Rhinelandic regiolect

Last updated

The terms Rhinelandic, Rhenish, and Rhinelandic regiolect refer to the vernacular lect spoken in the so-called Rhineland of West Germany. This linguistic region is approximately formed of the West of North Rhine-Westphalia, the North of Rhineland-Palatinate and several smaller adjacent areas, including some areas in neighbouring countries.

Contents

Although there is such a thing as a Rhinelandic accent, and the regiolect uses it, the Rhinelandic variety is not simply German spoken with an accent. Indeed, it differs from Standard German in several thousand [1] commonly used additional words, phrases, and idioms, and some grammatical constructions. Like other German regiolects, there is not a strict definition of what constitutes Rhinelandic; it can be spoken in a way very close to the standard idiom, but if locals talk to each other, it is mostly unintelligible to inhabitants of other German-speaking regions.[ citation needed ]

Linguists classify the Rhinelandic regiolect as a dialectal variety of Standard German having a strong substratum of the many diverse local community languages of the Rhineland. [2] As such, it occupies a middle position between the group of older West Central German languages, and Low Franconian languages spoken in the Rhineland, and the newer Standard German. The latter has only been brought into the area recently, under the Prussian reign, when local speakers merged many common properties and words of their local languages into the standard language. Thus a new regiolect formed, which in many respects follows the conventions of Standard German, but at the same time continues local linguistic traditions, making it comprehensible in a much wider area than the original local languages. Nevertheless, it still reflects differences inside the dialect continuum of the Rhineland, since speakers often prefer distinct words, styles or linguistic forms depending on the subregion they come from. [3]

Scientific recognition and documentation

Differing across subregions of the Rhineland, and continually evolving, the Rhinelandic regiolect is not easily formalized. Though spoken by millions, it is rarely written down, which hampers scientific treatment. It has long been regarded as 'sheer colloquial speech' by the scientific community, valued too low to be subject of serious recognition and research. Only recently [4] has it shifted into the focus of empirical research of some linguists. Most notably, the linguistics department of the Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte (Institute for Regional Studies and History, former: Amt für Rheinische Landeskunde (ARL) – Office of Rhinelandic Regional Knowledge and Documentation) of the Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR) has contributed to that work.

Scientists of today's Landschaftsverband have observed, documented, and researched lingual development in the Rhine Province, and lately the Rhineland, for about two hundred years. During the past decades, they have published several studies of the current regiolect, as well as scientific books and papers, popular science books, articles and essays. Some of their findings are available on the internet. [5] They regularly make surveys based on printed questionnaires which more recently can also be obtained and submitted via e-mail. These surveys are supplemented, extended, and updated by use of their interactive website Mitmachwörterbuch der rheinischen Umgangssprache [6] (Cooperative Dictionary of the Rhinelandic Colloquial Language) since 2007.

Literature on colloquialisms and colloquial German generally lists words and phrases coming from the Rhineland, marking their regional provenience appropriately. [7]

Despite obviously not having heen created for this purpose and not including regiolect references at all, the well-known extensive multi-volume compendium Rheinisches Wörterbuch [8] is nevertheless usually very helpful for finding hints to the probable meanings of words of the Rhinelandic regiolect that cannot be determined from other sources. Many regiolectal words [9] come from, or are identical to, local language words which are documented in the Rheinisches Wörterbuch. They usually bear identical, related, or quite similar meanings. [10]

Grammatical and syntactical deviations from Standard German

RhinelandicPeteris-demManfredseinFarradamRepariern
Dutch [De]Peteris-[aan de]Manfredz'nfietsaan hetrepareren
Standard German [Der]Peter-repariert[des]Manfreds-Fahrrad--
English [The]Peterisfixing[of the]Manfred‘s-bike--

Aan de (archaic: den) is the literal Dutch translation of Rhinelandic dem as used with masculine nouns, not Standard German des as used with masculine nouns, which would be van de (archaic: des).

