Central Hessian

Last updated

The Central Hessian dialect is a German dialect subgroup of the Hessian branch of Central German. [1] [2] It has only partly undergone the High German (HG) consonant shift but has had a different vowel development than most other German dialects.

Contents

Location

The dialect is spoken around the center of the German state of Hesse. [3] [4]

Phonetics and development from Middle High German

The dialect sounds softer than HG and often „glues“ words together. It also is hard to understand for non-natives, fellow Germans as well.

Vowels

Monophthongs
frontcentralback
highi: ɪu: ʊ
mide: ɛəo: ɔ

ɔ:

lowa: a

Diphthongs: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ ɛɪ̯ ɔʊ̯ ɔɪ̯

Consonants

Structure: /_V - V_V - V_/
bilabiallabiodentalalveolarpostalveolarlateralvelar*
strong/p-b-p//f-v-f//d//k-g-k/
soft (after back vowel)/b-v-b//v//d-ɾ-d//g-ɣ-x/
soft (after front vowel)/g-(ɟ)-(ç)/
continuous/m//n//l//ŋ/
hissing (after back vowel)/z-z-s//ts-dz-ts//ʃ-ʒ-ʃ//tʃ~dʒ~tʃ//h-ɣ-x/
hissing (after front vowel)/h-ʒ-ʃ/

The „R“ can be realised as a bunch of different phonemes, some dialects use the uvular trill, some the velar, some the alveolar, some do the english r and others just tap.

Development

Central Hessian did partake only partially in the HG consonant shift and later further underwent a general gradation process for almost all consonants.

Between vowels

  • all voiceless consonants are voiced
  • voiced consonants become (voiced) fricatives, /d/ shifts to [ɾ]

In general

  • /h/ from /k/ develops a vowel to consonant harmony; becomes [ʃ~ʒ] after front vowels and [x~ɣ] after back vowels
  • /g/ also develops this harmony but tends to elide after front vowels, only to merge with /h/ after back vowels

HG consonant shift (partially) + Further consonant gradation

T

t_ > ts_

_tt_ > _ss_ > _[z:]_

_t_ > _ts_ > _[dz:]_

_t > _s

K

k_ >! k_

_kk_ > X > _[g:]_

_k_ > _[x/ç]_ > _[ɣ/ʒ]_

_k > _[x/ç] > _[x/ʃ]

P

p_ >! p_

_pp_ >! _pp_ > _[b:]_

_p_ > _f_ > _[v]_

_p > _f

D

d_ >! d_

_d_ > _t_ > _[d]_

_d > _t

Ð

ð_ > d_

_ð_ > _d_ > _[ɾ]_

_ð > _d

B

b_ >! b_

_b_ >! _b_ > _[v]_

_b >! _b

G

g_ >! g_

_g_ >! _g_ > _[ɣ/(ɟ)]_

_g >! _g > _[x/(ç)]

S

s_ > [z]_

sC_ > [ʃC]_

_s_ > _[z]_

_rs_ > _[Rʃ]_ > _[Rʒ]_

_rs > _[Rʃ]

Development from MHG onwards

Diphthongisation

Like in modern HG long î and û underwent diphthongisation.

î > ai

like in „t͡sa͜ɪt“ MHG zît - time, and

û > au

like in „bɾa͜ʊɣə“ MHG brûchen - to need

MHG diphthongs

Unlike HG the old diphthongs did not merge with diphthongizing long vowels but merged together instead:

ei, eu, ou > â

some other diphthongs switched within

ie > ei

uo > ou (with some exceptions becoming u)

iu > oi (more consistent than HG)

Vowel heightening

In contrast to HG long ô, â and ê did not remain unchanged, they shifted to the now vacant position of the long high vowels.

ê > î

ô > û

Since long ô was now also vacant, â also shifted.

â > ô

Endings

All MHG inflectional endings were shortened.

