The dialects clearly show a gradual increase of Hollandic elements as one goes northwards.

However, Zeelandic is fairly coherent with clear borders, as the broad sea arms form strong isoglosses.

In the past, Zeelandic was also called boers (farmer-like), in contrast to Standard Dutch which was known as op z'n burgers (like civilians, like the bourgeoisie), but this nomenclature has fallen out of fashion in recent times.

In Vlissingen, Goes, Middelburg and, to a lesser extent, Terneuzen, Zeelandic dialect is being mostly replaced by Standard Dutch, although elderly people and people from surrounding rural areas can often still speak Zeelandic.

It usually umlauts [aː] into [ɛː] and renders the old Germanic [ai] and [au] as falling diphthongs ([ɪə ~ ɪɐ ~ iɐ] and [ʊə ~ ʊɐ ~ uɐ], respectively, with the exact realisation depending on the dialect.

This table illustrates the differences (the orthography is Dutch): The province of Zeeland consists of several former islands that were difficult to reach until well into the 20th century.

The town dialects of Middelburg and Vlissingen are both much closer to Hollandic than the rural variants and are almost extinct.

On the other hand, in several villages with much immigration, the local dialect is spoken only by adults, as children are no longer taught it.