The Measurement of Dutch Dialect Change: Lexicon versus Morphology versus Sound Components

In this paper we report on a dialectometrical study of dialect change at the lexical, morphological and sound component levels. In particular, recently collected fieldwork data on a reasonable number of different Dutch dialects have been analysed to trace the processes leading to their convergence and/or divergence. Then, using these data, we provide the answers to four sets of research questions: Do dialects change? Do the patterns of change at the different levels correlate with each other? Which level is most strongly affected? Do dialects converge towards each other? Do the patterns of con... Mehr ...