TournaiTournai or Tournay (tʊərˈneɪ ; tuʁnɛ; Doornik ˈdoːrnɪk; Tornai; Tornè tɔʀnɛ; Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by road southwest of the centre of Brussels on the river Scheldt, and is part of Eurometropolis Lille–Kortrijk–Tournai, In 2022, the municipality of Tournai had an estimated population of 68,518 people. Tournai is one of the oldest cities in Belgium and has played an important role in the country's cultural history.
LimburgishLimburgish (Limburgs ˈlɪm˦bʏʀ(ə)çs or Lèmburgs ˈlɛm˦-; Limburgs ˈlɪmbʏr(ə)xs; Limburgisch ˈlɪmbʊʁɡɪʃ; Limbourgeois lɛ̃buʁʒwa), also called Limburgan, Limburgian, or Limburgic, is a West Germanic language spoken in the Dutch and Belgian provinces of Limburg and in the neighbouring regions of Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia). Although frequently misunderstood as such, Limburgish as a linguistic term does not refer to the regional variety of Dutch spoken in Dutch Limburg and Belgian Limburg.
HollandHolland is a geographical region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th century, Holland proper was a unified political region within the Holy Roman Empire as a county ruled by the counts of Holland. By the 17th century, the province of Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, dominating the other provinces of the newly independent Dutch Republic.
Stratum (linguistics)In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or superstrate is the language that has higher power or prestige. Both substratum and superstratum languages influence each other, but in different ways. An adstratum or adstrate is a language that is in contact with another language in a neighbor population without having identifiably higher or lower prestige.
West Germanic languagesThe West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into three branches: Ingvaeonic, which includes English and Frisian, Istvaeonic, which encompasses Dutch and its close relatives, and Irminonic, which includes German and its close relatives and variants. English is by far the most-spoken West Germanic language, with more than 1 billion speakers worldwide.
Proto-Germanic languageProto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branches during the fifth century BC to fifth century AD: West Germanic, East Germanic and North Germanic, which however remained in contact over a considerable time, especially the Ingvaeonic languages (including English), which arose from West Germanic dialects and remained in continued contact with North Germanic.
ZeelandZeeland (ˈzeːlɑnt; Zeêland ˈzɪəlɑnt; historical English exonym Zealand) is the westernmost and least populous province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the southwest of the country, borders North Brabant to the east, South Holland to the north, as well as the country of Belgium to the south and west. It consists of a number of islands and peninsulas (hence its name, meaning "Sealand") and a strip bordering the Flemish provinces of East and West Flanders.
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant lawIn historical linguistics, the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law (also called the Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic nasal spirant law) is a description of a phonological development that occurred in the Ingvaeonic dialects of the West Germanic languages. This includes Old English, Old Frisian, and Old Saxon, and to a lesser degree Old Dutch (Old Low Franconian). The sound change affected sequences of vowel + nasal consonant + fricative consonant. ("Spirant" is an older term for "fricative".
FrieslandFriesland (ˈfriːzlənd, ˈfrislɑnt; official Fryslân ˈfrislɔ̃ːn), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, named after the Frisians, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, and south of the Wadden Sea. As of January 2020, the province had a population of 649,944 and a total area of . The province is divided into 18 municipalities.
