Palatine German dialects


Palatine German is a group of Rhine Franconian dialects spoken in the Upper Rhine Valley, roughly in the area between Zweibrücken, Kaiserslautern, Alzey, Worms, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Mannheim, Odenwald, Heidelberg, Speyer, Landau, Wörth am Rhein and the border to Alsace and Lorraine, in France, but also beyond.
The English term Palatine refers to the Palatinate region. Almost all traditional dialects of the Palatinate belong to the Palatine dialect group, but the Palatine speech area also extends to the west and east into neighboring regions. The main dialect divisions within Palatine German are Westpfälzisch and Vorderpfälzisch.
The Pennsylvania Dutch language is descended primarily from the Palatine German that was spoken by Palatines who immigrated to North America from the 17th to the 19th centuries and maintained their native language. Danube Swabians in Croatia and Serbia also use many elements of Palatine German.

Characteristics

To the northwest, Palatine German is separated from Moselle Franconian by the das/''dat-isogloss and the absence of Rhenish pitch accent. To the southeast, it borders on South Franconian, separated by the Appel/Apfel-line. Within the greater Rhine Franconian dialect area, the traditional defining isoglosses are the northern fescht/fest-line that separates Palatine German from the Hessian dialects, and the southern Haus/Hus-line that separates Palatine German from Lorraine Franconian.
Like other Rhine Franconian dialects, Palatine German has e''-apocope, n-apocope and /oː/ for earlier long a, e.g. Strooß/''Strooße 'street'/'streets'. The major division of Palatine German into Westpfälzisch and Vorderpfälzisch is based on a bundle of distinguishing features, such as:
  • Westpfälzisch lacks the suffix -en in the past participle of strong verbs. In Vorderpfälzisch, the suffix is retained as -e.
  • Loss of medial g'' in Westpfälzisch in words like frooe . In Vorderpfälzisch, it is retained as a voiced velar fricative.
  • Westpfälzisch han/''hun ' have' against Vorderpfälzisch hap/häp''.

    Samples

Here are some words in Palatine German with their Standard German equivalents:
italic=noitalic=noStandard GermanEnglish equivalent
MaisMaisMäusemice
LaisLaisLäuselice
GrumbeeaGrumbeerKartoffelpotato
SchnookSchdechmickStechmückemosquito
BäämBäämBäumetrees
BääBääBeinelegs
SchdääSchdääSteinstone
soiseiseinhis / to be
unsaunserunsereours
net netnichtnot
dowedder/deweddadegechedagegenagainst
Fisch FischFischfish
ebbesebbesetwassomething
ÄrwettArwettArbeitwork
DoaDorTorgate
AbbelAbbelApfelapple
hawwehannhabenhave
HaffeHawweKochtopfpot

This sentence is pronounced in Vorderpfälzisch:
Isch habb's'm schunn vazehlt, awwa 'r hat ma 's nit geglaabt.
In Westpfälzisch, it would be the following:
Ich hann's'm schunn verzehlt, awwer er had mer's net geglaabt.
In Standard German, the sentence would read:
Ich habe es ihm schon erzählt, aber er hat es mir nicht geglaubt.
In English, it means:
I have already told him, but he didn't believe me.
Hasche aa Hunger?
Haschd ach Hunga?
Hast du auch Hunger?
''Are you hungry too?''

Grammar

Grammatically, all Palatine dialects do not use the genitive case, which is replaced by the dative, with or without von, and most dialects have no imperfect tense but only the perfect.

Notable speakers