HOME





Central German Languages
Central German or Middle German () is a group of High German languages spoken from the Rhineland in the west to the former eastern territories of Germany. Central German divides into two subgroups, West Central German and East Central German. Central German is distinguished by having experienced the High German consonant shift to a lesser degree than Upper German. It is spoken in the linguistic transition region separated from Northern Germany (Low German/Low Franconian) by the Benrath line isogloss and separated from Southern Germany ( Upper German) by the Speyer line. Central German is spoken in large and influential German cities such as Berlin, the former West German capital Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, the main German financial center Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Dresden. The area corresponds to the geological region of the hilly Central Uplands that stretches from the North German plain to the South German Scarplands, covering the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatina ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Central Germany (geography)
Central Germany () or Middle Germany ( ), in geography, describes the areas surrounding the geographical centre of Germany. Hesse, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia are the only landlocked German states without an international border except for the city-states of Berlin and Hamburg. Geographical centre The central point shifted several times during the country's eventful history. Today Niederdorla in the state of Thuringia claims to be the most central municipality in Germany. A plaque was erected and a lime tree planted at after the 1990 German reunification. Niederdorla, German Wikipedia Retrieved 1 Nov 2011 The point was confirmed as the centroid of the extreme coordinates by the Dresden University of Technology. Niederdorla also comprises the centre of gravity ( equilibrium point) about to the southwest. Other municipalities competing are Krebeck in Lower Saxony and Edermünde in Hesse, as well as the village of Landstreit near Eisenach. The geographical centre of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Hessian Dialects
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 Palatine German language, 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. Dialects Hessian can be divided into four main dialects: * North Hessian (, around the city of Kassel), * Central Hessian (, including the Marburg and Gießen areas), * East Hessian (, around Fulda), * South Hessian (, around Darmstadt). To understand this division, one must consider the history of Hesse and the fact that this state is the result of an administrative reform. ''s'' regularly occurred in the pronouns and , unlike in Central Franconian languages, Central Franconian to the west, which has and . *West Germanic initial ''p'' and medial/final ''pp'' have remained plosives ( 'pound', 'apple'), contrasting to the east w ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Northern Germany
Northern Germany (, ) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony and the two city-states Hamburg and Bremen. It contrasts with Southern Germany, Western Germany, and Eastern Germany. Language Northern Germany generally refers to the ''Sprachraum'' area north of the Uerdingen line, Uerdingen and Benrath line isoglosses, where Low German dialects are spoken. These comprise the West Low German, Low Saxon dialects in the west (including the Westphalian language area up to the Rhineland), the East Low German region along the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast with Western Pomerania, the Altmark and northern Brandenburg, as well as the North Low German dialects. Although from the 19th century onwards, the use of Standard German was strongly promoted especially by the Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian administration, Low German dialects are still prese ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Upper German
Upper German ( ) is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in the southern German-speaking area (). History In the Old High German time, only Alemannic and Bairisch are grouped as Upper German. In the Middle High German time, East Franconian and sometimes South Franconian are added to this. Swabian splits off from Alemannic due to the New High German diphthongisation ().Frank Janle, Hubert Klausmann: ''Dialekt und Standardsprache in der Deutschdidaktik: Eine Einführung.'' Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, Tübingen, 2020, p. 30f. (chapter ''3.1.2 Die Gliederung der Dialekte'') Family tree Upper German proper comprises the Alemannic and Bavarian dialect groups. Furthermore, the High Franconian dialects, spoken up to the Speyer line isogloss in the north, are often also included in the Upper German dialect group. Whether they should be included as part of Upper German or instead classified as Central German is an open question, as they have traits of both Upper and ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

High German Consonant Shift
In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development (sound change) that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic languages, West Germanic dialect continuum. The shift is used to distinguish High German from other continental West Germanic languages, namely Low Franconian (including standard Dutch language, Dutch) and Low German, which experienced no shift. The shift resulted in the affrication or spirantization of the West Germanic voiceless stop consonants /t/, /p/, and /k/, depending on position in a word. A related change, the devoicing of the voiced stopped consonants /d/, /b/ and /g/, was less widespread, with only the devoicing of /d/ being found in most dialects. There is no consensus on when the High German consonant shift occurred; it probably began between the 3rd and 5th centuries and was complete before the first written examples in Old High German, the earliest recorded stage of High ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Former Eastern Territories Of Germany
In present-day Germany, the former eastern territories of Germany () refer to those territories east of the current eastern border of Germany, i.e. the Oder–Neisse line, which historically had been considered German and which were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union after World War II. In contrast to the lands awarded to the restored Polish state by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, the German territories lost with the post-World War II Potsdam Agreement were either almost exclusively inhabited by Germans before 1945 (the bulk of East Prussia, Lower Silesia, Farther Pomerania, and parts of Western Pomerania, Lusatia, and Neumark), mixed German– Polish with a German majority (the Posen–West Prussia Border March, Lauenburg and Bütow Land, the southern and western rim of East Prussia, Ermland, Western Upper Silesia, and the part of Lower Silesia east of the Oder), or mixed German– Czech with a German majority ( Glatz). Virtually the entire German popu ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Rhineland
The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, and the German Empire. Term Historically, the term "Rhinelands" refers to a loosely defined region encompassing the land on the banks of the Rhine, which were settled by Ripuarian Franks, Ripuarian and Salian Franks and became part of Frankish Austrasia. In the High Middle Ages, numerous Imperial States along the river emerged from the former stem duchy of Lotharingia, without developing any common political or cultural identity. A "Rhineland" conceptualization can be traced to the period of the Holy Roman Empire from the sixteenth until the eighteenth centuries when the Empire's Imperial Estates (territories) were grouped into regional districts in charge of defense and judicial execution, known as Imperial Circ ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


