)林堡语
林堡语（林堡语：Limburgs）属于印欧语系日耳曼语族的西日耳曼语支，属法兰克语言的一支，是在荷兰、比利时和德国边界的林堡和Rhineland地区所使用的语言。The area in which it is spoken roughly fits within a wide circle from Venlo to Cologne to Aachen to Maastricht to Hasselt and back to Venlo . Limburgish is recognised as a regional language (Dutch: streektaal) in the Netherlands and as such it receives moderate protection under chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
In Germany it is common to consider the Limburgish dialects as belonging to the Low Franconian languages; in The Netherlands and Belgium however all these are seen as West Middle German or even simply High German. This difference is caused by a difference in definition: the linguists of the Low Countries define a Low German dialect as one that has not taken part in the first three phases of the High German consonant shift at all.
Limburgish is spoken by approximately 1,600,000 people in the Low Countries and by many hundreds of thousands in Germany, depending on definition. The varieties of Limburgish spoken within Flemish (Belgium) territory are more influenced by French than those spoken on Dutch and German soil.
Unlike most European languages, Limburgish is a tonal language having two tones. Other European languages known to be marginally tonal are Lithuanian, Slovenian, Swedish, Norwegian and the Yugoslav languages, Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian.
Limburgish also shows signs of a possible Celtic substrate which is indicated by a larger number of words that have Celtic origins in Limburgish than in other West Germanic dialects. The area originally was inhabited by Celtic tribes.
【编辑】林堡语的变体
Noordnederlimburgs (ik-Limburgs) around Venlo in the Netherlands is the form of Limburgish, which has features of the Zuid-Gelders dialect. Centraal-Limburgs is a concept used in Germany, which includes the area around Maastricht and stretches further North. Ostlimburgisch is a concept used in Germany to describe the linguistic situation in Belgium around Eupen, including Welkenraedt, Lontzen and Moresnet, in the Netherlands between Ubach and Brunssum and a large area in Germany around Heinsberg,Viersen, Mönchengladbach and Krefeld. An area close to Westphalia is considered as being the area where Bergish is spoken. This area is limited roughly by a line Düsseldorf-Mettmann-Solingen-Remscheid.
Oost-Limburgs is the form of Limburgish spoken from an area from Belgian Voeren South of Sittard in the Netherlands to the German border.
West-Limburgs is the variety of Limburgish spoken around Hasselt and Veldeke in Belgium. It includes areas in Dutch Limburg and Dutch Brabant. The border of West-Limburgs and Oost-Limburgs starts few South of the area between the villages of 's-Gravenvoeren and Sint-Martens-Voeren in the Belgian municipality of Voeren.
Opperlimburgs is spoken around Kerkrade and Vaals in the Netherlands, Aachen in Germany and Raeren and Eynatten in Belgium, in Germany considered as Ripuarian, not always as Limburgish. If tonality is to be taken as to define this variety, it stretches several dozen km into Germany. It is consensus to class it as belonging to High German varieties.
