Franconia is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect. While several Germanic dialects are referred to as Franconian, only the East Franconian dialects are also colloquially referred to as "Franconian", and only the East Franconian dialect area is regarded as Franconia.
German, or more precisely High German, is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Western Europe and Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also an official language of Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as a recognized national language in Namibia. Outside Germany, it is also spoken by German communities in France (Alsace), Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary (Sopron).
The High German languages, or simply High German – not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called "High German" – comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and Uerdingen isoglosses in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and eastern Belgium, as well as in neighbouring portions of France, Italy, the Czech Republic (Bohemia), and Poland. They are also spoken in diasporas in Romania, Russia, Canada, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Namibia.
Swiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy bordering Switzerland. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg, which are closely associated to Switzerland's.
The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages. The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into three branches: Ingvaeonic, which includes English and Frisian, Istvaeonic, which includes Dutch and its close relatives, and Irminonic, which includes German and its close relatives and variants.
Early New High German (ENHG) is a term for the period in the history of the German language generally defined, following Wilhelm Scherer, as the period 1350 to 1650.
Old High German is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 500/750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High German is an umbrella term for the group of continental West Germanic dialects which underwent the set of consonantal changes called the Second Sound Shift.
In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases. It probably began between the third and fifth centuries and was almost complete before the earliest written records in High German were produced in the eighth century. From Proto-Germanic, the resulting language, Old High German, can be neatly contrasted with the other continental West Germanic languages, which for the most part did not experience the shift, and with Old English, which remained completely unaffected.
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.
Central German or Middle German is a group of High German dialects spoken from the Rhineland in the west to the former eastern territories of Germany.
East Franconian or Mainfränkisch, usually referred to as Franconian in German, is a dialect which is spoken in Franconia, the northern part of the federal state of Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Nuremberg, Bamberg, Coburg, Würzburg, Hof, Bayreuth, Meiningen, Bad Mergentheim, and Crailsheim. The major subgroups are Unterostfränkisch, Oberostfränkisch and Südostfränkisch.
Rhenish Franconian or Rhine Franconian is a dialect chain of West Central German. It comprises the varieties of German spoken across the western regions of the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, northwest Baden-Württemberg, and Hesse in Germany. It is also spoken in northeast France, in the eastern part of the département of Moselle in the Lorraine region, and in the north-west part of Bas-Rhin in Alsace. To the south, it is bounded by the Sankt Goar line which separates it from Moselle Franconian; to the north, it is bounded by the Main line which is also referred to as the Speyer line which separates it from the Upper German dialects.
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 German to the neighboring varieties of Low Franconian (Dutch) and Frisian.
Meuse-Rhenish is the modern term for literature written in the Middle Ages in the greater Meuse-Rhine area, in a literary language that is effectively Middle Dutch. This area stretches in the northern triangle roughly between the rivers Meuse and Rhine. It also applies to the Low Franconian dialects that have been spoken in that area continuously from medieval times up to now in modern times in a non-literary context. It includes varieties of South Guelderish (Zuid-Gelders) and Limburgish in the Belgian and Dutch provinces of Limburg, and their German counterparts Low Rhenish including Bergish in German Northern Rhineland. Although some dialects of this group are spoken within the language area where German is the standard, they actually are Low Franconian in character, and are more closely related to Dutch than to High German, and could therefore also be called Dutch. With regard to this German part only, Meuse-Rhenish equals the total of Low Rhenish vernaculars.
Swiss Standard German, or Swiss High German is the written form of one of four official languages in Switzerland, besides French, Italian and Romansh. It is a variety of Standard German, used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is mainly written, and rather less often spoken.
High Prussian is a group of East Central German dialects in former East Prussia, in present-day Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (Poland) and Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia). High Prussian developed in the 13th–15th centuries, brought in by German settlers mainly from Silesia and Thuringia, and was influenced by the Baltic Old Prussian language.
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 name is commonly used among its speakers, but is not of much linguistic relevance, because the varieties belong to several quite distinct groups inside the continental West Germanic dialect continuum. As usual inside a dialect continuum, neighbouring varieties have a high degree mutual intelligibility and share many similarities while the two more distant ones may be completely mutually unintelligible and considerably different. Therefore, speakers usually perceive the differences in their immediate neighbourhood as merely dialectal oddities of an otherwise larger, solid group or language that they are all part of, such as "Bergish". Bergish is itself commonly classified as a form of "Rhinelandic", which in turn is part of German. Bergish in a strict sense is the eastmost part of the Limburgish language group, which extends far beyond the rivers Rhine and Maas into the Netherlands and Belgium. Bergish in a strict sense is located in the North West. It combines Low Franconian properties with some Ripuarian properties and is seen as a transitory dialect between them in the dialect continuum of Dutch and German. The Bergish varieties in the northern areas are also referred to as parts of Meuse-Rhenish, which exclusively refers to the Low Franconian varieties, that are Limburgish including Bergish.
Upper German is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in the southern German-speaking area.
The Westrich Plateau, also Zweibrücken Westrich or Southwest Palatine Plateau, is a landscape in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, with small areas also in the Saarland (Saarpfalz-Kreis). Its heart is in the southwest of the Palatinate region and it is part of the historic region of Westrich.
Jakob Edmund Speyer was a high-ranking German university lecturer and chemist of Jewish descent. He was persecuted during the National Socialist era, losing his profession and his livelihood. He was deported to the Lodz ghetto, where he died in 1942.
