Aitchison, Jean. 2001. Language change: progress or decay? Cambridge Approaches to Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Haugen, Einar. 1966. “Dialect, language, nation.” American Anthropologist 68 (4): 922–935.

Hudson, Richard. 2004. “Why education needs linguistics (and vice versa).” Journal of Linguistics 40 (1): 105–130.

Kroll, Judith F., and Paola E. Dussias. 2017. “The benefits of multilingualism to the personal and professional development of residents of the US.” Foreign Language Annals 50 (2): 248–259.

Linguists have made many discoveries about language variation, but misconceptions drive linguistic prejudices that remain widespread in society. Research has shown that there is no clear and objective distinction between a language and a dialect (Haugen 1966), that multilingualism can be beneficial (Kroll and Dussias 2017), and that language systems are always changing (Aitchison 2001). Informing non-professionals of these facts may be beneficial, as it could lead to more inclusive practices (e.g., using the term ‘non-standard’ as opposed to ‘wrong’ to describe a certain dialectal variant; Hudson 2004, 109).

We aim to spread knowledge on linguistics and regional varieties to a wide audience through an educational and competitive board game: Streektaalstrijd ‘regional language battle’. The mechanics of the game enable an engaging learning experience together with a group of other players. Each player represents a regional language spoken in the Netherlands and Flanders, and the goal is to spread the language the player represents to as many regions as possible. Players play on a game board representing a map of the Netherlands and Flanders, with tiles that resemble linguistic areas. They can conquer these areas by either competing with another player in a linguistic challenge, or by answering trivia-type questions about regional languages in the Netherlands and Flanders on the one hand, and questions about linguistics on the other hand.

The questions are designed to be both informative and entertaining. An example question is: “There are dialects as well as a standard language. Which came first?”. The answer is dialects, and we explain that the standard language was constructed from historically prestigious dialects. We have made the explanations available on a companion website (www.streektaalstrijd.nl), which adds to the learning experience. There are also additional digital questions on the website (e.g., for which players have to guess where a dialect speaker is from on the basis of a sound recording). Importantly, even if players do not know the answers to questions, they still are able to conquer new areas and progress in the game. This mechanic helps to keep people motivated to play the game.

Players are also able to compete with other players by doing several linguistic challenges. One type of challenge is that both players provide their best guess to a question, such as “How many native speakers did Hindi have in 2022?”. Another type of challenge is that players execute a task (e.g., “Say your name in as many languages and dialects as possible.”). The player who executes the task best is the winner.

Streektaalstrijd, which will be demonstrated during this multimedia presentation, combines entertainment with learning and therefore attracts a wide range of players. It introduces players to ample information about regional languages in the Netherlands and Flanders. A substantial set of general linguistics questions ensures a wide coverage of subfields, including historical linguistics, theoretical linguistics and neuro- and psycholinguistics. The game facilitates an understanding of the dynamic nature of languages and invites players to re-evaluate their prejudices about minority languages.