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| Ripuarian | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Germany,Belgium,Netherlands |
| Region | North Rhine-Westphalia,Rhineland-Palatinate,Liège Province,Limburg |
Native speakers | (Kölsch: 250,000 cited 1997)[1] |
Early forms | Proto-Indo-European
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis)Individual code: ksh – Kölsch |
| Glottolog | ripu1236 |
 Area where Ripuarian is spoken. Green = sparsely populated forest. | |
 Central German language area after 1945 and the expulsion of the Germans from the east. 1 = Ripuarian. | |
Ripuarian (/ˌrɪpjuˈɛəriən/RIP-yoo-AIR-ee-ən) orRipuarian Franconian[a] is aGerman dialect group, part of theWest Central German language group.Together with theMoselle Franconian which includes theLuxembourgish language, Ripuarian belongs to the largerCentral Franconian dialect family and also to the linguisticcontinuum with theLow Franconian languages.
It is spoken in theRhineland south of theBenrath line — from northwest ofDüsseldorf andCologne toAachen in the west and toWaldbröl in the east.
The language area also comprises the north of theGerman-speaking Community of Belgium as well as the southern edge of theLimburg province of theNetherlands, especiallyKerkrade (Kirchroa), where it is perceived as a variety ofLimburgish and legally treated as such.[citation needed]
The name derives from theRipuarian Franks (Rheinfranken), who settled in the area from the 4th century onward.
The most well known Ripuarian dialect isKölsch, the local dialect ofCologne. Dialects belonging to the Ripuarian group almost always call themselvesPlatt (spelledplat in the Netherlands) likeÖcher Platt (ofAachen),Bönnsch Platt (ofBonn),Eischwiele Platt (ofEschweiler),Kirchröadsj plat (ofKerkrade), orBocheser plat (ofBocholtz). Most of the more than one hundred Ripuarian dialects are bound to one specific village or municipality. Usually there are small distinctive differences between neighbouring dialects (which are, however, easily noticeable to locals), and increasingly bigger differences between the more distant dialects. These are described by a set ofisoglosses called theRhenish fan in linguistics. The way people talk, even if they are not using Ripuarian, often allows them to be traced precisely to a village or city quarter where they learned to speak.
About a million people speak a variation of Ripuarian dialect, which constitutes about one quarter of the inhabitants of the area. Penetration of Ripuarian in everyday communication varies considerably, as does the percentage of Ripuarian speakers from one place to another. In some places there may only be a few elderly speakers left, while elsewhere Ripuarian usage is common in everyday life. Both in the genuine Ripuarian area and far around it, the number of people passively understanding Ripuarian to some extent exceeds the number of active speakers by far.
Speakers are centred on the German city ofKöln (Cologne). The language's distribution starts from the important geographic transition into the flat-lands coming down from theMiddle Rhine. The Ripuarian varieties are related to theMoselle Franconian languages spoken in the southern Rhineland (Rhineland-Palatinate andSaarland) in Germany, to theLuxembourgish language inLuxembourg, and to the Low FranconianLimburgish language in the Dutch province ofLimburg. Most of the historic roots of Ripuarian languages are inMiddle German, but there were other influences too, such asLatin,Low German,Dutch,French andSouthern Meuse-Rhenish (Limburgish). Several elements of grammar are unique to Ripuarian and do not exist in the otherlanguages of Germany.[citation needed]
TheFrench Community of Belgium as well as the Netherlands officially recognise some Ripuarian dialects asminority languages, and theEuropean Union likewise follows.[citation needed]
Varieties are or include:[2]
The transcription from Münch,[3] in which thegrave accent (`) andmacron (¯) represent, respectively, accent 1 and 2 in the Central/Low Franconianpitch accent.
The rest of the letters match theirIPA/German alphabet pronunciation, with a few exceptions:
| Cardinals | Ordinals | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ēn | dę ìəštə |
| 2 | tswęī | dę tswę̀itə |
| 3 | dreī | dę drę̀itə |
| 4 | fiəꝛ | dę fiətə |
| 5 | fønəf | dę fønəftə |
| 6 | zęks | dę zękstə |
| 7 | zevə | dę zevəntə |
| 8 | āx | dę āxtə |
| 9 | nøŋ̀ | dę nøŋ̄tə |
| 10 | tsèn | dę tsèntə |
| 11 | eləf | dę eləftə |
| 12 | tsweləf | dę tsweləftə |
| 13 | drøksēn | dę drøksēntə |
| 14 | fiətsēn | dę fiətsēntə |
| 15 | fuftsēn | dę fuftsēntə |
| 16 | zęksēn | dę zęksēntə |
| 17 | zevətsēn | dę zevetsēntə |
| 18 | āxtsēn | dę āxtsēntə |
| 19 | nøŋ̄sēn | dę nøŋ̄tsēntə |
| 20 | tswantsiχ | dę tswantsiχstə |
| 21 | enəntswantsiχ | |
| 22 | tswęiəntswantsiχ | |
| 23 | dreiəntswantsiχ | |
| 24 | fiəꝛentswantsiχ | |
| 25 | fønəvəntswantsiχ | |
| 26 | zękzəntswantsiχ | |
| 27 | zevənəntswantsiχ | |
| 28 | āxəntswantsiχ | |
| 29 | nøŋəntswantsiχ | |
| 30 | dresiχ | dę dresiχstə |
| 40 | fiətsiχ | dę fiətsiχstə |
| 50 | fuftsiχ | dę fuftsiχstə |
| 60 | zęksiχ | dę zęksiχstə |
| 70 | zevəntsiχ | dę zevətsiχstə |
| 80 | āxtsiχ | dę āxtsiχstə |
| 90 | nøŋ̄siχ | dę nøŋ̄tsiχstə |
| 100 | hondəꝛt | dę hondəꝛtstə |
| 200 | tsweīhondəꝛt | |
| 1000 | dùzənt | dę dùzəntstə |
Ripuarian (excluding City-Colognian) emphasised personal pronouns:[3]
| 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person m. / f. / n. | reflexive pronoun (of the 3rd person) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | ||||||
| Nom. | iχ | du | hę̄ | zeī | ət | |
| Gen. | – | – | – | – | – | |
| Dat. | mīꝛ | dīꝛ | em̀ | ìꝛ | em̀ | ziχ |
| Acc. | miχ | diχ | en | zeī | ət | ziχ |
| Plural | ||||||
| Nom. | mīꝛ | īꝛ | zē | |||
| Gen. | – | – | – | |||
| Dat. | os | yχ | eǹə | ziχ | ||
| Acc. | os | yχ | zē | ziχ | ||
