Uerdingen line

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The Uerdingen Line is the isogloss within West Germanic languages that separates dialects which preserve the -k sound at the end of a word (north of the line) from dialects in which the word final -k has changed to word final -ch (IPA [x]) (south of the line). An example is the first person singular pronoun (I in English): north of the line, this word is ik, while south of the line the word is ich. This sound shift is the one that progressed the farthest north among the consonant shifts that characterize High German and Middle German dialects. The line passes through Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.

The western end of the Uerdingen line is at Bierbeek in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. From there, it runs through the province of Belgian Limburg. North of the provincial capital, Hasselt, it crosses the Belgian-Dutch border into the Dutch province also named Limburg. Thence it goes straight east, passing south of the Dutch border town of Venlo to cross into Germany's Rhineland. It passes through Kempen and Hüls, then along the northern side of Krefeld, and crosses the Rhine at Uerdingen (nowadays a district of Krefeld). From there, the isogloss passes south of Saarn (part of Mülheim an der Ruhr), Kettwig (part of Essen), Elberfeld (part of Wuppertal), Gummersbach, and Wiedenest (part of Bergneustadt). East of the Rhineland, the isogloss runs by Halbe, Hermsdorf, Freidorf and Stoki in southern Brandenburg in eastern Germany.

South of the Uerdingen line in Belgium and the Netherlands, the Germanic dialect Limburgish is spoken, in the territories of the former duchies in Brabant and Limburg.