Editing Middle Dutch (section)

===Limburgish===

[[Limburgish language|Limburgish]] was spoken by the people in the provinces of modern [[Limburg (Netherlands)|Dutch]] and [[Limburg (Belgium)|Belgian Limburg]]. It was not clearly tied to one political area, instead being divided among various areas, including the [[Duchy of Limburg]] (which was south of modern Limburg). It was also the most divergent of the dialects.

* Generally, a strong "southeastern" influence, tying it more to [[Middle High German]] in some respects ("Colognian expansion"). The effects of the [[High German consonant shift]] are occasionally found.
* [[Umlaut (linguistics)|Umlaut]] affects all vowels and is morphologically significant.
* Retention of the older Germanic diphthongs {{IPA|/ɛi/}} and {{IPA|/ɔu/}} where other Middle Dutch dialects have monophthongized these to ê and ô.
* Retention of {{IPA|/u/}} (did not merge with {{IPA|/o/}}) and {{IPA|/uː/}} (remained as a back vowel).
* Orthography is also more eastern. {{angle|u}} represents a back vowel, and vowel length in closed syllables is not marked.
* Full use of ''du'' as the second-person singular pronoun.
* Long ''a'' in words ending in a single consonant, e.g. {{lang|enm|blaet}} for {{lang|enm|blat}}, {{lang|enm|gaef}} for {{lang|enm|gaf}}, etc. and before {{IPA|/l/}}, {{IPA|/n/}}, {{IPA|/s/}}, {{IPA|/x/}} + dental,