Northern Bavarian

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.

According to the same linguistic survey, the dialect is flourishing in the areas where it is spoken, despite the fact that most speakers actively use Standard German. In the south of the area where Northern Bavarian is spoken, Central Bavarian is said to have higher prestige, and Northern Bavarian characteristics are therefore not as visible as in the north, where speakers even tend to use a heavy Northern Bavarian accent when speaking German.

Phonology

Vowels

Northern Bavarian has 8 vowels:

And 11 diphthongs:

Before , are rounded to .

In southern varieties of Northern Bavarian the diphthongs are realized with an opener offset, i.e. .

An interesting aspect of the diphthongs are the so-called ''reversed diphthongs'', or in German, ''gestürzte Diphthonge''. They are called so because the Middle High German diphthongs became ( became after unrounding) in Northern Bavarian, while they generally became in Standard German. Compare Standard German ''Brief'' , ''Bruder'' , ''Brüder'' and Northern Bavarian , , .

The Northern Bavarian diphthong corresponds to the Middle High German and Standard German . Compare Standard German ''Schaf'' , ''Stroh'' and Northern Bavarian , . Likewise, the Northern Bavarian diphthong corresponds to the Middle High German and Standard German and by unrounding to . Compare Standard German ''Schnee'' , ''böse'' with Northern Bavarian , .

In many Northern Bavarian variants, nasalization is increasingly common.

Consonants

Northern Bavarian has about 33 consonants:

is realized as either or when occurring postvocally.

may be syllabic, as in Northern Bavarian ; compare Standard German ''Mühle''.

Grammar

Nouns

Gender

All nouns in Northern Bavarian have one of three genders: feminine, masculine and neuter. Many nouns have the same gender as in Standard German, but there are many exceptions. An example is ''Benzin'', which is neuter in Standard German, but masculine in Northern Bavarian. Another example is ''Butter'', which is feminine in Standard German, but can be all three genders in Northern Bavarian depending on where in the Northern Bavarian–speaking you are.

Case

As in Standard German there are four cases in Northern Bavarian: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative. The genitive case, however, is uncommon and is commonly replaced either with the dative and a possessive pronoun or with the preposition ''von'' and the dative, e.g. , or ''father's house''. An exception is the genitive instead of the dative after the singular possessive pronouns, e.g. , which is as correct as ''behind me''. Prepositions take the dative or the accusative, but not the genitive, e.g. (formally ) ''despite the rain''. The dative ending -m often sounds like the accusative ending -n (see the previous example), so that these two cases are not distinguishable.

Inflection

Nouns in Northern Bavarian are inflected for number, and to a lesser extent, case. Inflecting for number is common across all three genders, and especially umlaut is productive, in particular in masculine nouns. The most common plural marker in feminine nouns is , while it is with most neuter nouns. Many nouns, across the genders, are the same in the plural as in the singular.

:English ''head'', Standard German ''Kopf'', Northern Bavarian sg. m. > pl.
:English ''cat'', Standard German ''Katze'', Northern Bavarian sg. f. > pl.
:English ''house'', Standard German ''Haus'', Northern Bavarian sg. n. > pl.

Weak masculine nouns are inflected in the accusative and dative case, most commonly with suffixation of a nasal consonant, such as or , while the other cases remain uninflected. Many weak feminine nouns have the ending in most cases, though not to be confused with the plural ending. Weak neuter nouns have almost been lost, with only strong remaining, and therefore inflection for case is basically nonexistent.

:English ''boy'', Standard German ''Bube'', Northern Bavarian m. nom. > m. acc./dat.

Adjectives

The inflection of adjectives in Northern Bavarian differ depending on whether the adjective is preceded by a definite article or a demonstrative, or if it is preceded by an indefinite article or a possessive, or if it is used as a predicate, of which the latter is only present in some varieties. Adjectives without any determiner rarely occur.

Below can the inflectional paradigms be seen, with the adjective serving as an example. This is also the form used in all situations, when the adjective is used as a predicate, and therefore no paradigm is needed. Compare Northern Bavarian with the Standard German ''alt'', in English ''old''.

The predicate form of an adjective differ from the other forms, not only because it is the basic form, but also because it has a long vowel, unlike the other forms, as in above. Other examples include and , which become and , respectively. Compare with the Standard German ''gross'' and ''breit'', in English ''big'' and ''broad''.

Comparative adjectives are formed by suffixing , and superlative adjectives are formed by suffixing . Vowel changes often take place when the suffixation happens. An example is , which becomes when comparative and when superlative. Compare with the Standard German ''hoch'', ''höher'' and ''höchsten'', in English ''high'', ''higher'' and ''highest''.

Pronouns

The pronouns of Northern Bavarian differ slightly from variety to variety. Furthermore, there are two pairs of pronouns, one used when in stressed position and the other used when unstressed.

