one of two main subgroups of the West Central German dialects; spoken in the north-western half of Rhineland-Palatinate, south-western North Rhine-Westphalia, easternmost Belgium, and southeasternmost Limburg (Netherlands); characterized by the use of dat(“that”) and wat(“what”), and the consistent pronunciation of Germanic -β- as a fricative, i.e. [v], or [f] when now in coda position.
Usage notes
Luxembourgish is traditionally included in this group, but is now usually regarded as a separate branch, which is also done in this dictionary.