The FTA area comprises parts of four different countries: Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg and The Netherlands. This has been one of the reasons why scholars in the past have had difficulties in surveying the entire FTA area. In general, one can say that the tone accents have not yet been studied to a satisfactory degree in all of their aspects.
In the last decade(s), however, a remarkable surge in the number of publications on FTA has taken place. The problem is being viewed from different linguistic angles: phonetics, descriptive linguistics, general linguistics, and historical linguistics.
In particular, there are
two challenges to be met:
1. On the
descriptive level, there is still much work to be done. Phonetic studies
of dialects in the FTA area are few, and have not usually been carried out
with modern methods. Furthermore, some areas have attracted a lot of
attention (e.g. Maastricht), whereas other parts of the FTA area remain
almost white spots on the map.
2. On the explanatory level, different theories have been advanced as to the historical origin of the tone accents, but no consensus has been reached. It may be expected that an intensified description of the individual dialects will stimulate historical studies.