Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 June 2015
We recorded older male speakers and younger female speakers of 86 local dialectsof Dutch. Using these data, we analyze and visualize the influence of standardDutch on apparent time changes in these dialects. Focusing for the most part onvariation in the sound components, we test whether (I) dialect change is mainlythe result of convergence to standard Dutch, (II) sound changes in two dialectswhich make them converge to standard Dutch also make them more similar, and(III) sound changes in two dialects which make them diverge from standard Dutchalso make them less similar. We used three-dimensional (first hypothesis) andfive-dimensional Levenshtein distance implementations (second and thirdhypothesis). These implementations are a novel step in dialectometry and in thestudy of ongoing processes of language change and their consequences for thedialect landscape. The findings corroborate all three hypotheses.