Talk:blèren

The vowel /ɛː/ is unetymological and foreign to Dutch??? Well you are completely mistaken! It exists/existed in Dutch dialects, especially in my native Liemers region on the border with Germany. It is used as a vowel instead of standard Dutch 'long a/aa' or standard Dutch 'long e/ee' where German has 'e(/eː/)' or 'ä'. It is also used instead of Dutch 'long e/ee' where German has 'e(/ɛ/)' or 'ä', especially in dialect apocope plurals and (associated) dimunitives. In Liemers dialect many (class 4 and class 5) strong verbs have verb stems and/or past participles with with 'è(/ɛː/)'.

• Standard Dutch aarde, haard, paard; Liemers dialect èèrde, hèèrd, pèèrd; German Erde, Herd, Pferd;
• Standard Dutch draaien, waaien; Liemers dialect drèèien, wèèien; German drehen, wehen;
• Standard Dutch maaien, naaien, zaaien; Liemers dialect mèèien, nèèien, zèèien; German mähen, nähen, säen;
• Standard Dutch kraai; Liemers dialect krèèi; German Krähe;
• Standard Dutch beek; Liemers dialect bèèk; German Bach (Low German Beck);
• Standard Dutch beker; Liemers dialect bèker; German Becher;
• Standard Dutch kerel, wereld; Liemers dialect kèèrl, wèreld; German Kerl, Welt;
• Standard Dutch neef; Liemers dialect nèèf; German Neffe;
• Standard Dutch leer, veer; Liemers dialect lèèr, vèèr; German Leder, Feder; (English leather, feather)
• Standard Dutch weer; Liemers dialect wèèr; German Wetter; (English weather)
• Standard Dutch beer; Liemers dialect bèèr; German Bär; (English bear)
• Standard Dutch weg/wegen; Liemers dialect weg/wègen (or weg/wèèg); German Weg/Wege;
• Standard Dutch stad/steden; Liemers dialect stad/stèèi; German Stadt/Städte;
• Standard Dutch blad/bladeren; Liemers dialect blad/blèèi; German Blatt/Blätter;
• Standard Dutch pad/paden; Liemers dialect pad/pèèi; German Pfad/Pfade;
• Standard Dutch rad/raderen; Liemers dialect rad/rèèi; German Rad/Räder;
• Standard Dutch blaadje, gaatje, plaatje, vaatje; Liemers dialect blèèdjen, gèètjen, plèètjen, vèètjen;
• Standard Dutch haantje, kraantje; Liemers dialect hèèntjen, krèèntjen;
• Standard Dutch rekenen; Liemers dialect rèkenen; German rechnen;
• Standard Dutch breken, spreken, steken; Liemers dialect brèken, sprèken, stèken; German brechen, sprechen, stechen;
• Standard Dutch scheren; Liemers dialect schèren; German scheren;
• Standard Dutch stelen; Liemers dialect stèlen; German stehlen;
• Standard Dutch smeren, wegen, bewegen; Liemers dialect smèren, wègen, bewègen; German schmieren, wiegen, bewegen;
• Standard Dutch eten, gegeten; Liemers dialect èten, gegèten; German essen, gegessen;
• Standard Dutch meten, gemeten; Liemers dialect mèten, gemèten; German messen, gemessen;
• Standard Dutch gezeten; Liemers dialect gezèten; German gesessen;
• Standard Dutch gebeden, gelegen; Liemers dialect gebèèien, gelègen; German gebeten, gelegen;
• Standard Dutch geven, gegeven; Liemers dialect gèven, gegèven; German geben, gegeben;
• Standard Dutch lezen, gelezen; Liemers dialect lèzen, gelèzen; German lesen, gelesen;
• Standard Dutch wezen, gewezen; Liemers dialect wèzen, gewèzen; German wesen, gewesen.

There are also many other words that do not (apparently) follow these patterns like: lepel/lèpel (spoon), leven/lèven (live/life), naast/nèven (next/German neben), regen/règen (rain), tevreden/tevrèèien (German zufrieden, content). In Liemers dialect some geographical names have local variants with è(è) like Nimwègen (Nijmegen/Nimwegen), Dèventer (Deventer), Bèèk (Beek) and Zèènder/Zèvender (Zeventer/Zevenaar, the central town of the Liemers). In special dialect spelling 'long è/èè' is often spelt 'ea' since it is the same sound as in English bear. The ancient Germanic vowel /ɛː/ has almost disappeared from Dutch, because the Latin alphabet is basically not suited for rendering the intricate Germanic umlaut/ablaut vowel system. This resulted in an artificial differentiation between 'long' and 'short' vowels, where actually all vowels could be both 'long' and 'short'.Amand Keultjes (talk) 11:12, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

The statement was obviously about Standard Dutch, which has a fairly limited vowel system in comparison to other varieties of Continental Germanic. In fact, the Modern Dutch phoneme /eː/ is a merger of three major phonemes: 1.) Germanic ai, 2.) Germanic e and umlauted a in originally open syllables, 3.) Germanic i in originally open syllables. In Limburgish all of these are distinct: 1 is /ɛɪ̯/, 2 is /ɛː/, and 3 is /eː/. The dialect you describe behaves similarly; the words with è that you give belong mostly to group 2. 178.4.151.86 19:46, 22 March 2022 (UTC)