Hallmarks
The main differences from Standard Dutch are the following: Zeelandic has three rather than two grammatical genders, as a result of the fact that it retained the final schwas in feminine words; it kept the monophthongs and for ij and ui rather than breaking them into and ; it umlauted most s into s; it renders the old Germanic and as falling diphthongs ( and ), whereas Dutch merged them with etymological e's and o's; and finally it drops the h.
The present table illustrates these differences (note: the orthography is Dutch):
| Zeelandic | Dutch | English | |
| d'n boer | de boer | the farmer | |
| de boerinne | de boerin | the farmer's wife | |
| uus | huis | house | |
| kieke(n) | kijken | to look | |
| tweê | twee | two | |
| oôd | hoofd | head |
Read more about this topic: Zeelandic