Amelands is a
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
of
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
, spoken on the
Wadden Sea island of
Ameland
Ameland (; West Frisian: It Amelân) is a municipality and one of the West Frisian Islands off the north coast of the Netherlands. It consists mostly of sand dunes. It is the third major island of the West Frisians. It neighbours islands Ter ...
. It is especially closely related to the
Midslands dialect, spoken in the middle segment of the neighboring island of
Terschelling. Amelands, which has about 2,900 speakers, is the only dialect of the Dutch Wadden Sea islands that seems to be maintaining itself in its community, whereas all the other Dutch or
West Frisian island dialects are losing ground rapidly in favor of Standard Dutch.
[Jansen, Mathilde, and Marc van Oostendorp, ''Taal van de Wadden'', The Hague, 2004, Sdu Uitgevers, ]
Phonology
It is the only dialect of Dutch which does not feature
final obstruent devoicing
Final-obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Breton, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish, and Wolof. In such languages, voiced obstruents in fin ...
.
References
Bibliography
*
Dutch language
{{Netherlands-stub