-ən > -ə [en]

-ə > -◌ [e]

Other changes

It has to be mentioned tho, that this is only the basic development and every dialect may have some small changes. Short open i in some dialects shifted to [ɛ], short u to [ɔ]. Old long i in some dialects behaves differently and became oi in word final position or was simply shortened: "enoi"/"enin" - "hinein"

The development of vowels before "r" is especially tricky, because younger generations tend to not pronounce it in coda position. It may follow the same patterns as if there would be no „r“, shifting further towards the evolving vowel realisation; "durch" [dɔrʃ~dɔʃ] (through) or even further away from it; "erst" [irʃt~iɐʃt] (first).

Vowel development as a chainshift

As a huge number of vowels shifted due to different reasons, their route of changing forms a chain of vowels supplementing each other.

Vowel Chainshift.png

Grammar

The dialect basically features the same grammar as High German. Verbs inflect for person, number and tense and periphrastically for mood and aspect. Pronouns to a higher degree than nouns inflect for case and number.

There are four cases and two numbers.

Pronouns

"Before a consonant/before a vowel", this also depends on the dialect. Pronouns like in Dutch and Italian have a strong and a weak form ( > ), whether or not they are focused on and where they locate in the sentence; the weak forms glue to their surroundings and are often used for the direct object. All in all, the weak forms are steadily replacing the strong forms with each generation:

"mahhemir" > "mahheme" > "mâme" > "mamme" = We make (in VS word order)

1stsgpl
nom.aih > ihmir > me
poss.ma(i)/minusser > usse
dat.mir > meus
acc.mih
2ndsgpl
nom.dau > deir > e
poss.da(i)/dinoier > oie
dat.dir > deoih
acc.dih

HG "Duzen".

2nd polite
nom.sei > se
acc.
poss.irn
dat.îne

The 2nd polite triggers 3rd pl forms on the verb. HG "Siezen".

3rdsg msg nsg fsg "one"pl
nom.er > edés > essei > semadei > de
acc.în > inân
poss.sa(i)/sinirâm sa(i)/sindêne ir
dat.îm > imâmdêne

Verbs

Suffix chart:

sgpl
1st-X-e
2nd-st-t
3rd-t-e

Present

Verb in the present often show a simple ablaut system, where the plural forms take the stem vowel, whilst the singular may trigger a mutation. In some dialects or as a consequence of hypercorrections this ablaut spreads to new forms.

To comesgpl
1stkumkumme
3rdkimt
2ndkimstkumt

The mutation can also involve the consonant; in the following examples from /h/ [x~ɣ] to /h/ [ʃ] and from /g/ [x~ɣ] to /ɡ/ [ç~ʝ] or [◌].

To makesgplTo saysgpl
1stmahmahhesâgsâge
3rdmehtsê(g)st
2ndme(h)stmahtsê(g)tsâ(g)t

The verb "to be" is irregular

To besgpl
1stsa(i)sa(i)/sin
3rdis
2ndsastsait

Past

Although there is an equivalent to the German "Imperfekt", it is much more preferred to use the periphrastic "Haben/Sein-Perfekt". It is constructed by using the forms of "to have" (or "To be", if the verb describes an action of moving around and is unchangeably intransitive) in the present tense in combination with the past-participle form which is often highly irregular, but in theory should stick to the blueprint "geSTEMt".

To havesgpl
1sthû/hun
3rdh(a/o/u)sthû/hun
2ndh(a/o/u)th(a/o/u)(b/n)t

As one of the most used verbs, „to have“ is not only highly irregular but also easily adopted from other dialects or HG, which means, that this table is only one of many possibilities.

Examples of the past participle:

come - gekumme

said - gesâ(g)t

seen - gesî

been - gewêse

done - gedô

made - gemaht

Conjunctive

The Present Conjunctive is produced by using the present conjunctive forms of the verb "to do" in combination with the infinitive (identical to the 3rd person plural).

would dosgpl
1stdêtdête
3rddê(d)st
2nddêtdêtet

The Past Conjunctive is produced by using the present conjunctive forms of the verbs "to have" and "to be" in combination with the past participle. The same distinction is made as in the past.

would havesgpl
1sthéthétte
3rd
2ndhétsthéttet
would besgpl
1stwêrwêrn
3rd
2ndwêrstwêrt

Passive

The Passive mood is formed by using the verb "to get" in the particular tense.

Contrary to HG and English, tho, no special case switch is necessary to denote the roles anew.

