South Guelderish refers to a group of dialects of the Dutch language

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 which are spoken along the Nederrijn

Nederrijn

thumb|left|300px|Course of the NederrijnNederrijn is the name of the Dutch part of the River Rhine from the confluence at the town of Angeren of the cut-off Rhine bend of Oude Rijn and the Pannerdens Kanaal...

 in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 and around the city of Cleves in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. They are sometimes included within Brabantic, a more widely spoken dialect of Dutch to which South Gelderish is most closely related.

Within the Netherlands, the dialect is spoken in particular in the following regions: the Veluwezoom National Park

Veluwezoom National Park

Veluwezoom National Park is a national park located in the Dutch province of Gelderland. This park is the oldest national park of the Netherlands. It is an area of 50 square kilometers at the southeastern edge of the Veluwe, a complex of terminal push moraines from the Saalian glaciation...

, Rijk van Nijmegen, Land van Maas en Waal, the Bommelerwaard

Bommelerwaard

Bommelerwaard is a district in Gelderland, Netherlands.The Bommelerwaard is situated among three rivers: the Maas in the south, the Waal in the north and the Afgedamde Maas in the west. It is formed by the area of two municipalities: Zaltbommel and Maasdriel....

, the Tielerwaard, the Betuwe

Betuwe

The Betuwe is an area in the Netherlands in the province of Gelderland...

 and Liemers.

Status

The status of the dialect differs greatly between the Netherlands and Germany. In the Netherlands, South Guelderish dialects are subject to the standardized form of Dutch. Since it is a Dutch dialect, it is already very similar to the standard language, so it has been relatively uninfluenced. In Germany, however, (beginning in 1713, when Prussia took control of the area) the dialect is subject to the German standard language, to which it is only distantly related; this has left marks on the dialect, mainly in vocabulary.

Furthermore, large-scale industrialization of the Cleves

Kleve

Kleve , is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century onwards, Kleve was capital of a county and later a duchy...

/Duisburg

Duisburg

- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...

 area in Germany (and resulting immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

) during the late 19th and 20th century has greatly reduced its use today, leaving very few native speakers. For example, in Duisburg (though traditionally within the South Guelderish area) it has virtually died out.

As noted before, South Guelderish is sometimes included within Brabantian. This is done because there exists no tight isogloss

Isogloss

An isogloss—also called a heterogloss —is the geographical boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or use of some syntactic feature...

 bundle between the Brabantian and South Guelderish dialects. Instead, change occurs in two individual steps: the alt-oud isogloss between Groesbeek

Groesbeek

Groesbeek is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands.-Description:Groesbeek is named after a small stream called the Groesbeek, which in its original form doesn't exist anymore...

 and Nijmegen and the ies-ijs isogloss west of Nijmegen.

A dialect of South Guelderish origin spoken in the United States is Pella Dutch

Pella Dutch

Pella Dutch is a dialect of the Dutch language spoken in Pella, Iowa. It is derived from South Guelderish, a dialect spoken in the Netherlands....

.