It is spoken daily by approximately 62%[2]: 39–40 of the population of Twente, a region in the eastern Dutch province of Overijssel bordering on Germany.
Tweants is part of the larger Low Saxon dialect continuum, spreading from the Veluwe region in the middle of the Netherlands to the German-Polish border.
In less precise circumstances, its speakers mostly call Tweants plat, which may either be an abbreviated form of Plattdeutsch, or a loanword from Dutch that means 'vernacular'.
It was considered an inappropriate way of speaking, and thought to hinder children's language learning abilities and diminish their future prospects.
Due to a general rise in regional pride, interests in preserving and promoting the language have risen, resulting in dialect writing competitions, teaching materials, festivals, and other culturally engaging projects.
Due to close trading ties with the adjacent Münsterland during those days, Tweants adopted many Westphalian traits.
When the Tweante region became a fixed part of the Netherlands, and the economic fulcrum of the country shifted towards the western provinces, Standard Dutch gained influence over the language within the Dutch borders, and as a result Middle Low Saxon grew more and more apart into the various modern Low Saxon dialects.
As there is no standard variety of Tweants, and there is little or no education in the language, speakers may select their pronunciation based on personal preferences, social circumstance, or peer pressure.
Like many other Germanic languages, Tweants uses syllabic consonants in infinite verb forms and plural nouns (the "swallowing" of final -en syllables).
Tweants has long been looked down upon, and is generally considered a low-prestige language, often equalled with farm-specific jargon.
Depending on the perceived distinction those circumstances, speakers may opt to include regionalisms in their Dutch, whether that implies an accent, morphology, underlying grammatical structures or idioms.
While the accent is a result of Low Saxon phonetic properties and can vary per person or social circumstance, particularly the distinct pronunciation of the 'O' and 'E' is renowned.
For instance, when speakers of Tweants say: "t Is hier redelik doo" (It's reasonably thaw in here), they usually mean that they find the temperature unpleasantly high in the room.
This may be ascribed to the traditional belief that Tweants is supposedly an improper speech variety, the use of which bespeaks little intelligence or sophistication.
The fairly recently instated Twente Hoes is working on further teaching materials, which school boards may adopt free of charge.
Those parents, however, were used to speaking Tweants, which influenced especially their pronunciation of Dutch, and to a lesser extent their syntax and choice of vocabulary.
This is why a majority of parents up until recently neglected to teach their children about their heritage, although there has lately been a resurgence of interest in the local language.
An important stimulant for trend was the start of the 2000s soap in Tweants, "Van Jonge Leu en Oale Groond" ("Of young people and old land").
The idea of the page was based on the US Internet meme "Bitches be like", which gained enormous popularity in 2013, and inspired many to create their own versions.
Other current youth culture initiatives incorporate the language in their media outings, such as the Facebook page Tweants dialect, the online magazine Wearldsproake, and a string of other entertainment outlets.
As Tweants is not taught in schools, it is mostly written by individual language enthusiasts firmly rooted in Standard Dutch writing conventions.
As such, there are two more or less accepted spellings: the Kreenk vuur de Twentse Sproake (KTS)-spelling, and the Standaard Schriefwieze (SS).
Tweants, like the other Dutch Low Saxon dialects, has had a literary tradition since the nineteenth century when Romanticism sparked an interest in regional culture.
Some of the better-known authors include: Since the start of the dialect renaissance, Tweants has increasingly been used as a written language.
A renowned Dutch comedian, Herman Finkers, translated his last shows into Tweants, using the motto "accentless at last", to indicate that he can finally sound natural by using his mother tongue, without someone mocking him about it.