Bergish dialects


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.
In a more narrow sense, Peter Wiesinger defined a Bergisch dialect group that includes the dialects North of Benrath line spoken to the east of the Rhine to about Essen, Mülheim and Wuppertal. It excludes, however, Ripuarian dialects in the Bergisches Land and other varieties southeast of Wuppertal.
Image:Limburgisch.png|thumb|right|upright=1|Bergish is the rightmost, or eastern part of the Limburgish group
The name is commonly used among its speakers, but in its broadest sense, it is not of much linguistic relevance, because the varieties belong to several quite distinct groups inside the continental West Germanic dialect continuum.

Classification

Wiesinger defined Bergisch as a dialect group spoken east of the Rhine river and being part of the "Ripuarian-Low Franconian transitional area". It is set apart from neighboring dialect groups by characteristic features in the historical development of West Germanic vowels. To the south, Bergish is separated from Ripuarian by the Benrath line. Unlike in earlier classifications, Wiesinger places the divide between Bergish and Kleverlandish/Westphalian not at the Uerdingen line, but further north. Several dialects in his Bergish area thus have ik 'I' instead of common South Low Franconian ich. In Wiesinger, the Bergish dialect group is called nordbergisch.
Per Wiesinger, Bergish is characterized by the following features :
  • The High German split of Proto-West Germanic closing diphthongs *ai – *au – *au . This is shared with South Low Franconian dialects spoken along the Rhine and to the west of it, and with Ripuarian, but is not found in Kleverlandish and Westphalian. Most Bergish dialects retain MHG ei – ou – öü as diphthongs, in contrast to Ripuarian and South Low Franconian dialects immediately west of the Bergish area, while MHG ê – ô – ö̂ are raised to high vowels or high falling diphthongs in the whole Bergish area except for a small pocket around Werden.
  • Merger of PWGmc mid long vowels and diphthongs with short high vowels that become lengthened in open syllables. Only shared with some western South Low Franconian dialects, but not with Kleverlandish, Westphalian and Ripuarian., sieben In much of the area, these sounds are realized as high falling diphthongs.
  • Franconian tone accent. Shared with Ripuarian and western South Low Franconian. Lacking in Kleverlandish and Westphalian
In Wiesinger, he divides the Bergish area into eight groups:
The latter seven groups are collectively termed Randbergisch by Wiesinger, without implying that they form a well-defined subgroup.
Western Central Bergish is characterized by the merger of the MHG series ê – ô – ö̂ and ie – uo – üe to – –, and the retention of distinct verbal plural endings. Eastern Central Bergish shares with the Randbergisch groups Mülheim, Werden, Barmen/Elberfeld, and Remscheid the generalized plural ending -en, probably influenced by Westphalian, which has the general plural ending -t.
The Randbergisch groups of Mülheim, Werden, and Barmen/Elberfeld are located to the northeast of the Uerdinger line. Apart from that, the Mülheim group shows no structural differences from Central Bergish, while the Werden and Barmen/Elberfeld groups differ from Central Bergish by having mid reflexes for the merged series ie – uo – üe / i – u – ü. The Remscheid group is characterized by a secondary re-merger of the split of PWGmc closing diphthongs. The Solingen and Mündelheim groups underwent influences from the south and west, respectively.
Wiesinger further posits three transitional areas that are not included in Bergish, but display some Bergish influence:
The dialects of the Bergisches Land spoken to the southeast of the Bergish group are classified by Wiesinger as Ripuarian or Westphalian.

