For the first time in the history of Dutch dialectology, a detailed overview of the variation in the formation of words has become available in the Morphological Atlas of the Dutch Dialects (MAND). MAND presents the state of the art in dialect morphology at the end of the twentieth century in two volumes.
There exists an enormous differentiation in word formation in a rather small linguistic area: the area where Netherlandic and Frisian dialects are spoken within the states of the Netherlands and Belgium. The word formation processes in these dialects differ considerably from Standard Dutch by different word endings, different stem vowels (shortened, lengthened and umlauted vowels) and tonal contrasts.
The MAND is based on data acquired in fieldwork from 1979-2000, a collaborative effort of linguists from the Netherlands and Belgium. In 613 localities, recordings were made of 1876 word forms or sentences. Volume I includes three subjects: plural formation of nouns, the formation of diminutives and the gender of nouns, adjectives and possessive pronouns. The more than 200 maps are accompanied by linguistic commentary. Volume II (Fall 2006) includes the grades of comparison, the verbal system and subject and object pronouns. Further information on MAND can be found at: www.meertens.knaw.nl/projecten/MAND

Available in a Dutch and English edition