Northern Bavarian
Nordboarisch
Native to	Germany
Region	Upper Palatinate,Upper Franconia,Upper Bavaria,Lower Bavaria
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Upper German Bavarian Northern Bavarian
Writing system	Latin (German alphabet), historically theGothic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	nort2634
Areas of Northern Bavarian after 1945 and theexpulsions of the Germans.
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Northern Bavarian is adialect ofBavarian, together withCentral Bavarian andSouthern Bavarian. Bavarian is mostly spoken in theUpper Palatinate, although not inRegensburg, which is a primarily Central Bavarian–speaking area, according to a linguistic survey done in the late 1980s.^[1] According to the same survey, Northern Bavarian is also spoken inUpper Franconia, as well as in some areas inUpper andLower Bavaria, such as in the areas aroundEichstätt andKelheim. Few speakers remained in theCzech Republic, mostly concentrated aroundAš andŽelezná Ruda, at the time of the survey, but considering the time which has passed since the survey, the dialect may be extinct in those places today. If it still exists there, it would include theostegerländische Dialektgruppe.^[2][3] Ethnologue estimates that there were 9,000 speakers of Bavarian in theCzech Republic in 2005, but does not clarify if these were Northern Bavarian speakers.^[4]

According to the same linguistic survey,^[1] the dialect is flourishing in the areas where it is spoken, despite the fact that most speakers actively useStandard German. In the south of the area where Northern Bavarian is spoken, Central Bavarian is said to have higher prestige, and Northern Bavarian characteristics are therefore not as visible as in the north, where speakers even tend to use a heavy Northern Bavarian accent when speakingGerman.

Northern Bavarian has 8vowels:

And 11diphthongs:

Before/l/,/i,e,ɛ/ are rounded to[ʏ,ø,œ].

In southern varieties of Northern Bavarian the diphthongs/iə̯,uə̯/ are realized with an opener offset, i.e.[iɐ̯,uɐ̯].

An interesting aspect of the diphthongs are the so-calledreversed diphthongs, or in German,gestürzte Diphthonge. They are called so because theMiddle High German diphthongs[ie̯,ye̯,uo̯] became[ei̯,ou̯] ([y] became[i] after unrounding) in Northern Bavarian, while they generally became[iː,yː,uː] inStandard German. Compare Standard GermanBrief[briːf],Bruder[ˈbruːdɐ],Brüder[ˈbryːdɐ] and Northern Bavarian[ˈb̥rei̯v̥],[ˈb̥rou̯d̥ɐ],[ˈb̥rei̯d̥ɐ].^[5]

The Northern Bavarian diphthong[ɔu̯] corresponds to the Middle High German and Standard German[oː,aː]. Compare Standard GermanSchaf[ʃaːf],Stroh[ʃtroː] and Northern Bavarian[ʒ̊ɔu̯v̥],[ʒ̊d̥rɔu̯].^[6] Likewise, the Northern Bavarian diphthong[ɛi̯] corresponds to the Middle High German and Standard German[eː] and by unrounding to[øː]. Compare Standard GermanSchnee[ʃneː],böse[ˈbøːzə] with Northern Bavarian[ʒ̊n̥ɛi̯],[b̥ɛi̯z̥].^[7]

In many Northern Bavarian variants,nasalization is increasingly common.

Northern Bavarian has about 33consonants:

/r/ is realized as either[ɐ] or[ə] when occurring postvocally.

/lʲ/ may be syllabic, as in Northern Bavarian[ml̩ʲ]; compare Standard GermanMühle.

Allnouns in Northern Bavarian have one of threegenders: feminine, masculine and neuter. Many nouns have the same gender as inStandard German, but there are many exceptions. An example isBenzin, which is neuter in Standard German, but masculine in Northern Bavarian. Another example isButter, which is feminine in Standard German, but it can be all three genders in Northern Bavarian depending on your location and local variation of the dialect.^[8]

As in Standard German there are four cases in Northern Bavarian:nominative,accusative,genitive anddative. The genitive case, however, is uncommon and is commonly replaced either with the dative and apossessive pronoun or with theprepositionvon[v̥ə,v̥ən,v̥əm] and the dative, e.g.[m̩̩v̥ɑtɐz̥ãihaːu̯z̥], or[s̩haːu̯z̥v̥omv̥ɑtɐ]father's house. An exception is the genitive instead of the dative after the singular possessive pronouns, e.g.[hintɐmai̯nɐ], which is as correct as[hintɐmiɐ̯]behind me. Prepositions take the dative or the accusative, but not the genitive, e.g.[d̥rotsn̩reːŋ] (formally[d̥rotsm̩reːŋ])despite the rain. The dative ending -m often sounds like the accusative ending -n (see the previous example), so that these two cases are not distinguishable.^[9][10]

Nouns in Northern Bavarian areinflected for number, and to a lesser extent, case. Inflecting for number is common across all three genders, and especiallyumlaut is productive, in particular in masculine nouns. The most common plural marker in feminine nouns is[n], while it is[ɐ] with most neuter nouns. Many nouns, across the genders, are the same in theplural as in thesingular.

Englishhead, Standard GermanKopf, Northern Bavarian sg. m.[kʰoːb̥͡v] > pl.[kʰep͡f]

Englishcat, Standard GermanKatze, Northern Bavarian sg. f.[kʰɑt͡s] > pl.[kʰɑt͡sn̩]

Englishhouse, Standard GermanHaus, Northern Bavarian sg. n.[haːu̯z̥] > pl.[haːi̯z̥ɐ]

Weak masculine nouns are inflected in the accusative and dative case, most commonly withsuffixation of a nasal consonant, such as[m] or[n], while the other cases remain uninflected. Many weak feminine nouns have the ending[n] in most cases, though not to be confused with the plural ending. Weak neuter nouns have almost been lost, with only strong remaining, and therefore inflection for case is basically nonexistent.

Englishboy, Standard GermanBube, Northern Bavarian m. nom.[dɐbou̯] > m. acc./dat.[n̩bou̯m]

Theinflection ofadjectives in Northern Bavarian differ depending on whether the adjective is preceded by adefinite article or ademonstrative, or if it is preceded by anindefinite article or apossessive, or if it is used as apredicate, of which the latter is only present in some varieties. Adjectives without anydeterminer rarely occur.

Below can the inflectional paradigms be seen, with the adjective[ɔːld̥] serving as an example. This is also the form used in all situations, when the adjective is used as a predicate, and therefore no paradigm is needed. Compare Northern Bavarian[ɔːld̥] with the Standard Germanalt, inEnglishold.

The predicate form of an adjective differ from the other forms, not only because it is the basic form, but also because it has a long vowel, unlike the other forms, as in[ɔːld̥] above. Other examples include[ɡ̊rɔːu̯z̥] and[b̥rɔːɐ̯d̥], which become[ɡ̊rou̯s] and[b̥roi̯t], respectively. Compare with the Standard Germangross andbreit, inEnglishbig andbroad.

Comparative adjectives are formed by suffixing[ɐ], and superlative adjectives are formed by suffixing[st]. Vowel changes often take place when the suffixation happens. An example is[hɔːu̯ɣ̊], which becomes[ˈhɛi̯xɐ] when comparative and[ˈhɛi̯kst] when superlative. Compare with the Standard Germanhoch,höher andhöchsten, in Englishhigh,higher andhighest.

Thepronouns of Northern Bavarian differ slightly from variety to variety. Furthermore, there are two pairs of pronouns, one used when in stressed position and the other used when unstressed.

There is no gender distinction in the plural.

The ending[j] in the stressed first person singular nominative and -accusative and in stressed the second person singular accusative is only present in northern- and western varieties of Northern Bavarian.

At the time of a linguistic survey carried out in the late 1980s,^[1] pronouns also existed for unstressed first person plural accusative and unstressed second person plural accusative,[iz] and[iç], respectively, but they have probably fallen out of usage today.

Verbs in Northern Bavarian areconjugated forperson,tense andmood. The Northern Bavarian verbs are also subject to both vowel change andapophony.