History of classification

Already back in 1877, Wenker posited a Bergish dialect as part of the transitional dialect area between the Uerdingen line and the Benrath line. He lists four Bergish sub-dialects:
  1. the Solinger Dialect
  2. the Remscheider Dialect
  3. the Mettmanner Dialect
  4. the Wülfrather Dialect
He further notes that dialects across the Uerdingen line like Elberfeld and Lennep, have characteristics of both Bergish and Westphalian. He held the following views:
  1. "Niederrheinisch" including Mülheim
  2. Mischmundart including Ratingen and Hilden
  3. Bergish including Wülfrath, Mettmann, Solingen and Remscheid
  4. Westphalian including Essen, Werden, Barmen, Elberfeld, Langenberg, Lennep, Wipperfürth, Gummersbach and Bergneustadt
  5. "Niederfränkisch" including Lindlar, Waldbröl and Engelskirchen
Mengel distinguished in a broader sense of Bergish:
  • South Bergish dialects
  • West Bergish dialects
  • dialect of Wermelskirchen
  • Core Bergish dialects
  • Central or Middle Bergish dialects
  • Low Bergish dialects
  • northern North Bergish dialects
  • southern North Bergish dialects
  • East Bergish dialects

Classification by Cornelissen

In a classification by based on isoglosses, dialects of the Bergisches Land are assigned to three dialect areas: varieties between the Uerdingen line and the Benrath line are grouped as South Low Franconian, varieties south of the Benrath line are classified as Ripuarian, while Ostbergisch designates a group of dialects in a long narrow stretch from Mülheim to Bergneustadt between the Uerdingen line and the so-called Einheitsplurallinie.

Literature

  • Georg Wenker: Das rheinische Platt. 1877; 2nd ed., 1877
  • * Das rheinische Platt,, Marburg, 1915.
  • Georg Cornelissen, Peter Honnen, Fritz Langensiepen : Das rheinische Platt. Eine Bestandsaufnahme. Handbuch der rheinischen Mundarten Teil 1: Texte. Rheinland-Verlag, Köln. 1989.
  • Gustav Hermann Halbach: Bergischer Sprachschatz – Volkskundliches plattdeutsches Remscheider Wörterbuch. Remscheid 1951
  • Werner Heinrichs: Bergisch Platt - Versuch einer Bestandsaufnahme, Selbstverlag, Burscheid, 1978
  • Wiesinger, Peter. 1975. "Strukturgeographische und strukturhistorische Untersuchungen zur Stellung der bergischen Mundarten zwischen Ripuarisch, Niederfränkisch und Westfälisch", in: Peter Wiesinger, edited by Franz Patocka,, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim / Zürich / New York, 2017, p. 341–437. Originally published in: Neuere Forschungen in Linguistik und Philologie. Aus dem Kreise seiner Schüler Ludwig Erich Schmitt zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet, 1975, p. 17–82.
  • Erich Leihener: „Cronenburger Wörterbuch“ Marburg 1908
  • August Diesdrichs: Beitrag zu einem Wörterbuch der Remscheider Mundart. Remscheid, 1910.
  • F. W. Oligschläger: Wörterbuch der Solinger Volkssprache
  • Rudolf Picard: Solinger Sprachschatz, Wörterbuch und sprachwissenschaftliche Beiträge zur Solinger Mundart, Duisburg, 1974.
  • Hermann Bredtmann: Die Velberter Mundart. Ein kurzer Abriß der Laut- und Formenlehre nebst einem Wörterverzeichnis. Wuppertal, 1938.
  • * Dr. Hermann Bredtmann: Die Velberter Mundart. Wuppertal-Elberfeld, 1938
  • Bruno Buchrücker: Wörterbuch der Elberfelder Mundart nebst Abriß der Formenlehre und Sprachproben. Elberfeld, 1910.
  • Julius Leithäuser: Wörterbuch der Barmer Mundarten nebst dem Abriß der Sprachlehre. Elberfeld, 1929.
  • * Nachträge zum Barmer Wörterbuch. Wuppertal-Elberfeld, 1936.
  • Maria Loiuse Denst: Bergisches Mundart-Wörterbuch für Kürten-Olpe und Umgebung – Olper Platt. Schriftenreihe des Bergischen Geschichtsvereins Abt. Rhein-Berg e. V. Band 29. Bergisch Gladbach 1999.
  • Theodor Branscheid : Oberbergische Sprachproben. Mundartliches aus Eckenhagen und Nachbarschaft. Band 1, Eckenhagen, 1927.