South Guelderish (Dutch: Zuid-Gelders, German: Kleverländisch) refers to a group of dialects of the Dutch language which are spoken roughly along the Nederrijn-area in the Netherlands, and around the city of Cleves in Germany. They are sometimes included within Brabantic, another, larger, dialect of Dutch to which South Gelderish is most closely related.
The status of the dialect differs greatly between the Netherlands and Germany. In the Netherlands, South Guelderish dialects are subject to the standardized form of Dutch; to which it, being a Dutch dialect, it is very similar, which means it has been relatively uninfluenced. In Germany however (beginning in 1713, when Prussia took control of the area) the dialect is subject to the German standard language, to which it is only distantly related, and this has left marks on the dialect, mainly vocabulary-wise.
Furthermore, large-scale industrialization of the Cleves/Duisburg-area in Germany (and the immigrants accompanying) during the late 19th and 20th century has greatly declinded its use today, leaving very few native speakers today. For example, in Duisburg (though traditionally within the South Guelderish area) it has virtually died out.
As noted before, South Guelderish is sometimes included within Brabantian. This because there exists no isogloss bundle between the Brabantian and South Guelderish dialects. The distinction is mainly made, because the area in which South Guelderish is spoken has, historically been more economically focussed on the hanseatic Dutch cities, which has resulted in limited vocabulary differences. A dialect of South Guelderish origin spoken in the United States is Pella Dutch.
See also
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