Microvariation in Southern Dutch Dialects: Diachronic and Synchronic Research into the 2nd Person in Inversion

Abstract

In this master thesis, the second person in the southern dialects of Dutch is investigated. In the dialect continuum of Brabantic and Flemish dialects, the element "de" is attested following verbs, complementizers and comparatives, in sentences with a 2nd person pronoun as its subject. This is illustrated in (1), a sentence in which "de" follows the complementizer "als" ‘if’, realized as "a" in this dialect, and in which "de" follows the verb "leef" ‘live’.

(1) A-de gezond leeft leef-de veel langer If-2SG healthy live live-2SG much longer ‘If you live healthy, you’ll live much longer.’ - Koewacht Dutch

The character of this element "de" has been widely discussed throughout the literature, without yielding any consensus on an analysis. I will discuss the behavior and the character of "de" in the dialects, examining the differences in the dialect continuum. The microvariation will be described on the basis of existing literature, complemented by an online questionnaire and interviews with dialect speakers. This variation in the behavior of de in the dialect continuum combined with diachronic research into de will lead to my analyses of "de", an analysis for the diachronic stages of "de" and an analysis for the synchronic variation of "de". I will show that the behavior of "de" in the Flemish dialect in East Flanders differs from the behavior of de in the dialects of North Brabant, Antwerp, Flemish Brabant and parts of Belgian Limburg. In the East Flemish dialects, combinations with "de" must be analyzed together with the East and West Flemish combinations "ge gij" and "je gij". These combinations are instances of subject doubling that occurs in the base order, following the verb and following the complementizer. Moreover, doubling following the comparative is also attested in the East Flemish dialects. However, in the Brabantic dialects "de" need to be analyzed as inflection. In the Belgian Brabantic dialects, this inflection "de" only occurs following the verb and can either be followed by the strong pronoun "gij" or it can occur with a null-subject. In the Netherlandic Brabantic dialects, "de" following a complementizer is attested, albeit marginally. In the dialects of Netherlandic Brabant, de can be followed by "gij", a null-subject or "ge". This indicates that the inflection "de" in Belgian Brabant allows for pro-drop, while in Netherlandic Brabant de sometimes allows pro-drop and sometimes behaves like a normal inflection that doesn’t allow pro-drop.