been dominated by the French, the Austrians and the Spanish, their languages have been other influences on the vocabulary of East Flemish. Subdivisions Principal dialects Core Flemish "True" East Flemish (often called "Boers", Dutch for peasant language, by speakers of city dialects) Northeast Flemish Southeast Flemish The Ghent dialect (insular city dialect) The Ronse dialect (insular city dialect) Central Flemish (transitional with West Flemish with which it is also commonly classified) Waaslandic (transitional with Brabantian) Waas Eastern Zeelandic Flemish or the Land-van-Hulst dialect The Hulst dialect (insular city dialect) Transitional and mixed dialects The Maldegem dialect (transitional with coastal West Flemish though it also shows several innovative and intermediary traits) The Philippine dialect (mixing East Flemish and Zeelandic Flemish traits) The Sas van Gent dialect, a mixture of several dialects, as Sas van Gent was a colonial town with many people from different regions. A special mention should go to continental West Flemish, which, despite being a West Flemish dialect, has some East Flemish colouring, as Kortrijk was historically governed under Ghent. Notable characteristics Even though the East Flemish dialect area is one of the most diverse linguistic landscapes in Belgium, the dialects share some traits that set them apart from Standard Dutch as well as the neighbouring dialects: The vowels in ziek ("ill") and voet ("foot") are pronounced as a short [i] and [u], respectively, like in Standard Dutch. In Brabantian, they are long [i:] and [u:], and in West Flemish the ancient diphthongs [iə] and [uə] have been retained though the sound [u] occurs before velars and labials. A notable exception is the dialects of Ghent and Ronse, which, apart from having a general tendency to stretch vowels, have diphthongised them in certain positions to [ɪ.i] and [o.u], respectively. The latter sound can also be heard in Central Flemish before velars and labials. The so-called sharp 'oo' in boom ("tree") is pronounced [yə], monophthongised to [y(:)] in the city dialects of Ghent and Ronse, but surrounding dialects have [uə], [wo] or [ɔə]. That trait originally came from the dialect of Brussels and was spread through East Flanders via Ghent. Therefore, that pronunciation also occurs in the southernmost Brabantian dialects. Also, [y(ə)] has not spread across the entire East Flemish dialect area: the Maldegem dialect, the easternmost dialects of the Waasland and most dialects in Zeelandic Flanders use [uə] instead, and the Central Flemish dialects use [yə] or [uə],