There is no gender distinction in the plural.

The ending in the stressed first person singular nominative and -accusative and in stressed the second person singular accusative is only present in northern- and western varieties of Northern Bavarian.

At the time of a linguistic survey carried out in the late 1980s, pronouns also existed for unstressed first person plural accusative and unstressed second person plural accusative, and , respectively, but they have probably fallen out of usage today.

Verbs

Verbs in Northern Bavarian are conjugated for person, tense and mood. The Northern Bavarian verbs are also subject to both vowel change and apophony.

Non-finite forms

The non-finite forms have one three endings: , and . The first ending is rare, and is only present in some few monosyllabic verbs, such as , Standard German ''sein'', English ''to be''; , Standard German ''gehen'', English ''to go''; , Standard German ''stehen'', English ''to stand''; and , Standard German ''tun'', English ''to do''. The second ending is the most common ending found on most verbs, such as , Standard German ''bitten'', English ''to ask''. The third ending is used with verbs having a certain stem-final consonant, such as , Standard German ''singen'', English ''to sing''.

Present tense

The personal endings for the present tense differ slightly from variety to variety, but are largely uniform. The endings in the scheme below are attached to the stem, and not the non-finite form. The stem is found by removing the non-finite ending, if it is or .

As can be seen in the scheme above, the first person singular is basically the same as the stem, and the first- and third persons plural are the same as the non-finite form. Furthermore, the third person singular is realized as - when occurring before a fortis obstruent, and that in some southern varieties of Northern Bavarian the first person plural has the ending -, and therefore isn't the non-finite form.

The singular imperative is the same as the first person singular, and the plural imperative is the same as the second person plural. Only one exception exists, which is the imperative of , Standard German ''sein'', English ''to be'', which is .

Past tense

Only one verb with a distinct simple past tense form remains, , Standard German ''sein'', English ''to be'', with the simple past tense form , Standard German ''war'', English ''was''. The past tense of other verbs is formed in the same way as Standard German uses ''haben'' or ''sein'', English ''to have'' and ''to be'', respectively, and the past participle.

The past participle in Northern Bavarian is formed by the prefix -, although not on verbs beginning with a plosive consonant, where the prefix is left out. Thus we see , Standard German ''geschüttet'', English ''shaken''; , Standard German ''genommen'', English ''taken''; , Standard German ''gebracht'', English ''brought''; and , Standard German ''getragen'', English ''carried''.

The verbs and , Standard German ''haben'' and ''sein'', English ''to have'' and ''to be'', can be seen conjugated in the scheme below in the present, as they are irregular. They have the past participles, and , respectively. Compare with Standard German ''gehaben'' and ''gewesen'', English ''had'' and ''been''.

Examples can be seen below:
* , Standard German ''Ich habe geschüttet'', English ''I have shaken''
* , Standard German ''Er hat gebracht'', English ''He has brought''

Subjunctive

It is quite straightforward to form the subjunctive in Northern Bavarian. The subjunctive of verbs is formed with the suffix -, as in > , Standard German ''wissen'' > ''wüßte'', English ''to know'' > ''I would know''.

Apophony

Both weak verbs and strong verbs may undergo apophony. The strong verbs can be split into two groups: the first group where the vowel in the non-finite form is the same as in the past participle; and the second group where the vowel in the non-finite form is different from the vowel in the past participle. The most common vowel gradations in the second group can be seen below:

* > : > , Standard German ''schneiden'' > ''geschnitten'' - English ''to cut''
* > , : > , Standard German ''bieten'' > ''geboten'' - English ''to offer''
* > : > , Standard German ''singen'' > ''gesungen'' - English ''to sing''
* > : > , Standard German ''dreschen'' > ''gedroschen'' - English ''to thresh''

Apophony is not as common with weak verbs as in Standard German. However, the number of weak verbs with morphophonological variations is high, especially change in vowel length is common.

Example

This is a phonetic transcription of a text in Northern Bavarian, with translations in German and English.

References

External links

''Sprechender Sprachatlas von Bayern''
(''Speaking Language Atlas of Bavaria'', with dialect maps from the book ''Kleiner Bayerischer Sprachatlas'', and sound recordings)

''DiWA - Digitaler Wenker-Atlas''
(''Digital Wenker-Atlas'', with dialect maps and more) - the map ''Nordbairischer Sprachatlas'' from the menu item ''DiWA --> Karten'', and then ''Auswahl'' (a technical advice: choose ''erweiterte Ausgabe'', and then in the menu item ''DiWA --> Installation/Einstellungen'' under ''ECS-Darstellung'' the radio button ''HTML'', its independent from plugins and java)

{{Germanic languages

Bavarian language
German dialects
Languages of Germany

de:Bairische Dialekte#Nordbairisch