactical study like that by (V.) F. Vanacker, Syntaxis van het Aalsters dialect (Tongres, 1948) is unique of its kind. De Volkstaal van Katwijk aan Zee (Antwerp and Bois-le-Duc, 1940), by G.S. Overdiep (in collaboration with C. Varkevisser), pays due attention to syntax and the stylistic value of forms, but little to phonology. This very individual work was followed up by a small Woordenboek van de volkstaal van Katwijk aan Zee (Antwerp, 1949).

A. Sassen, a pupil of Overdiep and G.A. van Es, applied in his doctoral thesis Het Drents van Ruinen (Assen, 1953), his teachers' views and methods, basing himself on wire recordings of texts spoken by inhabitants of the village of Ruinen. Nor does he neglect phonology and morphology, and he also, with great insight, attempts to situate the dialect geographically. Two lectures, one by Sassen and one by Vanacker, on De syntaxis in de dialectstudie, were published together

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as number XIX of the Bijdragen en Mededelingen of the ‘Dialectencommissie’ (Amsterdam, 1958).

The article by A.E. Meeussen and Vanacker, on De dubbele werkwoordgroep, in N.Tg. XLIV, 36 ff, may be considered as a dialectological study in so far as it stresses regional differences. Certainly dialectological is Meeussen's article Vier isotagmen in Leuv. Bijdr. XXXV, 47 ff, with maps of the Flemish-Belgian speech area. Miss A. Pauwels instituted an extensive investigation into De plaats van hulpwerkwoord, verleden deelwoord en infinitief in de Nederlandse bijzin (2 vols, Louvain, 1953), illustrated with a large number of maps. An earlier discussion of this subject, seen from a more historical point of view, is B. van den Berg's article in T. en Tongv. I, 155 ff.

In his article Congruerende Voegwoorden for Ts. LVIII, 169 ff (reprinted Neerlandica, 246 ff), C.B. van Haeringen discussed those connecting words in subordinate clauses that, in many dialects, take ‘flexion’ in congruence with plural verbal forms in the same clause. J. van Ginneken, in Onze Taaltuin VIII, 1 ff and 33 ff, studied this phenomenon on a much larger scale, while F. Vanacker concentrated on the southern dialects for his essay Over enkele meervoudsvormen van voegwoorden in Taal en Tongval I, 32 ff and 77 ff, where he tries to fix geographical boundaries for these peculiar ‘plurals’.

Since 1920 the volume of dialect research has been so great that no survey such as this can hope to be comprehensive. We have restricted ourselves to investigations of a scholarly nature. In our days, many people are showing an increasing interest in the dialect of their own area. This explains, among other things, the large sales of the more popular periodicals such as the Driemaandelijkse Bladen, a publication devoted to ‘taal en volksleven in het Oosten van Nederland’, which was revived in 1948 under the editorship of H.L. Bezoen and J. Naarding. After Bezoen's death in 1953, his place was taken by K. Heeroma, who later made the periodical the organ of the ‘Nedersaksisch Instituut’ of Groningen University. Of older date is V.E.L.D.E.K.E., edited by the society of that name, which cultivates local interest in regional speech in the Dutch province of Limburg. In Flemish Belgium in particular, such periodicals for dialect and folklore are flourishing; we may mention Oostvlaamse Zanten, Eigen Schoon en De Brabander (which also contains articles on placenames) and Biecorf. In marked contrast to this is the situation of Taal en Tongval, a periodical devoted to Netherlandic dialectology in general,

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which was started in 1949 and is now forced to rely on government subsidies.

A Bibliografie der dialecten van Nederland 1800-1950 (Amsterdam, 1958) was composed by P.J. Meertens and B. Wander at the instigation of the ‘Dialectencommissie’; the Southern Netherlandic dialects are not represented in it. K. Schulte-Kemminghausen published a complete Verzeichnis der Mundartkarten des niederländischen Sprachraumes up to circa 1941, in Deutsches Archiv für Landes- und Volksforschung VI, 440 ff. Activities in the field of dialect geography until 1935 were reported on by W. Pée in his article La géographie linguistique néerlandaise, for the Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire XIV, 105 ff.

A good survey of the aims and methods of dialectology, and of its relations with other branches of linguistic research, is the Album L. Grootaers (Louvain, 1950), presented to the Louvain dialectologist on his 65th birthday. In it, several scholars gave contributions, under the uniform title Dialectologie en..., on subjects like cartografie (G.G. Kloeke), lexicografie (Jacoba H. van Lessen), fonologie (A. Weijnen), onomastiek (K. Roelandts) and taalgeschiedenis (K. Heeroma). Specially deserving of attention is the chapter Dialectologie en syntaxis by G.A. van Es, who, although he has not much to ‘report’, opens up interesting prospects for this particular field of study.

A very thorough piece of work, though not dealing with dialectology proper, is J.G.M. Moormann's De Geheimtalen (2 vols, Zutfen, 1932-34), in which appears a complete survey and an explanation of cant in the Netherlands, the examples for which were provided by the people who use such slang. - A similar work is C.G.N. de Vooys' Oorsprong, eigenaardigheden en verbreiding van Nederlands ‘slang’ (Amsterdam, 1940), in connection with which we ought to mention the review of it written by Jacoba H. van Lessen in Ts. LX, 316 ff.

Jewish speech was the subject of J.L. Voorzanger and J.E. Polak's Het Joodsch in Nederland (Amsterdam, 1915). H. Beem, in Jerŏsche: Jiddische spreekwoorden en zegswijzen uit het Nederlandse taalgebied (Assen, 1959), discusses several words of Jewish origin that have been generally adopted.

Several specimens of these and similar ‘groeptalen’ are to be found in J. van Ginneken's Handboek der Nederlandsche taal II (Nimeguen, 1914); cf. Ch. VIII, 2 of this book.