Colognian or Kölsch (; natively ''Kölsch Platt'') is a small set of very closely related
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
s, 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
Neuss (; spelled ''Neuß'' until 1968; li, Nüss ; la, Novaesium) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It ...
in the north to just south of
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
, west to
Düren and east to
Olpe in northwest
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
Name
In the Ripuarian dialects, ''"kölsch"'' is an adjective meaning "from Cologne" or "pertaining to Cologne", thus equivalent to ''"Colognian"''. Its nominalized forms (''ene Kölsche'', ''de Kölsche'' etc.) denote the inhabitants of Cologne. The word ''"Kölsch"'', without an article, refers to either the dialect or the local
Kölsch beer. Hence the humorous Colognian saying: "Ours is the only language you can drink!"
Speakers
In Cologne, it is actively spoken by about 250,000 people, roughly one quarter of the population.
Almost all speakers are also fluent in
standard or high German.
It is widely understood in a region inhabited by some 10 million people (a conservative estimate).
There is a community of people who speak a variety of Kölsch in
Dane County, Wisconsin,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
.
Area
There are local (decreasingly divergent) variants of Kölsch in the Quarters, most notably those only recently incorporated into the city, and the Hinterland. Sometimes, also the far more than 100 clearly distinct Ripuarian languages of
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
, the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, and German
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 ...
are incorrectly referred to as Kölsch, as well as the ''
Rhinelandic regiolect 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-P ...
''. In fact, the
regiolect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
is very different from Kölsch, being the regional variety of
Standard German influenced only to a certain degree by the dialect. As such, many native speakers of the regiolect are in fact unaware of the fact that a “regiolect” exists, believing they speak plain Standard German.
History and classification
In its modern form it is of comparatively recent origin. It developed from
Historic Colognian Historic Colognian or Old Colognian was the spoken and written language of the city of Cologne in Germany from the 12th century to the 18th century, before the development of Modern Colognian. The German name for it is ''Altkölnisch''. This classif ...
, but has been under the influence of
New High German
New High German (NHG; german: Neuhochdeutsch (Nhd.)) is the term used for the most recent period in the history of the German language, starting in the 17th century. It is a loan translation of the German (). The most important characteristic o ...
since the 17th century. It was also influenced by
French during the occupation of Cologne under
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
from 1794 to 1815, and therefore contains some more words from and expressions pertaining to French than does Standard German. There are also
phonological
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
similarities with French, which however may be coincidental.
Kölsch is one of the variants of the Ripuarian dialects (part of the
Rhinelandic
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. It has at least two distinct meanings which often ca ...
or ''rheinisch'' dialects – as opposed to the regiolect), which belong to the
West Franconian
West Central German (german: Westmitteldeutsch) belongs to the Central German, Central, High German languages, High German dialect family of German language, German. Its dialects are Franconian languages, Franconian and comprise the parts of the ...
family, itself a variant of
West Middle German. It is closely related to the lower Rhineland (''
niederrheinisch'') and
Moselle Franconian
__NOTOC__
Moselle Franconian (german: Moselfränkisch, lb, Muselfränkesch) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish.
It is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the ...
(''moselfränkisch'') dialects and combines some features of them, as well employing a variety of words hardly in use elsewhere. Common with the
Limburgish language group and other Ripuarian languages, it has a phonemic
pitch accent
A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...
, referred to as the 'singing' Rhinelandic tone.
Features in comparison to Standard German
This list shows only the most important differences. Most of these are not uniquely Kölsch, but true for all
Ripuarian dialects.
* Kölsch uses , or even instead of standard , so when Colonians say ''"ich"'', it sounds more like ''"isch"''.
* The Standard German phoneme is pronounced in the beginning of a word, and , , or in other positions, depending on the syllable structure. This gives rise to the erroneous belief that ''"im Kölschen jibbet kein Je"'' (Rheinlander regiolect German: "In Colognian there is no "G"); in fact Colognian does have the phoneme /g/, just not where Standard German speakers expect: ''rigge'' "to ride" (German: ''reiten'')
* Kölsch has three
diphthongs pronounced , and , which are equivalent to but less frequent than , and in the standard.
* Voiceless stops are not
aspirated, in contrast to Standard German and most varieties of English (although there are some dialects in Scotland and Northern England where voiceless stops are not aspirated).
* The sound is "darker" than in Standard German, and is replaced by throughout (''"Kölsch"'': (Colognian) ; (Standard German) )
* Words with an initial vowel are not separated from the preceding word by a
glottal stop.
* Kölsch has a larger vowel system than Standard German. In Standard German and are always short, , and always long. In Kölsch all of these occur long and short, and the difference is
phonemic.
* Vowel quality often differs between standard words and Kölsch words. Sometimes the standard has the more original form, sometimes Kölsch does. Standard , , often correspond to Kölsch , , , and , , often correspond to , , . Standard , , often correspond to Kölsch , and , and , often correspond to and . All of these patterns (and others to be found), however, have many exceptions and cannot be used to build Kölsch words blindly.
* Kölsch is even more
non-rhotic
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
than the standard. It often vocalizes "r" completely so that any hint of it is lost, e.g. std. ''"kurz"'', ksh. ''"koot"''.
** When it does not vocalize an "r", it will often be pronounced more strongly than in German: ''Sport''
pɔxt(often humorously spelled "Spocht"). This carries over into the Cologne accent of German.
* Being a
Central German dialect, Kölsch has undergone some stages of the
High German sound shift, but not all. Where the standard has "pf", Kölsch uses "p", as do
Lower German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
and English. Compare: Standard German: ''"Apfel, Pfanne"''; Kölsch: ''"Appel, Pann"'', English: ''"apple, pan"''. Moreover, where the standard has "t", Kölsch usually keeps the older "d": Standard German: ''"Tag, tun"''; Kölsch: ''"Daach, donn"''; English: ''"day, do"''.
* Kölsch has shifted stem-internal and to . Again, this sound change is shared by Lower German and English. Compare: Standard German: ''"leben, Ofen"''; Kölsch: ''"levve, Ovve"''; English: ''"live, oven"'' (note that this does not affect shifted from older , e.g. Kölsch ''"schlofe"'', English ''"to sleep"'').
* As a typically Ripuarian phenomenon, and have changed into and in some cases, e.g. std. ''"schneiden, Wein"'', ksh. ''"schnigge, Wing"''.
** Specifically, Middle High German ''ît, îd, în'' /iːt iːd iːn/, ''ût, ûd, ûn'' /uːt uːd uːn/, ''iut, iud, iun'' /yːt yːd, yːn/ > Colognian ''igg, ugg, ügg; ing, ung, üng'' /ɪg ʊg ʏg, ɪŋ ʊŋ ʏŋ/. The similar change /nd/ to /ŋg/ was originally near-universal,
[''Grammatik der ripuarisch-fränkischen Mundart von Ferdinand Münch.'' Bonn, 1904, p.97] but has been lost in several words, most likely due to Standard German influence. (Münch gives for examples ''fryŋ̄k'', ''kiŋ̄k'' "friend", "child", where modern Kölsch has ''Fründ'', ''Kind''. (German: ''Freund'', ''Kind'')
** The word "dütsch" (German), compare German ''deutsch'', has also been influenced by surrounding dialects and the standard, and the fully Kölsch form *''düksch'' is unheard of.
* In Kölsch, the final "t" after is dropped at the end of words followed by another consonant (except ''l, m, n, ng''). When a vowel is added, a lost "t" can reoccur.
* In Kölsch the word-final
schwa is dropped and the standard ending "-en" is often shortened to schwa. Therefore, Kölsch plurals often resemble Standard German singulars, e.g., std. ''"Gasse" > "Gassen"'', ksh. ''"Jass" > "Jasse"'' (alley, alleys).
* Kölsch has a reduced case system, where the
genitive is lost. The
accusative
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘th ...
and
nominative are merged (except with personal pronouns), in most cases taking the form of the nominative; Standard German ''Der Mann läuft die Straße entlang; ich sehe den Mann'', Kölsch ''Der Mann läuf de Stroß elans, ich sinn der Mann.''. In the case of adjectives, including possessive pronouns, determiners and indefinite articles, Kölsch takes the form of the accusative; compare Standard German: ''"mein Mann, meine Frau"''; to Kölsch: ''"minge Mann, ming Frau"'', originally *''mingen Mann, minge Frau'', cf. the German accusative ''meinen Mann, meine Frau''; English: ''"my husband, my wife"''.
[Herrwegen, Alice, ''De kölsche Sproch: Grammatik der kölschen Sprache'']
* Many regular verbs of Standard German have an irregular present tense form
conjugation
Conjugation or conjugate may refer to:
Linguistics
* Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form
* Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language
Mathematics
* Complex conjugation, the chang ...
in Kölsch, e.g. the verb ''"stonn"'' (= std. ''"stehen"'' and English ''"to stand"'') is conjugated as follows: ''"ich stonn, du steihs, hä steiht, mir stonn, ehr stoht, se stonn"''.
Phonology
Use
![Kölsch in der S-Bahn](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/K%C3%B6lsch_in_der_S-Bahn.jpg)
In comparison to most other German dialects, Kölsch is unusually well documented through the work of the
Akademie för uns Kölsche Sproch and scholars such as , whose publications include a dictionary, a grammar and a variety of phrase books. While Kölsch is not commonly taught in schools (although there are often extracurricular offerings) and a lot of young people do not have a proper command of it, many theaters exist that perform exclusively in Kölsch, most notably the ''
Volkstheater Millowitsch
The ''Volkstheater Millowitsch'', also known as the ''Millowitsch-Theater'', was a medium-sized theatre in Cologne, Germany where popular, low-brow comedies were performed.
History
The Millowitsch family had been active in theatre before owner ...
'', named after the late
Willy Millowitsch
Willy Millowitsch (, ; 8 January 1909 – 20 September 1999) was a German stage and TV actor and the director of the ''Volkstheater Millowitsch'' in Cologne.
Early life
Millowitsch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province. His parents were Peter ...
(1909–1999) and the famous
puppet theater
A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to mov ...
, ''
Hänneschen-Theater''. There has also recently been an increase in literature written in this dialect and both traditional music and
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
in Kölsch are very popular in and beyond Cologne, especially around
Carnival, including bands such as
Brings
Brings (, ) are a band from Germany which perform most songs in the local dialect of Cologne, Kölsch. Founded in 1990, they established themselves playing rock music; their lyrics are performed in Kölsch and, since 1995, also in standard Germ ...
, ,
Bläck Fööss
The Bläck Fööss ( Ripuarian ''De Bläck Fööss'') are a music group from Cologne, Germany, started in 1970.
Name of the band
The band's name in Kölsch, a local dialect of Ripuarian, in which the group predominantly sings, means barefoo ...
,
Höhner
De Höhner ( Kölsch for "The Chickens", , ) is a band from Cologne, Germany. They sing in the local dialect of Cologne, Kölsch.
The group was founded in 1972 by Peter Werner and Janus Fröhlich. During their first year, the band wore chicken c ...
and others. The
Kölsch rock group
BAP
BAP or bap may refer to:
Food
* Bap (bread), a type of bread roll
* Bap (rice dish), a Korean food
Music
* BAP (Basque band), a hardcore punk group (formed 1984)
* BAP (German band), a Colognian rock group (formed 1976)
* B.A.P (South Korean ban ...
is even among the most successful rock bands in Germany. Another noticeable phenomenon is the usage of either a watered-down Kölsch dialect or the
Rhinelandic regiolect 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-P ...
by German TV personalities, especially comedians such as and others.
The Lord's Prayer in Kölsch
This is a relatively recent, and modern, version of the
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
in Colognian, by Jean Jenniches (1894–1979).
[from page 139 of Jean Jenniches: ', Greven Verlag, Köln, 2009. ]
''
Nota bene
(, or ; plural form ) is a Latin phrase meaning "note well".
It is often abbreviated as NB, n.b., or with the ligature
and first appeared in English writing . In Modern English, it is used, particularly in legal papers, to draw the atten ...
'': This is not a literal, but an artistic rendition of the Lord's Prayer.
''English translation:''
''
Nota bene
(, or ; plural form ) is a Latin phrase meaning "note well".
It is often abbreviated as NB, n.b., or with the ligature
and first appeared in English writing . In Modern English, it is used, particularly in legal papers, to draw the atten ...
'': This is not a literal, but an artistic rendition of the Lord's Prayer.
Our Father
Dear Lord God, holy is Your Name.
From the heavens You rule all the universe
according to Your will.
Like a father you care for humanity,
which awaits Your Kingdom here on Earth.
There is much need in the world, and thus we pray:
Make it so that no person should have to
suffer hunger anymore.
Take from us our debts,
so that every one of us is merciful to
his own debtors.
Help us to withstand all temptation,
and keep everything that could harm our
eternal salvation.
Amen.
See also
*
Aachen dialect
Southeast Limburgish (Dutch: ''Zuidoost-Limburgs'', Ripuarian: ''Süüdoß-Limburjesch''), also referred to as Southern Meuse-Rhenish, is a subdivision of what recently has been named Meuse-Rhenish. Both terms denote a rather compact grouping of ...
*
Colognian declension
*
Colognian grammar
*
Colognian phonology
This article covers the phonology of modern Colognian as spoken in the city of Cologne. Varieties spoken outside of Cologne are only briefly covered where appropriate. Historic precedent versions are not considered.
There are slight pronunciat ...
References
*
External links
'Hover & Hear' Kölsch pronunciations and compare with equivalents in English and other Germanic languages.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolsch language
Culture in Cologne
Central German languages
German dialects
Ripuarian language
City colloquials
North Rhine-Westphalia