The Bruges dialect (Standard Dutch and West Flemish: Brugs) is a West Flemish dialect used in Bruges. It is rapidly declining, being replaced with what scholars call general (rural) West Flemish.

Phonology

Consonants

  • After /u/, the sequence /nd/ is realized as a velar nasal [ŋ].
  • The sequence /ən/ is realized as a sequence [ən], rather than a syllabic [n̩].

Realization of /r/

According to Hinskens & Taeldeman (2013), /r/ is realized as a voiced uvular trill with little friction [ʀ̝]. In the neighbouring rural area, an alveolar [r] is used.

However, according to Sebregts (2014), the vast majority of the speakers in Bruges realize /r/ as alveolar, not uvular.

Definitely, the most common realization of /r/ is a voiced alveolar tap [ɾ], which is used about four times more often than the second most common realization, which is a voiced alveolar trill [r]. The other alveolar realizations include: a voiceless alveolar trill [r̥], a partially devoiced alveolar trill [r̥], a voiceless alveolar fricative tap/trill [ɾ̞̊~r̝̊], a voiceless alveolar/postalveolar fricative [ɹ̝̊,ɹ̠̊˔] (the least common realization), a voiced alveolar/postalveolar fricative [ɹ̝~ɹ̠˔] and a voiced alveolar approximant [ɹ].

Among the uvular realizations, he lists a voiced uvular trill [ʀ], a voiced uvular fricative trill [ʀ̝], a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] and a voiced uvular approximant [ʁ̞], among which the uvular fricative trill is the most common realization. He also lists a central vowel (which probably means [ə], [ɐ] or both of these) and elision of /r/, both of which are very rare.

Vowels

Monophthongs of the Bruges dialect
FrontCentralBack
unroundedroundedunrounded
shortlongshortlongshortshortlong
Closeɪʏʊ
Midɛɛː ɛ̃ːœœːəɔɔː
Openææːɑɑː
  • In comparison with Standard Dutch, the short front vowels underwent a chain shift, so that the standard /i,y,ɪ,ʏ,ɛ/ became /ɪ,ʏ,ɛ,œ,æ/. The standard /u/ was also lowered to /ʊ/, yet the standard /ɔ/ was left untouched.
  • Among the back vowels, /ʊ,ɔ,ɔː/ are rounded, whereas /ɑ,ɑː/ are unrounded.
  • /ɪ,ʏ,ʊ/ are near-close [ɪ̟,ʏ,ʊ̠]; /ɪ/ is fully front, whereas /ʊ/ is fully back.
  • /ʏ,ʊ,œː/ (but not /œ,ɔ,ɔː/) are rather weakly rounded [ʏ̜,ʊ̜,œ̜ː].
  • Phonetically, /ɛ,ə/ are mid [ɛ̝,ə], whereas /ɛː,ɛ̃ː,œ,œː,ɔ,ɔː/ are open-mid [ɛː,ɛ̃ː,œ,œː,ɔ,ɔː].
  • Before /l/, /æ/ is lowered and retracted to [ɑ]. This feature is typical of working class speech and is nearly extinct.
Diphthongs of the Bruges dialect
Ending point
FrontCentralBack
Closeiːəuːə
Close-mideɪøʏeːəoʊ
Open-midɔːəɔu
  • All of the diphthongs are falling.
  • /eɪ,øʏ,oʊ/ used to be pronounced as monophthongs [eː,øː,oː], a realization which is rapidly regaining popularity among younger speakers.
  • Traditionally, /ɔu/ used to have such a close first element that there was practically no distinction between /ɔu/ and /oʊ/.
  • Phonetically, /ɔːə/ can be either [ɔːə] or [ɔːɑ].

Bibliography

  • Hinskens, Frans; Taeldeman, Johan, eds. (2013), , Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-018005-3
  • Sebregts, Koen (2014), (PDF), The Sociophonetics and Phonology of Dutchr, Utrecht: LOT, pp. 89–93, ISBN 978-94-6093-161-1
  • Taeldeman, Johan (2005), "The influence of urban centres on the spatial diffusion of dialect phenomena", in Auer, Peter; Hinskens, Frans; Kerswill, Paul (eds.), , Cambridge University Press, pp. 263–284, ISBN 0-521-80687-9
  • Vandekerckhove, Reinhild (2010), "Urban and rural language", in Auer, Peter; Schmidt, Jürgen Erich (eds.), , Walter de Gruyter, pp. 315–332, ISBN 978-3-11-018002-2