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.

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 Central German and are frequently described as a transitional zone. Hence, either scheme can be encountered. Erzgebirgisch, usually lumped in with Upper Saxon on geographical grounds, is closer to East Franconian linguistically, especially the western dialects of Erzgebirgisch.

Roughly

Upper German is divided roughly in multiple different ways, for example in:

North Upper German : East Franconian and South Franconian
West Upper German : Swabian and Alemannic
East Upper German : Bavarian

or:

West Upper German: Alemannic, East Franconian
East Upper German: Bavarian

or:

West Upper German: Alemannic in the broad sense, South Franconian, East Franconian
East Upper German: Bavarian

or writing dialects in the Early New High German times:

West Upper German: South Franconian, Swabian, Alemannic
East Upper German: Bavarian, East Franconian

In English there is also a grouping into:

South Upper German: South and Middle Alemannic, South Bavarian, South Middle Bavarian "on the east bank of the Lech" – where the "state of initial consonants is largely that of Old High German"
North Upper German: North Alemannic, North Bavarian, Middle Bavarian – which "have allegedly weaking many initial fortes"

Attempts to group East Franconian and North Bavarian together as North Upper German are not justified and were not sustainable.

Detailed

High Franconian or Upper Franconian, spoken in the Bavarian Franconia region, as well as in the adjacent regions of northern Baden-Württemberg and southern Thuringia
* East Franconian
** Main-Franconian, mainly spoken in Bavarian Franconia, in the adjacent Main-Tauber-Kreis of Baden-Württemberg, as well as in Thuringia south of the Rennsteig ridge in the Thuringian Forest
*** Itzgründish, spoken in the Itz Valley
** Vogtlandish, spoken in Vogtland, Saxony
* South Franconian, spoken in the Heilbronn-Franken region of northern Baden-Württemberg down to the Karlsruhe district
Alemannic in the broad sense, spoken in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, in the Bavarian region of Swabia, in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the Austrian state of Vorarlberg and in Alsace, France
* Swabian, spoken mostly in Swabia, and further separated by the sounds in the equivalents of German breit 'broad', groß 'great', Schnee 'snow'
** West Swabian : broat, grauß, Schnai
** Central Swabian : broit, grauß, Schnai
** East Swabian : broit, groaß, Schnäa
** South Swabian : broit/broat, grooß, Schnee
* Alemannic in the strict sense
** Low Alemannic
*** Alsatian, spoken in Alsace, now France
*** Colonia Tovar German or Alemán Coloniero, spoken in Colonia Tovar, Venezuela
*** Basel German
** High Alemannic
*** Bernese German
*** Zurich German
** Highest Alemannic
*** Walser German or Walliser German, spoken in the Wallis Canton of Switzerland
Bavarian, spoken in the German state of Bavaria, in Austria, and in South Tyrol, Italy
* Northern Bavarian or North Bavarian, spoken mainly in the Bavarian Upper Palatinate region
* Central Bavarian, spoken mainly in Upper and Lower Bavaria, in Salzburg, Upper and Lower Austria
** Viennese German, spoken in Vienna and parts of Lower Austria
* Southern Bavarian or South Bavarian, spoken mainly in the Austrian states of Tyrol, Carinthia and Styria, as well as in South Tyrol, Italy
** Gottscheerish or Granish, spoken in Gottschee, Slovenia, nearly extinct
* Cimbrian, spoken in the Seven Communities in Veneto, and around Luserna, Trentino, Italy
* Mòcheno language, spoken in the Mocheni Valley, Trentino in Italy
* Hutterite German, spoken in Canada and the United States

Other ways to group Alemannic include:

Alemannic in the strict sense besides Swabian:
* Upper-Rhine Alemannic or Upper Rhine Alemannic : having shifted -b- between vowels to -w- and -g- between vowels to -ch-
* Lake Constance Alemannic : having soundings like broat, Goaß, Soal
* South or High Alemannic
Alemannic in the strict sense:
* Oberrheinisch
: separated by the Sundgau-Bodensee-Schranke: Kind/Chind
* Südalemannisch
** Hochalemannisch
*: separated by the Schweizerdeutsche nk-Schranke: trinken/trīchen
** Höchstalemannisch
Alemannic in the strict sense :
* Niederalemannisch
** Elsässisch
** östliches Niederalemannisch
* Hochalemannisch
** Westhochalemannisch
** Osthochalemannisch
Alemannic in the broad sense including Swabian :
* Nordalemannisch or Schwäbisch
* Niederalemannisch or Oberrheinisch
* Hochalemannisch or Südalemannisch
Alemannic in the broad sense:
* Nordalemannisch
** Schwäbisch
** Niederalemannisch
* Mittelalemannisch = Bodenseealemannisch
* Südalemannisch
** Hochalemannisch
** Höchstalemannisch
Alemannic in the broad sense:
* Schwäbisch
* Niederalemannisch
* Hochalemannisch: having shifted k to kχ⁠
** Mittelalemannisch
** Ober- oder Höchstalemannisch: also having shifted k after n to kχ⁠
Alemannic in the broad sense :
* Niederalemannisch
** Schwäbisch
*: differentiated by the Early New High German diphthongisation, and also the verbal uniform plural or Einheitsplural -et/-e and the lexemes Wiese/Matte
** Oberrheinalemannisch
** Bodenseealemannisch
: differentiated by shift of k''
* Hochalemannisch
: differentiated by nasal loss before fricative, and also the inflection of predicative adjectives
* Höchstalemannisch

Sometimes the dialect of the Western Lake'' is differentiated.

Langobardic (Lombardic)

Based on the fact that Langobardic, extinct around 1000, has undergone the High German consonant shift, it is also often classified as Upper German. A competing view is that it is an open question where to place Langobardic inside of Old High German and if it is Old High German at all.