Like other German regiolects, there is not a strict definition of what constitutes Rhinelandic; it can be spoken in a way very close to the standard idiom, but if locals talk to each other, it is mostly unintelligible to inhabitants of other German-speaking regions.
Nevertheless, it still reflects differences inside the dialect continuum of the Rhineland, since speakers often prefer distinct words, styles or linguistic forms depending on the subregion they come from.
Scientists of today's Landschaftsverband have observed, documented, and researched lingual development in the Rhine Province, and lately the Rhineland, for about two hundred years.
These surveys are supplemented, extended, and updated by use of their interactive website Mitmachwörterbuch der rheinischen Umgangssprache[6] (Cooperative Dictionary of the Rhinelandic Colloquial Language) since 2007.
The following exemplary sentences may show how the regiolect is related to both Standard German and the actual dialect (Kölsch in this case), and found to be in the middle between the two.
With words common to both languages, vowel and consonant qualities are usually those of the standard (trinken instead of drinke; immer instead of emmer), as are the rules of morphology.
The first end of the continuum is made up by the traditional regional language, which is closely related to the standard, but has had its independent development for several centuries; in both cases, it is alive, but losing ground in everyday communication, especially among younger people.
Instances of more recent additions are: A grammatical deviation too, the am-Progressive mentioned above, has invaded the colloquial speech of other parts of the German-speaking areas.
"[22] There are several sound samples of spoken Rhinelandic at the linguistic department at Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte of the Landschaftsverband Rheinland: