Northern Bavarian is a
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
of the Bavarian language, together with Central Bavarian and Southern Bavarian. The language is mostly spoken in the
Upper PalatinateThe Upper Palatinate is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of Bavaria.- History :The region took its name first in the early 16th century, because it was by the Treaty of Pavia one of the main portions of the territory of the Wittelsbach Elector...
, although not in
RegensburgRegensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
, which is a primarily Central Bavarian–speaking area, according to a linguistic survey done in the late
1980sFile:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
. According to the same survey, Northern Bavarian is also spoken in
Upper FranconiaUpper Franconia is a Regierungsbezirk of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia , all now part of the German Federal State of Bayern .With more than 200 independent breweries which brew...
, as well as in some areas in
UpperUpper Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany.- Geography :Upper Bavaria is located in the southern portion of Bavaria, and is centered around the city of Munich. It is subdivided into four regions : Ingolstadt, Munich, Bayerisches Oberland , and Südostoberbayern...
and
Lower BavariaLower Bavaria is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state.- Geography :Lower Bavaria is subdivided into two regions - Landshut and Donau-Wald. Recent election results mark it as the most conservative part of Germany, generally giving huge...
, such as in the areas around
EichstättEichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the District of Eichstätt. It is located along the Altmühl River, at , and had a population of 13,078 in 2002. It is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The...
and
KelheimKelheim is a municipality in Bavaria, capital of the district Kelheim. It is situated at the confluence of Altmühl and Danube. As of June 30, 2005, the town had a population of 15,667....
. Few speakers remained in the
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, mostly concentrated around
AšAš is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic.-History:Previously uninhabited hills and swamps, the town of Asch was founded in the early 11th century by German colonists. Slavic settlements in the area are not known. The dialect spoken in the town was that of the Upper Palatinate,...
and
Železná RudaŽelezná Ruda is a town in the Pilsen Region of the Czech Republic. It is located in the Šumava Mountains, close to the border with Bavaria and the German town Bayerisch Eisenstein. It has been one of the important sports and touristic centres of the Šumava Mountains...
, 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 the
ostegerländische Dialektgruppe. Ethnologue states that there are 9,000 speakers of the Bavarian language as of 2005 in the
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, but doesn't state how many of these are speakers of Northern Bavarian.
According to the same linguistic survey, the dialect is flourishing in the areas where it is spoken, despite the fact that most speakers are also fluent in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. 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 speaking
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
.
Vowels
Northern Bavarian has 8
vowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s:
|
Front A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also...
|
Back A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
|
| Unrounded |
Unrounded |
Rounded |
| Close A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
|
i |
|
u |
| Close-mid A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel...
|
e |
|
o |
| Open-mid An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel...
|
ɛ |
|
ɔ |
| Open An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...
|
a |
ɑ |
|
And 11
diphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s:
| Ending with /i/ |
Ending with /u/ |
Ending with /ə/ |
| /ɛ͡i/ |
/ɔ͡u/ |
/e͡ə/ |
| /e͡i/ |
/o͡u/ |
/i͡ə/ |
| /a͡i/ |
/a͡u/ |
/u͡ə/ |
| /o͡i/ |
|
/o͡ə/ |
The
allophoneIn phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
s [ʏ, ø, œ] exist for /i, e, ɛ/ when followed by /l/.
In southern varieties of Northern Bavarian the diphthongs [i͡ə, u͡ə] are realized as [iɐ, uɐ].
An interesting aspect of the diphthongs are the so-called
reversed diphthongs, or in German,
gestürzte Diphthonge. They are called so because the
Middle High GermanMiddle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
diphthongs [i͡e, y͡e, u͡o] became [e͡i, o͡u] ([y] became [i] after unrounding) in Northern Bavarian, while they generally became [iː, yː, uː] in
Standard GermanStandard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
. Compare Standard German
Brief [briːf],
Bruder [bruːdɐ],
Brüder [bryːdɐ] and Northern Bavarian [b̥re͡iv̥], [b̥ro͡ud̥ɐ], [b̥re͡id̥ɐ].
The Northern Bavarian diphthong [ɔ͡u] corresponds to the Middle High German and Standard German [oː, aː]. Compare Standard German
Schaf [ʃaːf],
Stroh [ʃtroː] and Northern Bavarian [ʒ̊ɔ͡uv̥], [ʒ̊d̥rɔ͡u]. Likewise, the Northern Bavarian diphthong [ɛ͡i] corresponds to the Middle High German and Standard German [eː] and by unrounding to [øː]. Compare Standard German
Schnee [ʃneː],
böse [bøːzɛ] with Northern Bavarian [ʒ̊n̥ɛ͡i], [b̥ɛ͡iz̥].
In many Northern Bavarian variants,
nasalizationIn phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth...
is increasingly common.
Consonants
Northern Bavarian has about 33
consonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s:
|
BilabialIn phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...
|
LabiodentalIn phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth.-Labiodental consonant in IPA:The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...
|
AlveolarAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
|
PostalveolarPostalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate...
|
PalatalPalatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
|
VelarVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
|
GlottalGlottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
|
| Plosive |
p |
b̥ |
|
t |
d̥ |
|
|
k |
ɡ̊ |
|
| Nasal A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
|
m |
|
n |
|
|
ŋ |
|
| Fricative Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...
|
β, β̬ |
f |
v̥ |
s |
z̥ |
ʃ |
ʒ̊ |
ç |
ʝ |
x |
ɣ̊ |
h |
| Affricate Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
|
p͡f |
b̥͡v |
|
t͡s |
d̥͡z |
t͡ʃ |
d̥͡ʒ |
|
k͡x |
|
| Trill In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular....
|
|
|
r |
|
|
|
|
| Approximant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no...
|
|
|
l, lʲ |
|
j |
|
|
/r/ is realized as either [ɐ] or [ə] when occurring postvocally.