Rhinelandic-kommabeimich [11]
Standard German bittekommeeinmalzumir
English pleasecome-tome
Rhinelandicichbindatganzvergessen
Dutch ikbendathelemaalvergeten
Standard German ichhabeesvölligvergessen
English Ihaveitcompletelyforgotten
Rhinelandicichbindatganzvergessengewesen
Dutch ikwasdathelemaalvergeten-
Standard German ichhatteesvölligvergessen-
English Ihaditcompletelyforgotten-
RhinelandicIchhabdakein(e)Zeitfür-
Dutch Ikhebdaargeentijdvoor-
Standard German IchhabedafürkeineZeit--
English Ihave-notimeforthat
Rhinelandicduhasdenverschreck jemacht-
Dutch jehebthemlaten schrikken-
Standard German Duhastihnerschreckt-
English youhavescared or spookedhim
Rhinelandices/et/das/dat/de/dieLisaheiratgraad
Standard German [die]Lisaheiratetgerade
English [the]Lisamarriesat the moment
Rhinelandices/et/das/dat/de/dieLisaisamheiratn
Standard German [die]Lisaheiratetgerade
English [the]Lisaismarrying
Rhinelandicetkütt :Schmitz,dieSchmitz,un-etSchmitz
Standard German (literally)eskommt :derSchmitz,dieSchmitzund-dasSchmitz
(better)eskommendieEheleuteSchmitzmit-Tochter
English (literally)therecomes :the (masculine)Smith,the (feminine)Smith,and-the (neuter)Smith
(better)-coming are :Mr.andMrs. Smithwiththeirdaughter
Rhinelandic-hasse-schöngeputz,damussdeMamma-nichmehrbei[gehn]- [11]
Standard German dashastdu[so]gutgeputzt,  dass-ich-nicht[mehr]nacharbeitenmuss
English thishaveyou[so]nicelycleaned,  that-mom / Ineed[s]notany [more]rework-

Intermediate position between Standard German and broad dialect

The following exemplary sentences may show how the regiolect is related to both Standard German and the actual dialect (Kölsch in this case), and found to be in the middle between the two.

Kölsch DialectJetz setze mer uns_eesch_ens hen un drinke_uns_e Käffje.Dann sühd_et Levve att widder anders uß.Ärbeide künne mer emmer noch!
Rhenish RegiolectJetz setz'mer uns_ers'ma hin un trinken_uns_en Käffchen.Dann siehd_et Leben schonn wider anders_aus.Aabeiten köm_mer immer noch!
Standard GermanJetzt setzen wir uns erst mal hin und trinken einen Kaffee.Dann sieht das Leben schon wieder anders aus.Arbeiten können wir noch immer!
EnglishNow let's first sit down and have a cup of coffee.After that, life will look much better.Work can wait a while!

The example shows that the regiolect is based on Standard German. Thus, it uses ers'ma ("first") from the standard "erst mal" (vs. dialect: eesch ens), and schonn ("already") from the standard "schon" (vs. dialect: att or allt). With words common to both languages, vowel and consonant qualities are usually those of the standard (trinken instead of drinke; immer instead of emmer), as are the rules of morphology.

However, the strong dialectal influence is also evident: Word final t/d is often deleted after another consonant (jetz, un); there is a tendency towards vowel shortening (schonn, widder); some structure words come in the dialectal form (mer = "wir"; et = "es, das"); and words with an initial vowel are not separated from the preceding word by a glottal stop, but rather linked to it, like in English. (This is marked in the example by an underscore.) The regiolect also uses diminutives more often (Käffchen instead of "Kaffee"), and has borrowed from the dialect many syntactical constructions unknown in the standard, e.g. mer trinken uns (en Käffchen), literally "we drink (a coffee) to ourselves", meaning: "to drink something with ease and pleasure."

Another good example is the word "afternoon", for which the regiolect uses a form similar to the dialect, but has adapted a vowel and a consonant to the standard.

Kölsch DialectNommedach[ˈnɔməˌdax]
Rhenish RegiolectNammetach[ˈnaməˌtax]
Standard GermanNachmittag[ˈnaːxmɪˌtaːk]
Englishafternoon[ˌɑːftəˈnuːn]

The continuum Rhenish dialectsRhenish regiolectStandard German is comparable (however not wholly equal) to the continuum Scots (colloquial) Scottish English British Standard English in Lowland Scotland. The first end of the continuum is made up by the traditional regional language, which is closely related to the standard, but has had its independent development for several centuries; in both cases, it is alive, but losing ground in everyday communication, especially among younger people. The other end of the continuum is the supra-regional standard language used for example on national television. In between the two, we find the new common speech, which is based on the standard, but has a strong substratum from the traditional language.

Regional differences

The Rhinelandic regiolect has several regional and subregional features. Very many approximately coincide with the general dialect groups found in the local languages. For example:

EnglishGermanRhinelandic
(North)
Rhinelandic
(Center)
Rhinelandic
(South)
little jarGefäßKümpkenKümpche(n)Kimpche [12]

As usual, the Low Franconian area in the North uses their own way to build the diminutive. The Central Rhineland between the Benrath line and the Sankt Goar line usually has an intermediate position. In this instance, the South uses their own vocalism that already incorporates parts of the Palatinate German one, found even further South.