South Marchian Dialect
East Central German or East Middle German () is the eastern Central German language and is part of High German. Present-day Standard German as a High German variant, has actually developed from a compromise of East Central (especially Upper Saxon that was promoted by Johann Christoph Gottsched) and East Franconian German. East Central German dialects are mainly spoken in Central Germany and parts of Brandenburg, and were formerly also spoken in Silesia and Bohemia. Dialects East Central German is spoken in large parts of what is today known as the cultural area of Central Germany (''Mitteldeutschland''). It comprises according to Glottolog: * Central East Middle German ** High Prussian (''Hochpreußisch'') (nearly extinct) ** Thuringian (''Thüringisch'') ** Upper Saxon (''Obersächsisch'') *** ''Anhaltisch'' *** ''Meißnisch'' *** ''Osterländisch'' *** ''Westlausitzisch'' *** ''Erzgebirgisch'' ** ''Nordobersäschisch-Südmärkisch'' * Schlesisch–Wilmesau ** Silesian (' ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Silesian German
Silesian (Silesian: ', ), Silesian German is a nearly extinct German dialect spoken in Silesia. It is part of the East Central German language area with some West Slavic and Lechitic influences. Silesian German emerged as the result of Late Medieval German migration to Silesia, which had been inhabited by Lechitic or West Slavic peoples in the Early Middle Ages. Until 1945, variations of the dialect were spoken by about seven million people in Silesia and neighboring regions of Bohemia and Moravia. After World War II, when the province of Silesia was incorporated into Poland, with small portions remaining in northeastern Czech Republic and in former central Germany, which henceforth became eastern Germany, the local communist authorities expelled the German-speaking population and forbade the use of the language. Silesian German continued to be spoken only by individual families, only few of them remaining in their home region, but most of them expelled to the remaining ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Low Lusatian German
Low Lusatian German or the Low Lusatian dialect (in German: ') is a variety of Central German spoken in northern Saxony and southern Brandenburg within the regions of Lower Lusatia (Cottbus) and the northern part of Upper Lusatia ( Hoyerswerda). It is well-defined from the Low German dialects around and north of Berlin, as well as the Upper Saxon dialect group of present-day Saxony and the Slavic language of the Sorbs. Both regions were strongly influenced by different dialects, especially after World War II. Refugees from East Prussia and Silesia settled there after their dispossession from former German areas. After the foundation of the German Democratic Republic and an economical development because of a stronger extraction of lignite, people from Mecklenburg, Thuringia, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt moved to the Lusatia region to benefit from the development. Due to this influence of other German dialects, Low Lusatian never formed a too strong variation from standard German. Fo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Erzgebirgisch
Erzgebirgisch (Standard ; Erzgebirgisch: ) is a (East Central German, East) Central German dialect, spoken mainly in the central Ore Mountains in Saxony. It has received relatively little academic attention. Due to the high mobility of the population and the resulting contact with Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon, the high emigration rate and its low mutual intelligibility with other dialects, the number of speakers is decreasing. Language area and history As the following sections will show, Erzgebirgisch is very close to Upper Saxon but also has commonalities with Upper German dialects. As of today, the Erzgebirgisch area comprises roughly the districts of Mittweida (district), Mittweida (southern area), Stollberg (district), Stollberg, Central Ore Mountain District, Annaberg (district), Annaberg-Buchholz, Freiberg (district), Freiberg (South) and Aue-Schwarzenberg. Some more speakers live in the town of Lichtenstein, Saxony, Lichtenstein, in the Chemnitzer Land district. Ano ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Upper Saxon German
Upper Saxon (, , ) is an East Central German dialect spoken in much of the modern German state of Saxony and in adjacent parts of southeastern Saxony-Anhalt and eastern Thuringia. As of the early 21st century, it is mostly extinct and a new regiolect (also known as ) has emerged instead. Though colloquially called "Saxon" (), it is not to be confused with the Low Saxon dialect group in Northern Germany. Upper Saxon is closely linked to the Thuringian dialect spoken in the adjacent areas to the west. Standard German has been heavily based on Upper Saxon, especially in its lexicon and grammar. This is due to it being used as the basis for early developments in the standardization of German during the early 1500s, including the translation of the Bible by Martin Luther. History Upper Saxon evolved as a new variety in the course of the medieval German (eastern colonisation) from about 1100 onwards. Settlers descending from the stem duchies of Saxony, Franconia, and Bavaria, as ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]