Thenon-finite forms have one three endings:[∅],[n] and[ɐ]. The first ending is rare, and is only present in some few monosyllabic verbs, such as[za͡i], Standard Germansein,Englishto be;[ɡ̊ɛi], Standard Germangehen,Englishto go;[ʒ̊d̥ɛi],Standard Germanstehen,Englishto stand; and[d̥o͡u], Standard Germantun,Englishto do. The second ending is the most common ending found on most verbs, such as[b̥itn̩], Standard Germanbitten,Englishto ask. The third ending is used with verbs having a certain stem-final consonant, such as[z̥iŋɐ], Standard Germansingen,Englishto sing.^[11]

The personal endings for thepresent tense differ slightly from variety to variety, but are largely uniform. The endings in the scheme below are attached to the stem, and not the non-finite form. The stem is found by removing the non-finite ending, if it is[n] or[ɐ].

As can be seen in the scheme above, the first person singular is basically the same as the stem, and the first- and third persons plural are the same as the non-finite form. Furthermore, the third person singular is realized as -[d̥] when occurring before a fortis obstruent, and that in some southern varieties of Northern Bavarian the first person plural has the ending -[mɐ], and therefore isn't the non-finite form.

The singular imperative is the same as the first person singular, and the plural imperative is the same as the second person plural. Only one exception exists, which is the imperative of[z̥a͡i], Standard Germansein,Englishto be, which is[b̥iː].

Only one verb with a distinctsimple past tense form remains,[z̥ai̯], Standard Germansein,Englishto be, with the simple past tense form[βoə̯], Standard Germanwar,Englishwas. Thepast tense of other verbs is formed in the same way as Standard German useshaben orsein,Englishto have andto be, respectively, and thepast participle.

The past participle in Northern Bavarian is formed by theprefix[ɡ̊]-, although not on verbs beginning with aplosive consonant, where the prefix is left out. Thus we see[ɡ̊ʒ̊it], Standard Germangeschüttet,Englishshaken;[ɡ̊numɐ], Standard Germangenommen,Englishtaken;[b̥rɑxd̥], Standard Germangebracht,Englishbrought; and[d̥roŋ], Standard Germangetragen,Englishcarried.

The verbs[hɔm] and[z̥ai̯], Standard Germanhaben andsein,Englishto have andto be, can be seen conjugated in the scheme below in the present, as they areirregular. They have the past participles,[ɡ̊hɔt] and[ɡ̊βeːn], respectively. Compare with Standard Germangehaben andgewesen,Englishhad andbeen.

Examples can be seen below:

• [iːhoːɡ̊ʒ̊it], Standard GermanIch habe geschüttet,EnglishI have poured
• [eɐ̯hɔu̯d̥b̥rɑxd̥], Standard GermanEr hat gebracht,EnglishHe has brought

It is quite straightforward to form thesubjunctive in Northern Bavarian. The subjunctive of verbs is formed with the suffix -[ɐd̥], as in[βisn̩] >[βisɐd̥], Standard Germanwissen >wüßte,Englishto know >I would know.

Bothweak verbs andstrong verbs may undergoapophony. The strong verbs can be split into two groups: the first group where the vowel in the non-finite form is the same as in the past participle; and the second group where the vowel in the non-finite form is different from the vowel in the past participle. The most common vowel gradations in the second group can be seen below:

• [ai̯] >[i(ː)]:[ʒ̊nai̯n] >[ɡ̊ʒ̊niːn], Standard Germanschneiden >geschnitten -Englishto cut
• [ei̯] >[o],[uɐ̯]:[b̥ei̯n] >[b̥uɐ̯n], Standard Germanbieten >geboten -Englishto offer
• [i] >[u]:[ziŋɐ] >[ɡ̊z̥uŋɐ], Standard Germansingen >gesungen -Englishto sing
• [ɛ] >[o]:[d̥rɛʃn̩] >[d̥roʃn̩], Standard Germandreschen >gedroschen -Englishto thresh

Apophony is not as common with weak verbs as in Standard German. However, the number of weak verbs withmorphophonological variations is high, especially change invowel length is common.

This is a phonetic transcription of a text in Northern Bavarian, with translations in German and English.^[1]

• Sprechender Sprachatlas von Bayern

Speaking Language Atlas of Bavaria, with dialect maps from the bookKleiner Bayerischer Sprachatlas, and sound recordings

• DiWA - Digitaler Wenker-Atlas (Digital Wenker-Atlas)

Choose the mapNordbairischer Sprachatlas from the menu itemDiWA → Karten, and thenAuswahl , then chooseerweiterte Ausgabe, and then in the menu itemDiWA → Installation/Einstellungen underECS-Darstellung , then the radio buttonHTML

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