This volume presents a study of the phenomenon of dialect levelling the process of the
reduction of structural variation. This process affects variation both in the cross-dialectal
and in the dialectal-standard language dimension (in German dialectology referred to as
Ausgleich and Abbau respectively). The study is based on a research project on an originally
rural Limburg dialect of Dutch. On the basis of a survey of the relatively rare relevant
literature a sociolinguistic model of dialect levelling is developed. A model is also proposed
for embedding the study of this special type of linguistic change in formal phonological theory
this model centres on the role of the syllable in phonological processes. After a sketch of the
social history and the dialect situation of the research area as well as an exposition of the
methodology descriptions and (mainly formal) explanations of the 21 dialect features at issue
are presented. The approach is basically sociolinguistic and the analysis of the fieldwork data
primarily quantitative. The patterns that emerge in the processes of the levelling out of the
dialect features are related to both internal and external factors. In accounting for the
findings methods and insights from historical linguistics dialectology as well as (linear and
non-linear) phonological theory play an important role. After a discussion of the findings the
outlines are sketched of a theory of dialect levelling. The possibilities as well as some of
the problems are discussed of an integration of the study of language variation and change on
the hand and formal linguistic theory on the other.
