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| Palatine German | |
|---|---|
| Pälzisch | |
| Native to | Palatinate;Pennsylvania Dutch Country |
| Ethnicity | Palatine |
Native speakers | (undated figure of 400,000)[1] |
Early forms | Proto-Indo-European
|
| Dialects | |
| Latin (German alphabet) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pfl |
| Glottolog | pala1330 |
Palatine German (Standard German:Pfälzisch[ˈp͡fɛlt͡sɪʃ]ⓘ,endonym:Pälzisch) is a group ofRhine Franconian dialects spoken in theUpper Rhine Valley, roughly in the area betweenZweibrücken,Kaiserslautern,Alzey,Worms,Ludwigshafen am Rhein,Mannheim,Odenwald,Heidelberg,Speyer,Landau,Wörth am Rhein and the border toAlsace andLorraine, inFrance, but also beyond.
The English termPalatine refers to thePalatinate region (German:Pfalz). 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 (Saarland,Kurpfalz, southernHesse). The main dialect divisions within Palatine German areWestpfälzisch (also calledHinterpfälzisch) andVorderpfälzisch (also calledOstpfälzisch).[2][3]
ThePennsylvania Dutch language is descended primarily from the Palatine German that was spoken byPalatines who immigrated toNorth America from the 17th to the 19th centuries and maintained their native language.Danube Swabians inCroatia andSerbia also use many elements of Palatine German.
To the northwest, Palatine German is separated fromMoselle Franconian by thedas/dat-isogloss (Palatine German usesdas or similar forms) and the absence ofRhenish pitch accent.[2][3] To the southeast, it borders onSouth Franconian, separated by theAppel/Apfel-line (Palatine German:Appel). Within the greater Rhine Franconian dialect area, the traditional defining isoglosses are the northernfescht/fest-line that separates Palatine German (fescht) from the Hessian dialects (fest), and the southernHaus/Hus-line that separates Palatine German (Haus) fromLorraine Franconian (Hus).[2]
Like other Rhine Franconian dialects, Palatine German hase-apocope (i.e. loss of earlier final-e),n-apocope (i.e. loss of earlier finaln in the suffix-en) and /oː/ for earlier longa, e.g.Strooß/Strooße 'street'/'streets' (cf. Standard GermanStraße/Straßen). The major division of Palatine German intoWestpfälzisch andVorderpfälzisch is based on a bundle of distinguishing features, such as:[2][3]
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Here are some words in Palatine German with theirStandard German equivalents:
| Vorderpfälzisch | Westpfälzisch | Standard German | English equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mais | Mais | Mäuse | mice |
| Lais | Lais | Läuse | lice |
| Grumbeea | Grumbeer | Kartoffel | potato |
| Schnook | Schdechmick | Stechmücke | mosquito |
| Bääm | Bääm | Bäume | trees |
| Bää | Bää | Beine | legs |
| Schdää | Schdää | Stein | stone |
| soi | sei | sein | his (possessive) / to be |
| unsa | unser | unsere | ours |
| net (nit) | net | nicht | not |
| dowedder/dewedda | degeche | dagegen | against |
| Fisch (Fusch) | Fisch | Fisch | fish |
| ebbes | ebbes | etwas | something |
| Ärwett | Arwett | Arbeit | work |
| Doa | Dor | Tor | gate |
| Abbel | Abbel | Apfel | apple |
| hawwe | hann | haben | have |
| Haffe | Hawwe | Kochtopf | pot (saucepan) |
This sentence is pronounced inVorderpfälzisch:
Isch habb's'm [habb es em] schunn vazehlt, awwa 'r [er] hat ma 's [es] nit geglaabt.
InWestpfälzisch, 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 [it to] him, but he didn't believe me.
Hasche aa Hunger? (Westpfälzisch)
Haschd ach Hunga? (Vorderpfälzisch)
Hast du auch Hunger? (Standard German)
Are you hungry too? (English)
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Grammatically, all Palatine dialects do not use the genitive case, which is replaced by the dative, with or withoutvon, and most dialects have noimperfect tense but only theperfect.
