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| Upper Saxon | |
|---|---|
| Obersächsisch | |
| Native to | Germany |
| Region | Saxony |
Native speakers | (2 million cited 1998)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | sxu |
| Glottolog | uppe1465 |
 Central German dialects after 1945 and theexpulsions of the Germans Upper Saxon (8) | |
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Upper Saxon (German:Obersächsisch,standard pronunciation:[ˈoːbɐˌzɛksɪʃ],Upper Saxon pronunciation:[ɵːb̥oˤˈsɛɡ̊sʃ]) is anEast Central German dialect spoken in much of the modernGerman state ofSaxony and in adjacent parts of southeasternSaxony-Anhalt and easternThuringia. As of the early 21st century, it is mostly extinct and a new regiolect (also known asobersächsische Umgangssprache) has emerged instead.[2] Though colloquially called "Saxon" (Sächsisch), it is not to be confused with theLow Saxon dialect group inNorthern Germany. Upper Saxon is closely linked to theThuringian 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 thetranslation of the Bible byMartin Luther.[3]
Upper Saxon evolved as a newvariety in the course of the medieval GermanOstsiedlung (eastern colonisation) from about 1100 onwards. Settlers descending from thestem duchies ofSaxony,Franconia, andBavaria, as well asThuringia andFlanders, moved into theMargravate of Meissen between theElbe andSaale rivers,[4] formerly populated byPolabian Slavs. As the colonists belonged to different German tribes speaking different dialects, Upper Saxon became an intermediary,koiné dialect (Kolonialdialekt orAusgleichsdialekt), having less distinct features than the older, more original dialects.[4]
In theMiddle Ages, a variety of Upper Saxon calledMeißner Kanzleisächsisch developed as the "chancery language" of Saxony. This was the official, literary language of the Margravate of Meissen (respectively theElectorate of Saxony after 1423), replacingLatin as the language of administrators during the period ofRenaissance humanism (15th to 16th century). It was less influenced by Upper German features than theHabsburg chancery language, and thus intelligible to speakers of both Upper and Low German dialects. In the context of theBible translation byMartin Luther, it played a large part in the development of theEarly New High German language as astandard variety.[5]
Due to the influence and prestige of the Electorate of Saxony during the Baroque era (17th to 18th century), and especially its role as a focal point of artists and scientists, the language of the Upper Saxon elite (but not of its ordinary people) was considered the exemplary variant of German during that period. The literary theoristJohann Christoph Gottsched (1700–1766), who spent most of his adult life in Leipzig, considered Saxony's upper-class speech as the guiding form of standard German. WhenJohann Christoph Adelung published his High German dictionary (Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart), he made clear that "High German" to him meant the parlance of educated Upper Saxons. He claimed that the Upper Saxon variety was to the German language whatAttic was toGreek andTuscan toItalian. One motive of the parents of German national poetJohann Wolfgang Goethe (a native ofFrankfurt) to send him to study in Leipzig was to adopt a more sophisticated language.[5]
With Saxony's loss of political power after theSeven Years' War (1756–63), its dialect lost prestige as well. In 1783, philosopherJohann Erich Biester, residing in thePrussian capital ofBerlin, rated the "unpleasant singsong" and "highly peculiar confusion of b and p, of d and t"—even among upper-class speakers—"very crude".[5]
According to linguistBeat Siebenhaar, Upper Saxon — defined as a cohesive linguistic system with its own, clear rules forpronunciation,word formation andsyntax — became largely extinct during the second half of the 19th to early 20th century. This was due to the increased adoption of thestandard language among the Saxony populace. Since then, (Upper) Saxon merely refers to a colloquial, regional variety of Standard German and not a dialect in the proper sense.[4][5]
Spoken by leading communists from theCentral German industrial area such asWalter Ulbricht, the Upper Saxon dialect was commonly perceived as the colloquial speech ofEast Germany byWest German citizens and up to today is a subject of numerousstereotypical jokes.[5] The mildly derogatory verbsächseln meansto speak with a Saxon accent.
Like many other German languages, Upper Saxon features the unrounding of vowel sounds descended fromMiddle High German (/ø/, /øː/, /y/, /yː/, and /yə̯/ to /e/, /eː/, /i/, and /iː/). This results in words such asbäse for Standard Germanböse (wicked) andBiehne for Standard GermanBühne (stage). In common with other East Central German varieties is the weakening of consonants, resulting in words such asKardoffeln for Standard German "Kartoffeln" (potatoes) andBabba for Standard GermanPapa (dad). Additionally, /ë/ is reduced to /a/, resulting in Standard GermanSchwester (sister) becomingSchwaster in Upper Saxon.
The most notable distinguishing feature of the dialect is that the letterso andu are pronounced as centralized vowels ([ɞ] and[ɵ], respectively, when short;[ɵː] and[ʉː], respectively, when long). Speakers of other German dialects that do not have these sounds tend to perceive these sounds as beingö[øː] andü[yː] respectively. For example, they hear[ˈɵːma] 'grandma' as if writtenÖma (StandardOma[ˈoːma]). Frontrounded vowels are pronounced as non-rounded (ö =[eː],ü =[iː]). Final-er is pronounced[oˤ] (or similarly, depending on the subdialect), which speakers of other German dialects tend to hear as[oː]; e.g.[ˈheːo̯ˤ] 'higher' (Standard[ˈhøːɐ̯]höher) is misheard as if writtenhä(h)er.[citation needed]
The Upper Saxon varietiesoutside the Ore Mountains can be easily recognized by the supposed "softening" (lenition) of the voiceless stop consonants/p/,/t/ and/k/. Speakers of other dialects hear these as if they were "b", "d" and "g" respectively. In reality, these are merely non-aspirated versions of the same/p/,/t/ and/k/, a widespread feature among Central German dialects, as opposed to strongly aspirated[pʰ],[tʰ] and[kʰ] in dominant German dialects.
In contrast to neighboring Thuringian, Upper Saxon infinitives end in -en as in Standard German rather than -e.
Theaccent varies from place to place depending on the grade of theHigh German consonant shift:
