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dialects area around 1900, including all West Germanic varieties using Standard German as their literary language:Peter Wiesinger: Die Einteilung der deutschen Dialekte. In: Werner Besch, Ulrich Knoop, Wolfgang Putschke, Herbert Ernst Wiegand (Hrsg.): Dialektologie. Ein Handbuch zur deutschen und allgemeinen Dialektforschung, 2. Halbband. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1983, ISBN 3-11-009571-8, pp. 807–900.Werner König: dtv-Atlas Deutsche Sprache. 19. Auflage. dtv, München 2019, ISBN 978-3-423-03025-0, pp. 230.
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German dialects are the various traditional local varieties of the German language. Though varied by region, those of the southern half of Germany beneath the Benrath line are dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant shift, and the dialect continuum that connects High German to the neighboring varieties of Low Franconian (Dutch language) and Low German.
The varieties of German are conventionally grouped into Upper German, Central German and Low German; Upper and Central German form the High German subgroup. Standard German is a standardized form of High German, developed in the early modern period based on a combination of Central German and Upper German varieties.
For example, the Germanic tribe of the Bavarians (subjugated by the Franks during the 6th century) gave their name to the later stem duchy of Bavaria (817–1180), which itself would lend its name to the traditional Bavarian dialect grouping described in the early 19th century.Brigitte Haas-Gebhard: Die Baiuvaren. Archäologie und Geschichte. Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2013, p. 94
As their understanding of the Second Germanic consonant shift progressed, linguists (when applicable) further divided these dialects into groupings based on their degree of participation of this consonant shift, with "Low" (German: nieder-) signifying little to no participation, "Middle" (or "Central"; German: mittel-) meaning medium to high participation and "Upper" (German: ober-) conveying high to full participation.
Because the 19th-century classification nomenclature was based primarily on historical territories rather than linguistic clusters, the traditional system can imply greater similarities between dialects than is linguistically warranted. The best-known example of this phenomenon is found within the Franconian cluster, which is divided into Low Franconian, Middle Franconian and Upper Franconian even though the Low Franconian (incl. Dutch) dialects are not most closely related to Middle and Upper Franconian dialects within the larger continuum. In fact, of all German dialects, the Low Rhenish dialect (the only Low Franconian dialect spoken in Germany itself) is the most divergent when compared to Standard German, whereas the Middle and Upper Franconian dialects are fairly similar in their overall structure and phonology to the German standard language.
As a result, the second half of the 20th century saw a shift in academic customs, with many linguists instead describing dialect clusters based on the geographical area in which they are spoken (i.e. Meuse-Rhenish or Westphalian) and their degree of participation with the Second Germanic consonant shift, or, such as in the case of the influential linguists Friedrich Maurer and , creating a new framework of dialect classification altogether.
Nevertheless, in common parlance it is common for speakers of German dialects to use the traditional/older nomenclature when referring to their particular dialect, stating, for example, that they speak Saxon, Bavarian, Allemanic (Swabian), Thuringian or Franconian.
When spoken in their purest form, Low German, most Upper German, High Franconian dialects and even some Central German dialects are unintelligible to those versed only in Standard German. However, all German dialects belong to either the dialect continuum of High German or the dialect continuum of Low German. Historically, there were extensive dialect continua across much of Continental West Germanic-speaking territory, with many contiguous dialects showing high mutual intelligibility, though this traditional dialect landscape has been substantially reduced since the mid-20th century.
The German dialect continuum is typically divided into High German and Low German. The terms derive from the geographic characteristics of the terrain in which each is found rather than depicting social status.
Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany, and several translations of the Bible were printed in Low German. That predominance changed in the 16th century. In 1534, the Luther Bible was printed by Martin Luther, and that translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on High German varieties. Early New High German gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors included the Hanseatic League losing its importance around the same time (as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established) and the most powerful German states then being located in Middle and Southern Germany.
The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, with the language of the schools being Standard German.
Today, Low Saxon dialects are still widespread, especially among the elderly in the Northern parts of Germany. Some local media take care not to let the Low Saxon language die out, so there are several newspapers that have recurring articles in Low Saxon. The North German Broadcasting (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) also offers television programs, such as "Talk op Platt" and radio programs in Low Saxon.
On the other hand, Northern Germany is considered to be the region that speaks the purest Standard German, and in everyday life, little influence of dialect is heard. Still, there are notable differences in pronunciation, even among North German speakers such as the lengthening of vowels and differences in accentuation. There are also some North German expressions that are in use even in Standard High German but are seldom heard in Southern Germany, such as "plietsch" for "intelligent".
Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Rhine Franconian (incl. Hessian dialects), Lorraine Franconian, Thuringian, Silesian German, High Prussian, Lusatian dialects and Upper Saxon. They are spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of northeastern France and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands.
High Franconian dialects are transitional dialects in between the two greater High German groups. High Franconian dialects include East Franconian and South Franconian.
Upper German dialects include Alemannic German (incl. Alsatian dialect, Swabian German) and Bavarian (Southern Bavarian, Central Bavarian and Northern Bavarian) and are spoken in parts of northeastern France, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy.
Standard German is based on Central and Upper German.
The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardized and institutionalized and so are usually considered a separate language, known as Luxembourgish.
Alzenau dialect, Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and Transylvanian Saxon are High German dialects of Poland and Romania.
The High German varieties spoken by developed into a distinct language known as Yiddish, generally considered as a separate language from German, but retaining the core grammatical structure and much of the basic vocabulary of its German dialectal origins. Originating in the Rhine Valley region of medieval Germany in the 9th century, Yiddish developed into two main branches: Western Yiddish, which remained in German-speaking territories (particularly southern Germany, Alsace, Switzerland, and the Netherlands), and Eastern Yiddish, which spread eastward as Jewish communities migrated to Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, Lithuania, and areas of the Russian Empire.
Yiddish is written using Hebrew Alphabet script rather than the Latin alphabet, making it one of the few Germanic languages to use a non-Latin writing system as its standard. Linguistically, both varieties of Yiddish show their closest affinities to Middle High German dialects of the 11th-14th centuries, particularly those of the Middle Rhine and Upper Rhine regions. The underlying German component appears to derive primarily from East Franconian and Bavarian-Austrian dialect features, with some Middle Franconian elements.
Most speakers of Lagunen-Deutsch live around Lake Llanquihue. Lagunen-Deutsch has integrated elements of Spanish. This includes the integration of false cognates with the Spanish language, transferring the Spanish meanings into Lagunen-Deutsch.
The geographical origin of most or all speakers of Lagunen-Deutsch is Chile, to where the ancestors of the speakers immigrated from German-speaking areas of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The impact of nineteenth century German immigration to southern Chile was such that Valdivia was for a while a Spanish-German bilingual city with "German signboards and placards alongside the Spanish". The prestigeGermany's prestige was reflected in efforts by Chileans to bring German knowledge to Chile in the late 19th century. Institutions like the Chilean Army and Instituto Pedagógico, aimed at teacher education were heavily influenced by Germany. In the second half of the 19th century Germany displaced France as the prime role model for Chile. This however met some criticism when Eduardo de la Barra wrote disparangingly about a "German bewichment". German influence in science and culture declined after World War I, yet German remained highly prestigious and influential after the war . the German language had made it acquire qualities of a superstratum in southern Chile.
The rise in American ethnic nativist pride, especially during World War I, led to a zealous push for the Americanization of hyphenated Americans to reclaim the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant hegemonic influence once again, as the surges of immigration had forever changed the dynamic nation. All things and individuals with ties to Germany were thus subjected to public harassment, distrust, or even death, such as in the lynching of Robert Prager, a German seeking to become naturalized in St. Louis.
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