English: I say it. It is said to me.

HG: Ich sage es. Es wird mir gesagt.

Central Hessian: Aih sâg‿es. Aih krei‿es gesât.

To getsgpl
1stkreikreie
3rdkreit
2ndkreistkreit

Present: ToGet + infinitive

Present Conjunctive: WouldDo + participle + "kreie"

Past: ToHave/ToBe + participle + "gekreit"

Past Conjunctive: WouldHave/WouldBe + participle + "gekreit"

Nouns

Nouns seldom inflect for case anymore. This is instead done by the definite and indefinite articles, which also can help to differentiate gender (m, f, n). Like pronouns, articles have a strong and a weak form, the strong serves as demonstrative pronoun or number respectfully whilst the weak is purely grammatical.

Definite Article
mnfpl
nom.der > dedés > esdei > de
acc.dên > en
poss.dêm __ sa(i)/sin > em __ sa(i)/sinder __ ir/irn > de __ ir/irndêne __ ir/irn > de __ ir/irn
dat.dêm > emder > dedêne > de
Indefinite Article
mnfpl
nom.ân > enâne > e(e par)
acc.
datâm > emer > e
poss.âm __ sa(i)/sin > em __ sa(i)/siner __ ir/irn > e __ ir/irn(e par) __ ir/irn

Plurality is marked via the suffix -e (dâg, dâge = day, days), rarely -er (haus, hoiser) or Umlaut alone (kau, koi = cow, cows).

Central Hessian employs diminutives more often than Standard German: wuz = pig, but wuzzî (little pig is used instead). The suffixes are -sje (HG -chen), the rare -l(a(i)) (HG -lein) and -î (no equivalent), both former ones may trigger Umlaut (boub, baube, boibsje = boy, boys, little boy). Diminutives indicate no number on their ending alone. The difference between -sje and -î is that -sje is used after single plosives preferredly whilst -î is used after consonant clusters and sibilants (kaz, kézzî = cat, kitten; haus, hoisî = house, small house).

Comparison with New High German

Here two Examples of the dialect; the differences between the dialects of the villages of Ostheim and Heldenbergen in the city of Nidderau, only two kilometres away from each other.

Ostheim (Uustim): "Wû witten da klîhâ hî hû?" HG: "Wo willst du dein Kleeheu hin haben?" - Where do you want to have your clover hay put?

Heldenbergen (Helbische): "Wû wisten da hâ hî hû?" HG: "Wo willst du dein Heu hin haben?" - Where do you want to have your hay put?

The dialect has a large corpus of inherent dialectal Westgermanic vocabulary, latin and french borrows, and imports from other dialects after the Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950) from other territories.

examples
Hessian High German French*English
retûrzurückretourback
wutzSauboar
watzEbermale pig
trottwaGehwegtrottoirsidewalk
gaulPferdhorsecp. HG Gaul
kolterDeckeblanket
kordelSchnur
stubWohnungcp. Stube
hinkelHuhnchicken
pén/sjoulSchuleschoolfrom Latin "penna" - quill
simpeleinfachsimplecp. simpel
deetz/koppKopftêtehead
kneipsjeMesser(-chen)knife

But it does not have to use different words to be quite incomprehensible, because shared lexemes are hard to recognise as a result of several vowel shifts.

HessianHigh GermanEnglish
dauduthou (you)
doutundo
kouKuhcow
aihichI
stîstehenstand
âgAugeeye
uvaufup
panPfannepan

Related Research Articles

Plautdietsch or Mennonite Low German is a Low Prussian dialect of East Low German with Dutch influence that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia. The word Plautdietsch translates to "flat German". In other Low German dialects, the word for Low German is usually realised as Plattdütsch/Plattdüütsch or Plattdüütsk, but the spelling Plautdietsch is used to refer specifically to the Vistula variant of the language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Bavarian</span> Bavarian dialect

Northern Bavarian is a dialect of Bavarian, together with Central Bavarian and Southern Bavarian. Bavarian is mostly spoken in the Upper Palatinate, although not in Regensburg, which is a primarily Central Bavarian–speaking area, according to a linguistic survey done in the late 1980s. According to the same survey, Northern Bavarian is also spoken in Upper Franconia, as well as in some areas in Upper and Lower Bavaria, such as in the areas around Eichstätt and Kelheim. Few speakers remained in the Czech Republic, mostly concentrated around Aš and Železná Ruda, at the time of the survey, but considering the time which has passed since the survey, the dialect may be extinct in those places today. If it still exists there, it would include the ostegerländische Dialektgruppe. Ethnologue estimates that there were 9,000 speakers of Bavarian in the Czech Republic in 2005, but does not clarify if these were Northern Bavarian speakers.

Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or c. 1550, there was no overarching standard language, but all dialects were mutually intelligible. During that period, a rich Medieval Dutch literature developed, which had not yet existed during Old Dutch. The various literary works of the time are often very readable for speakers of Modern Dutch since Dutch is a rather conservative language.

Middle High German is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. High German is defined as those varieties of German which were affected by the Second Sound Shift; the Middle Low German and Middle Dutch languages spoken to the North and North West, which did not participate in this sound change, are not part of MHG.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Low German</span> Developmental stage of Low German

Middle Low German is a developmental stage of Low German. It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented in writing since about 1225/34 (Sachsenspiegel). During the Hanseatic period, Middle Low German was the leading written language in the north of Central Europe and served as a lingua franca in the northern half of Europe. It was used parallel to medieval Latin also for purposes of diplomacy and for deeds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Saxon</span> Germanic language spoken from the 8th to 12th centuries

Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German. It is a West Germanic language, closely related to the Anglo-Frisian languages. It is documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it gradually evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken throughout modern northwestern Germany, primarily in the coastal regions and in the eastern Netherlands by Saxons, a Germanic tribe that inhabited the region of Saxony. It partially shares Anglo-Frisian's Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law which sets it apart from Low Franconian and Irminonic languages, such as Dutch, Luxembourgish and German.

Neo-Mandaic, also known as Modern Mandaic, sometimes called the "ratna", is the modern reflex of the Mandaic language, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religious community of Iraq and Iran. Although severely endangered, it survives today as the first language of a small number of Mandaeans in Iran and in the Mandaean diaspora. All Neo-Mandaic speakers are multilingual in the languages of their neighbors, Arabic and Persian, and the influence of these languages upon the grammar of Neo-Mandaic is considerable, particularly in the lexicon and the morphology of the noun. Nevertheless, Neo-Mandaic is more conservative even in these regards than most other Neo-Aramaic languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Sámi</span> Most widely spoken of all Sámi languages

Northern or North Sámi is the most widely spoken of all Sámi languages. The area where Northern Sámi is spoken covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. The number of Northern Sámi speakers is estimated to be somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000. About 2,000 of these live in Finland and between 5,000 and 6,000 in Sweden, with the remaining portions being in Norway.

Mercian was a dialect spoken in the Anglian kingdom of Mercia. Together with Northumbrian, it was one of the two Anglian dialects. The other two dialects of Old English were Kentish and West Saxon. Each of those dialects was associated with an independent kingdom on the island. Of these, all of Northumbria and most of Mercia were overrun by the Vikings during the 9th century. Part of Mercia and all of Kent were successfully defended but were then integrated into the Kingdom of Wessex. Because of the centralisation of power and the Viking invasions, there is little to no salvaged written evidence for the development of non-Wessex dialects after Alfred the Great's unification, until the Middle English period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Flemish</span> Flemish dialects

East Flemish is a collective term for the two easternmost subdivisions of the so-called Flemish dialects, native to the southwest of the Dutch language area, which also include West Flemish. Their position between West Flemish and Brabantian has caused East Flemish dialects to be grouped with the latter as well. They are spoken mainly in the province of East Flanders and a narrow strip in the southeast of West Flanders in Belgium and eastern Zeelandic Flanders in the Netherlands. Even though the dialects of the Dender area are often discussed together with the East Flemish dialects because of their location, the latter are actually South Brabantian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hessian dialects</span> Group of German dialects

Hessian is a West Central German group of dialects of the German language in the central German state of Hesse. The dialect most similar to Hessian is Palatinate German of the Rhine Franconian sub-family. However, the Hessian dialects have some features which set them somewhat apart from other West-Central German dialects.

