Krefeld (IPA: [ˈkʁeːfɛlt]) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located southwest of the Ruhr area, its center just a few kilometres to the west of the River Rhine. (The borough of Uerdingen is situated directly on the Rhine.) The city was also known as Crefeld until 1929. It is accessed by the autobahns A57 (Cologne - Nijmegen) and the A44 (Aachen - Düsseldorf - Dortmund - Kassel) Krefeld is also called the "Velvet and Silk City". In more recent decades the city has hosted an honors program in foreign language (German) studies. The program annually places thirty specially selected high school students with families in and around Krefeld for intensive German language training. Krefeld's residents speak Hochdeutsch, the standard German which all educated Germans are taught. However, the native dialect is a Low German variety, sometimes locally called "Krefelder Plattdeutsch," "Krieewelsch Platt," "Plattdeutsch,," or sometimes simply "Platt." The Uerdingen line isogloss, separating general dialectical areas in Germany and neighboring Germanic-speaking countries, runs through and is named for Krefeld's Uerdingen district, originally an independent municipality.