The Akademie för uns Kölsche Sproch (''Academy for our

Colognian language Colognian or Kölsch (; natively ''Kölsch Platt'') 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 ...

'') was established in 1983 by the Stadtsparkasse Köln (

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

Savings and Loan Association A savings and loan association (S&L), or thrift institution, is a financial institution that specializes in accepting savings deposits and making mortgage and other loans. The terms "S&L" or "thrift" are mainly used in the United States; simi ...

). As part of the bank's foundation for culture, this academy campaigns for the preservation and promotion of the Kölsch dialect as a language.

Activities

The academy has five main areas of activity: studying the Cologne dialect, holding seminars, running a library and dialect archive, holding events and producing publications. While the academy does not teach the Cologne dialect as a foreign language, the seminars cover the themes of language use,

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

, as well as looking into the history of the city and the dialect. Written and oral ''Kölsch'' examinations are held, with successful candidates receiving a certificate signed by the city mayor. The academy has attempted to create an authoritative

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...

for the Cologne dialect, which is relatively conservative compared to the usual ad hoc spellings, and for example does not change the spelling of historic /g/ to fit its current day pronunciations; the greeting ''Joode(n) Daach!'' "good day" is written ''Gode(n) Dag!'' according to the academy. All materials written or published by the academy are edited into this standardized scheme.

Library

The library is divided into five sections, the main section being "Cologne" with 7,000 books. It also has the sections "

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

", and "

local language * A regional language is a language spoken in a region of a sovereign state, whether it be a small area, a federated state or province or some wider area. Internationally, for the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Lan ...

s spoken in area of the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Dachsprache In sociolinguistics, an abstand language is a language variety or cluster of varieties with significant linguistic distance from all others, while an ausbau language is a standard variety, possibly with related dependent varieties. Heinz Kloss in ...

", and "general Germanic linguistics", and there is standard literature such as encyclopedies, bibliographies, and other directories available. They have and all kinds of media in addition to printed books, including a notable collection of historic picture postcards of Cologne.

Publisher

The academy acts as a publisher, with 25 books in and on the Kölsch dialect and on the history of the city currently in print. It has also produced an interactive CD-ROM dialect dictionary, a set of voice recordings to be used in

automotive navigation system An automotive navigation system is part of the automobile controls or a third party add-on used to find direction in an automobile. It typically uses a satellite navigation device to get its position data which is then correlated to a position on ...

s or

personal navigation assistant A Personal Navigation Assistant (PNA) also known as Personal Navigation Device or Portable Navigation Device (PND) is a portable electronic product which combines a positioning capability (such as GPS) and navigation functions. Some PNA devices a ...

s, and an interactive internet banking portal for the Cologne Savings and Loan Association in Colognian language. Larger books are usually produced and published by or in cooperation with one of the major publishing companies in Cologne, such as

Bachem Bachem Holding AG is a Swiss technology company active in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry and pharmaceuticals. It develops products and services for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and research. Bachem is specialized in the comme ...

, Bouvier, or

Greven Greven (; Westphalian: ''Graiwen'') is a medium-sized town in the district of Steinfurt, in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia and close to the city of Münster. Geography Greven is situated on the river Ems, approx. 25&n ...

. There are cooperations with the

Landschaftsverband Rheinland North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabi ...

as well.

References

External links

Official webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akademie for uns Kolsche Sproch Culture in Cologne Organisations based in Cologne Learned societies of Germany Ripuarian language 1983 establishments in Germany