Central Franconian

English

one of two main subgroups of the West Central German dialects; spoken in the north-western half of Rhineland-Palatinate, south-western North Rhine-Westphalia, easternmost Belgium, and southeasternmost Limburg (Netherlands); distinguished from Rhine Franconian by the use of dat (“that”) and wat (“what”), and the consistent pronunciation of Germanic -β- as a fricative (i.e. , or when now in coda position).
- Björn Köhnlein, Marc van Oostendorp, Introduction, chapter 3 The place of Franconian tones in the debate; in: 2018, Wolfgang Kehrein, Björn Köhnlein, Paul Boersma, Marc van Oostendorp (eds.), Segmental Structure and Tone (series: LA: Linguistische Arbeiten), p. 1ff., here p. 6:
  The tonal dialects are divided into two main groups (Frings 1916): South-East-Low Franconian (Belgian Limburg, Dutch Limburg, Dülken region), and Central Franconian, which is divided into Ripuarian (Aachen and Cologne; Kerkrade region), and Moselle Franconian (a large area with Trier in the centre).

Note that Central Franconian is not spoken in the Bavarian region of Central or Middle Franconia (Mittelfranken), where, as in virtually all of Franconia, an Upper Franconian dialect is used. The linguistic term refers to the historic Franks, not the modern region.
Luxembourgish is traditionally included in this group, but is now usually regarded as a separate branch, which is also the case in this dictionary.