Rhinelandic influences on Standard German

Like other jargons and regional varieties, also the Rhinelandic is influencing the Vocabulary of the German Standard. Instances of more recent additions are:

A grammatical deviation too, the am-Progressive mentioned above, has invaded the colloquial speech of other parts of the German-speaking areas. Experts state that it can be seen as "almost standard language use in wide parts." [22]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Low Franconian</span> Language family

In historical and comparative linguistics, Low Franconian is a linguistic category used to classify a number of historical and contemporary West Germanic varieties closely related to, and including, the Dutch language. Most dialects and languages included within this category are spoken in the Netherlands, northern Belgium (Flanders), in the Nord department of France, in western Germany, as well as in Suriname, South Africa and Namibia.

Westphalian or Westfalish is one of the major dialect groups of Low German. Its most salient feature is its diphthongization. For example, speakers say iäten instead of etten or äten for "to eat".

Colognian or Kölsch is a small set of very closely related dialects, or variants, of the Ripuarian group of dialects of the Central German group. These dialects are spoken in the area covered by the Archdiocese and former Electorate of Cologne reaching from Neuss in the north to just south of Bonn, west to Düren and east to Olpe in northwest Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ripuarian language</span> German dialect group

Ripuarian is a German dialect group, part of the West Central German language group. Together with the Moselle Franconian which includes the Luxembourgish language, Ripuarian belongs to the larger Central Franconian dialect family and also to the linguistic continuum with the Low Franconian languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhinelandic</span>

Rhinelandic is a term occasionally used for linguistic varieties of a region on both sides of the Middle and Lower Rhine river in Central West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, including some varieties of the Limburgish language group, Kleverlandish, Moselle Franconian and Ripuarian. The Local languages of villages or cities are commonly referred to as "the dialects" or "dialect". One of the meanings of Rhinelandic is that of a group of local languages in an area called the Rhineland. Another meaning is that of the regiolect being used by the people approximately of the same area.

The Rheinische Dokumenta is a phonetic writing system developed in the early 1980s by a working group of academics, linguists, local language experts, and local language speakers of the Rhineland. It was presented to the public in 1986 by the Landschaftsverband Rheinland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lötzbeuren</span> Municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Lötzbeuren is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

The Cooperative Dictionary of the Rhinelandic Colloquial Language was a website that both documents and collects data on the current distinct variety of German used colloquially in the Rhineland region - where some 15 million speakers live.

Peter Honnen is a German linguist and specialist researcher of the languages of the Rhineland. He was born in Rheinhausen, Germany.

The subdivision of West Central German into a series of dialects, according to the differing extent of the High German consonant shift, is particularly pronounced. It is known as the Rhenish fan because on the map of dialect boundaries, the lines form a fan shape. Here, no fewer than eight isoglosses, named after places on the Rhine River, run roughly west to east. They partially merge into a simpler system of boundaries in East Central German. The table below lists the isoglosses and the main resulting dialects, arranged from north to south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bergish dialects</span> Collective name for a group of West Germanic dialects

Bergish is a collective name for a group of West Germanic dialects spoken in the Bergisches Land region east of the Rhine in western Germany.

The Eifeler Regel or Eifel rule is a linguistic phenomenon originally documented in the dialects of the Eifel region in the far west of Germany during the late 19th century. The rule describes a phonological process in the languages which causes the deletion of final in certain contexts, and may be reflected in spelling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adolf Kober</span> German rabbi and historian (1879–1958)

Adolf Kober was a rabbi and a historian.

Werner Eck is professor of Ancient History at Cologne University, Germany, and a noted expert on the history and epigraphy of imperial Rome. His main interests are the prosopography of the Roman ruling class and the ancient city of Cologne, Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium. He also researched the Bar Kokhba revolt from the Roman point of view.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jülich-Zülpich Börde</span> Landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

The Jülich-Zülpich Börde is a landscape in the Rhineland in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on the northern edge of the Eifel. It forms the western part of the Lower Rhine Bay, west of the Rhine, excluding the actual Cologne Lowland, from which it is separated by the ridge of the Ville. It is divided into the Jülich Börde around the town of Jülich in the north and the Zülpich Börde around the town of Zülpich in the south, the two areas being separated from one another by the Bürge forest. Both parts are natural region major units of the Lower Rhine Bay.

Dietrich Kämper is a German musicologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udo Mainzer</span> German art historian (born 1945)

Udo Mainzer is a German art historian and monument conservator. He held office until September 2011. as director of the LVR-Amt für Denkmalpflege im Rheinland and Landeskonservator of the Landschaftsverband Rheinland.