Bernese German, like other High Alemannic varieties, has a two-way contrast in plosives and fricatives that is not based on voicing, but on length. The absence of voice in plosives and fricatives is typical for all High German varieties, but many of them have no two-way contrast due to general lenition.

The phonology of the Persian language varies between regional dialects, standard varieties, and even from older variates of Persian. Persian is a pluricentric language and countries that have Persian as an official language have separate standard varieties, namely: Standard Dari (Afghanistan), Standard Iranian Persian and Standard Tajik (Tajikistan). The most significant differences between standard varieties of Persian are their vowel systems. Standard varieties of Persian have anywhere from 6 to 8 vowel distinctions, and similar vowels may be pronounced differently between standards. However, there are not many notable differences when comparing consonants, as all standard varieties a similar amount of consonant sounds. Though, colloquial varieties generally have more differences than their standard counterparts. Most dialects feature contrastive stress and syllable-final consonant clusters.

Old English phonology is necessarily somewhat speculative since Old English is preserved only as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large corpus of the language, and the orthography apparently indicates phonological alternations quite faithfully, so it is not difficult to draw certain conclusions about the nature of Old English phonology.

Dutch phonology is similar to that of other West Germanic languages, especially Afrikaans and West Frisian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hejazi Arabic</span> Variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia

Hejazi Arabic or Hijazi Arabic (HA), also known as West Arabian Arabic, is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region in Saudi Arabia. Strictly speaking, there are two main groups of dialects spoken in the Hejaz region, one by the urban population, originally spoken mainly in the cities of Jeddah, Mecca, Medina and partially in Ta'if and another dialect by the urbanized rural and bedouin populations. However, the term most often applies to the urban variety which is discussed in this article.

Bulgarian conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a Bulgarian verb from its principal parts by inflection. It is affected by person, number, gender, tense, mood and voice. Bulgarian verbs are conventionally divided into three conjugations according to the thematic vowel they use in the present tense:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erzgebirgisch</span> Central German dialect

Erzgebirgisch is a (East) Central German dialect, spoken mainly in the central Ore Mountains in Saxony. It has received relatively little academic attention. Due to the high mobility of the population and the resulting contact with Upper Saxon, the high emigration rate and its low mutual intelligibility with other dialects, the number of speakers is decreasing.

Lithuanian has eleven vowels and 45 consonants, including 22 pairs of consonants distinguished by the presence or absence of palatalization. Most vowels come in pairs which are differentiated through length and degree of centralization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moroccan Arabic</span> Vernacular Arabic spoken in Morocco

Moroccan Arabic, also known as Darija, is the dialectal, vernacular form or forms of Arabic spoken in Morocco. It is part of the Maghrebi Arabic dialect continuum and as such is mutually intelligible to some extent with Algerian Arabic and to a lesser extent with Tunisian Arabic. It is spoken by 90.9% of the population of Morocco. While Modern Standard Arabic is used to varying degrees in formal situations such as religious sermons, books, newspapers, government communications, news broadcasts and political talk shows, Moroccan Arabic is the predominant spoken language of the country and has a strong presence in Moroccan television entertainment, cinema and commercial advertising. Moroccan Arabic has many regional dialects and accents as well, with its mainstream dialect being the one used in Casablanca, Rabat, Tangier, Marrakesh and Fez, and therefore it dominates the media and eclipses most of the other regional accents.

References

  1. Birkenes, Magnus Breder; Fleischer, Jürg (2019-09-23). 14. Zentral-, Nord- Und Osthessisch (in German). De Gruyter Mouton. doi:10.1515/9783110261295-014. ISBN   978-3-11-026129-5. S2CID   213606048.
  2. "Vorüberlegungen". www.syhd.info. Retrieved 2022-06-23.
  3. "Zweite Lautverschiebung in Deutsch | Schülerlexikon | Lernhelfer". www.lernhelfer.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-06-23.
  4. Babbel.com; GmbH, Lesson Nine. "Gibt es eine Sprachgrenze zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland?". Das Babbel Magazin (in German). Retrieved 2022-06-23.