Hasselt dialect or Hasselt Limburgish (natively Essels or Hessels, Standard Dutch: Hasselts [ˈɦɑsəlts]) is the city dialect and variant of Limburgish spoken in the Belgian city of Hasselt alongside the Dutch language. All of its speakers are bilingual with standard Dutch.
Obstruents are devoiced word-finally. However, when the next word starts with a vowel and is pronounced without a pause, both voiced and voiceless word-final obstruents are realized as voiced.
/m, p, b, β/ are bilabial, whereas /f, v/ are labiodental.
The sequences /nt, nd/ are realized as more or less palatalized:
In the conservative variety, these are, respectively, [ɲcʃ] and [ɲɟʒ].
Nowadays, [nʲtʲ] and [nʲdʲ] are the normal realizations, whereas the conservative [ɲcʃ, ɲɟʒ] are used only in a few words.
/p, b, t, d, k/ are plosives, whereas /dʒ/ is an affricate.
/ŋ, k, x, ɣ/ are velar, whereas /j/ is palatal.
/r/ is either alveolar or, more commonly, uvular - see below.
Word-initial /h/ is often realized as a plosive [ʔ].
According to Peters (2006), /r/ is realized as a voiced trill, either alveolar [r] or uvular [ʀ]. Between vowels, it is sometimes realized with one contact (i.e. as a tap) [ɾ ~ ʀ̆], whereas word-finally, it can be devoiced to [r̥ ~ ʀ̥].
According to Sebregts (2014), about two thirds of speakers have a uvular /r/, whereas about one third has a categorical alveolar /r/. There are also a few speakers who mix uvular and alveolar articulations.
Among uvular articulations, he lists uvular trill [ʀ], uvular trill fricative [ʀ̝], uvular fricative [ʁ] and uvular approximant [ʁ̞], which are used more or less equally often in all contexts. Almost all speakers with a uvular /r/ use all four of these realizations.
Among alveolar articulations, he lists alveolar tap [ɾ], voiced alveolar fricative [ɹ̝], alveolar approximant [ɹ], partially devoiced alveolar trill [r̥], voiceless alveolar trill [r̥], alveolar tap/trill fricative [ɾ̞ ~ r̝], voiceless alveolar tap [ɾ̥] and voiceless alveolar fricative [ɹ̝̊]. Among these, the tap is most common, whereas the tap/trill fricative is the second most common realization. The partially devoiced alveolar trill occurred only once.
There are also the nasal vowels /œ̃ː, ɔ̃ː, æ̃ː, ɑ̃ː/, which occur only in French loanwords.
The front vowels /y, yː, ø, øː, œ, œː, aː/ are somewhat retracted [y̠, y̠ː, ø̠, ø̠ː, œ̠, œ̠ː, a̠ː], but not retracted enough to be described as central vowels.
All of the back vowels are almost fully back. Among these, /u, uː, oː, ɔ, ɔː/ are rounded, whereas /ɑ, ɑː/ are unrounded.
/oː/ is a marginal vowel. Its occurrence is restricted to loanwords from standard Dutch and English.
Before alveolar consonants, the long rounded vowels /uː, øː, œː/ are realized as centering diphthongs [uə, øə, œə].
/ə, ɔ/ are mid [ə, ɔ̝]./ə/ occurs only in unstressed syllables.
/æ/ is near-open, whereas /aː, ɑ, ɑː/ are open.
/iə, øɪ, aɪ/ have somewhat retracted first elements [i̠, ø̠, a̠]. In the case of /aɪ/, its first element is also somewhat raised. Because of that, it is best described as near-open advanced central [ɐ̟]./aɪ/ and occurs only in loanwords from French and interjections.
/uɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ have somewhat advanced first elements ([u̟] and [ɔ̟], respectively).
Before alveolar consonants, /eɪ, ou/ are realized as centering diphthongs [eə, oə]. In the case of /eɪ/, this happens only before the sonorants, i.e. /n, l/ and the alveolar allophones of /r/, with the tripthong [ejə] being an alternative pronunciation. In the case of /ou/, the centering diphthong is used before all alveolar consonants, not just the sonorants. No triphthongal variants of /ou/ have been reported.
/øɪ, ɔɪ, aɪ/ occur only word-finally.
/ou, ɔɪ, aɪ/ have somewhat lowered second elements [u̞, ɪ̞, ɪ̞].
There are also the sequences /uːj, ɔːj, ɑːj/, which are better analyzed as sequences of /uː, ɔː, ɑː/ and the approximant /j/, rather than diphthongs /uːi, ɔːi, ɑːi/. The sequences /ɔːj, ɑːj/ occur only word-finally.