Wolfgang Dieter Brönner is a German art historian and historic preservationist. From 1991 to 2005, he was the Landeskonservator of the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate in Mainz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthias Joseph de Noël</span> German merchant, painter, art collector and writer

Matthias Joseph de Noël was a German merchant, painter, art collector and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palatinate language island</span> Language area in Germany

The Palatinate language island on the Lower Rhine is an area to the west of the Lower Rhine where since the mid-18th century a Rhenish Franconian dialect has been spoken, brought into the then-Prussian territory by settlers originating from the Palatinate region. Because the Protestants did not mix with the local Catholic population for a long time, their distinct dialect has remained partly preserved.

References

  1. See "Mitmachwörterbuch" at http://www.mitmachwoerterbuch.lvr.de/lesen.php and following pages for an (incomplete) word list.
  2. For the relations and differences between Dialect, Regiolect, and Standard variety, see also: Dr. Georg Cornelissen (2008), Meine Oma spricht noch Platt : Wo bleibt der Dialekt im Rheinland? (in German), Köln: Greven Verlag, pp. 9, lower end, and following, ISBN   978-3-7743-0417-8
  3. Peter Honnen (2003), Kappes, Knies und Klüngel : Regionalwörterbuch des Rheinlands (in German), Köln: Greven Verlag, pp. 13 unten, ISBN   3-7743-0337-1
  4. beginning approximately in the 1970s
  5. An introduction can be found at "Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte". Archived from the original on 2012-06-20. Retrieved 2013-10-10. (last visited: June 1st, 2011)
  6. "Mitmachwörterbuch der rheinischen Umgangssprache". Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2012-03-05.
  7. For instance: Heinz Küpper (1987), Wörterbuch der deutschen Umgangssprache (in German), Stuttgart: Klett Verlag, ISBN   3-12-570600-9
  8. Rheinisches Wörterbuch .Im Auftrag der Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, der Gesellschaft für Rheinische Geschichtskunde und des Provinzialverbandes der Rheinprovinz auf Grund der von Johannes Franck begonnenen, von allen Kreisen des Rheinischen Volkes unterstützten Sammlung bearbeitet und herausgegeben von Josef Müller, Heinrich Dittmaier, Rudolf Schützeichel und Mattias Zender. 9 volumes. Bonn/Berlin 1928-1971.
    Available online at http://www.woerterbuchnetz.de/woerterbuecher/rhwb/wbgui?lemid=%5B%5D
  9. According to an estimate of the linguistics department of the Institute for Regional Studies and History of the Landschaftsverband Rheinland, they have collected some 3000 to 6000 words of that kind.
  10. See also: Peter Honnen (2003), Kappes, Knies und Klüngel : Regionalwörterbuch des Rheinlandes (in German), Köln: Greven Verlag, pp. 15, 16, ISBN   3-7743-0337-1
  11. 1 2 Rheinisches Mitmachwörterbuch: bei, last visited January 12, 2011.
  12. (in German){{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. See also: Peter Honnen (2008), Alles Kokolores? - Wörter und Wortgeschichten aus dem Rheinland (in German), Köln: Greven Verlag, pp. 125 f, ISBN   978-3-7743-0418-5
  14. Compare: Rheinisches Mitmachwörterbuch: Knöllchen retrieved 17 January 2011.
  15. Peter Honnen (2003), Kappes, Knies und Klüngel. Regionalwörterbuch des Rheinlandes (in German), Köln: Greven Verlag, p. 156, ISBN   3-7743-0337-1
  16. Compare: Rheinisches Mitmachwörterbuch: poppen retrieved 17 January 2011.
  17. See also: Rheinisches Mitmachwörterbuch: eins retrieved 17 January 2011.
  18. See also: Peter Honnen (2008), Alles Kokolores? - Wörter und Wortgeschichten aus dem Rheinland (in German), Köln: Greven Verlag, p. 120, ISBN   978-3-7743-0418-5
  19. Compare: Rheinisches Mitmachwörterbuch: Klüngel Archived 2014-02-01 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 17 January 2011.
  20. Peter Honnen (2003), Kappes, Knies und Klüngel. Regionalwörterbuch des Rheinlandes (in German), Köln: Greven Verlag, pp. 173 f, ISBN   3-7743-0337-1
  21. See also: Rheinisches Mitmachwörterbuch: Schiss retrieved 17 January 2011.
  22. Duden, Volume 9, 6. edition 2007, p. 62

There are several sound samples of spoken Rhinelandic at the linguistic department at Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte of the Landschaftsverband Rheinland: