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Limburg offers unique opportunities for research into people and languages in motion

Limburg is a unique case and offers many opportunities for research into language culture, as the Dutch province contains much language diversity in a small area. In addition, its dialect is spoken by approximately 900.000 people - 75% of its population – at all levels of society. Leonie Cornips, Endowed Professor of Language Culture in Limburg, is delighted with her Chair and will officially accept her appointment as Endowed Professor with the delivery her inaugural lecture, "Languages in Transition" on Friday 11 May. Cornips explains: “I particularly want to know more about the people behind the language, how the language unites people and how the speakers distinguish themselves from other groups. Research into language culture does not merely entail studying the organisation of the language’s system but also the social context and the people who speak it. I am concentrating my studies on what is spoken in the public areas of Limburg: dialect, Dutch, other forms of multilingualism and all the variations in between; my basic premise is that language is always changing.”

For more information about this inaugral lecture, please refer to the press release.