Thuringian is anEast Central German dialect group spoken in much of the modern German Free State ofThuringia north of theRennsteig ridge, southwesternSaxony-Anhalt and adjacent territories ofHesse andBavaria. It is close toUpper Saxon spoken mainly in the state ofSaxony, therefore both are also regarded as one Thuringian-Upper Saxon dialect group. Thuringian dialects are among the Central German dialects with the highest number of speakers.
The Thuringian dialect is characterized by a rounding of the vowels, the weakening of consonants of Standard German (the lenition of the consonants "p," "t," and "k"), a marked difference in the pronunciation of the "g" sound (which is most common in the areas of North Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt areas), and a highly-idiosyncratic, melodic intonation of sentences. The second German consonant shift manifested itself in a manner different from that elsewhere in the areas that spoke High German. In many words, "b" is pronounced as "w" or "f" would be inStandard German. For example, the wordaber (but) is pronounced as "awer". The Thuringian dialect has advanced beyond the stage ofbasilect.
Ostmitteldeutsch. In:Lexikon der Germanistischen Linguistik. Herausgegeben von Hans Peter Althaus, Helmut Henne, Herbert Ernst Wiegand. 2nd ed., Max Niemeyer Verlag Tübingen, 1980 (1st ed. 1973), p. 474ff., here p. 474–477
Ostmitteldeutsche Dialektologie. In: Ludwig Erich Schmitt (ed.):Germanische Dialektologie. Festschrift für Walther Mitzka zum 80. Geburtstag. I. (Zeitschrift für Mundartforschung. Beihefte, Neue Folge 5.) Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH, Wiesbaden 1968, p. 105–154, here p. 132 and 143 [uses the termsostmitteldeutscher Dialektraum on the 1st level, then on the 2nd level(adjective ending in -er) Dialektverband and on the 3rd(adjective ending in -e) Dialektgruppe]
^C. A. M. Noble:Modern German Dialects. Peter Lang, New York / Berne / Frankfort on the Main, p. 131
^Karl Spangenberg:Thuringian. In: Charles V. J. Russ (ed.):The Dialects of Modern German: A Linguistic Survey. Routledge, first published 1990, reprinted 2000, transferred to Digital Printing 2006, [ISBN 0-415-00308-3], p. 265–289, here 267–278 (in the chapterDialect Structure and Dialect Features) [it also mentions some East Franconian]
