Originally in the later County of Holland, Old Frisian or a related Ingvaeonic dialect was spoken.[1] There is no evidence for the theory that migrating Low Franconian settlers were responsible for the change to Old Dutch in the 12th and 13th centuries.[2] Instead, long-term language contact between Frisian speakers and Frankish speakers before the 12th century could have led to a Hollandic dialect that was partly Low Franconian and partly influenced by Frisian.[1]
In the 16th century, Dutch was standardised, with the Brabantian dialect of Antwerp being the most influential one, according to many linguists.[citation needed]
During the Eighty Years' War, especially after 1585, the Sack of Antwerp and the 1580s successes of the Duke of Parma made between 100,000 and 200,000 of Brabantish and Flemish, many Calvinist, settle in the cities of Holland proper.[citation needed] The refugees caused a mixture of their dialects with those of the people who were already there. The new language replaced most of the original Hollandic dialects with Brabantian influences and further diluted the Frisian influences on Dutch.[citation needed]
That certainly slowed linguistic change by the influence on spoken language of the very conservative written standard. As a result, Standard Dutch has kept many features of late-16th-century Brabantian.[citation needed]
The colloquial Dutch in Holland proper (the area of the old County of Holland), particularly the Hollandic now spoken in some urban areas, is closer to Standard Dutch than anywhere else.
InZaanstreek (central North Holland), a traditional region, the old Hollandic dialect, Zaans, is still found but with little West Frisian influence. Some words are similar because of the influence of migrating West Frisian farmers in the 13th to the 15th centuries. Zaans can be seen as one of the few (together with Westfries) and oldest original Hollandic dialects and is still spoken today, like the old Waterlands dialect, which exists as well in Volendam. Both Zaans and Waterlands are unintelligible[citation needed] for someone who does not come from that region in North Holland. However, people who speak Zaans, West Frisian or Waterlands are able to understand one another better than outsiders because all three dialects use similar words.
On the South Holland island of Goeree-Overflakkee, Zeelandic is spoken. In the east and south, the Hollandic dialects gradually become Brabantian respectively Kleverlandish. Utrechts-Alblasserwaards, spoken in the area immediately east of the coastal districts, is considered to be a subdialect of Hollandic or a separate dialect.
Among those, not only Hollandic borders to Centraal zuidelijke dialecten, which encompasses Brabantic and parts of Northern Dutch Limburg and Northern Belgium Limburg.[6]
^ abde Vaan, Michiel (2017). The Dawn of Dutch: Language contact in the Western Low Countries before 1200. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
^Dijkstra, M.F.P. (2011). Rondom de mondingen van Rijn & Maas: landschap en bewoning tussen de 3e en 9e eeuw in Zuid-Holland, in het bijzonder de Oude Rijnstreek. Amsterdam.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