/lʲ/ may be syllabic, as in Northern Bavarian [mlʲ]; compare Standard German
Mühle.
Gender
All
nounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s in Northern Bavarian one of have three
gendersGrammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
: feminine, masculine and neuter. Many nouns have the same gender as in
Standard GermanStandard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
, but there are many exceptions. An example is
Benzin, which is neuter in Standard German, but masculine in Northern Bavarian. Another example is
Butter, which is feminine in Standard German, but can be all three genders in Northern Bavarian depending on where in the Northern Bavarian–speaking you are.
Case
As in Standard German there are four cases in Northern Bavarian: nominative, accusative, genitive and dative. The genitive case, however, is uncommon and is commonly replaced either with the dative and a
possessive pronounA possessive pronoun is a part of speech that substitutes for a noun phrase that begins with a possessive determiner . For example, in the sentence These glasses are mine, not yours, the words mine and yours are possessive pronouns and stand for my glasses and your glasses, respectively...
or with the preposition
von [v̥ə, v̥ən, v̥əm] and the dative, e.g. [m̩̩ v̥ɑtɐ z̥ãi ha͡ːuz̥], or [s̩ ha͡ːuz̥ v̥om v̥ɑtɐ]
father's house. An exception is the genitive instead of the dative after the singular possessive pronouns, e.g. [hintɐ mainɐ], which is as correct as [hintɐ miɐ]
behind me. Prepositions take the dative or the accusative, but not the genitive, e.g. [d̥rots n̩ reːŋ] (formally [d̥rots m̩ reːŋ])
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.
Inflection
Nouns in Northern Bavarian are
inflectedIn grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
for number, and to a lesser extent, case. Inflecting for number is common across all three genders, and especially
umlautIn linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
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 the
pluralIn linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
as in the
singularIn linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
.
- English
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
head, Standard German Kopf, Northern Bavarian sg. m. [kʰoːb̥͡v] > pl. [kʰep͡f]
- English
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
cat, Standard German Katze, Northern Bavarian sg. f. [kʰɑt͡s] > pl. [kʰɑt͡sn̩]
- English
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
house, Standard German Haus, Northern Bavarian sg. n. [ha͡ːuz̥] > pl. [ha͡ːiz̥ɐ]
Weak masculine nouns are inflected in the accusative and dative case, most commonly with suffixation 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.
- English
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
boy, Standard German Bube, Northern Bavarian m. nom. [dɐ bo͡u] > m. acc./dat. [n̩ bo͡um]
Adjectives
The
inflectionIn grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
of
adjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s in Northern Bavarian differ depending on whether the adjective is preceded by a
definite articleDefinite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
or a
demonstrativeIn linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
, or if it is preceded by an indefinite article or a
possessivePossessive may be:* Possessive case* Possessive adjective* Possessive pronoun* Possessive suffix* Possessive construction, pattern among words indicating possession * For possessive behavior in a relationship, see Attachment in adults...
, or if it is used as a
predicateThere are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...
, of which the latter is only present in some varieties. Adjectives without any determiner rarely occur.
Below can the inflectiononal 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 German
alt, in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
old.
|
Precedence of a definite article,
or a demonstrative |
| Singular In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
|
Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
|
| Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
| Nominative |
[d̥ɐ ɔlt] |
[d̥e͡i ɔlt] |
[s ɔlt] |
[d̥e͡i ɔltn̩] |
[d̥e͡iɐ ɔltn̩] |
| Accusative |
[n̩ ɔltn̩] |
| Dative |
[d̥ɐr(ɐ) ɔltn̩] |
[n̩ ɔltn̩] |
[(ɐ)n ɔltn̩] |
|
Precedence of an indefinite article,
or a possessive |
| Singular In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
|
Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
|
| Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
| Nominative |
[ɐ ɔltɐ] |
[ɐ ɔltɐ] |
[ɐ ɔlts] |
[ɔlt] |
[ɔltɐ] |
| Accusative |
[ɐn ɔltn̩] |
| Dative |
[ɐrɐ ɔltn̩] |
[ɐn ɔltn̩] |
[ɔltn̩] |
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 [ɡ̊rɔːuz̥] and [b̥rɔːɐd̥], which become [ɡ̊ro͡us] and [b̥ro͡it], respectively. Compare with the Standard German
gross and
breit, in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
big and
broad.
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 [hɔːuɣ̊], which becomes [hɛixɐ] when comparative and [hɛikst] when superlative. Compare with the Standard German
hoch,
höher and
höchsten, in English
high,
higher and
highest.
Pronouns
The
pronounIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s 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.
|
Singular In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, Stressed |
| First person |
Second person |
Third person |
| Informal |
Formal |
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
| Nominative |
[iː(j)] |
[d̥uː] |
[z̥iː] |
[eɐ] |
[z̥iː] |
- |
| Accusative |
[miː(j)] |
[d̥iː(j)] |
[eɐ̃nɐ] |
[eɐ̃m] |
| Dative |
[miɐ] |
[d̥iɐ] |
[iɐ] |
|
Singular In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, Unstressed |
| First person |
Second person |
Third person |
| Informal |
Formal |
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter |
| Nominative |
[e] |
- |
[z̥] |
[ɐ] |
[z̥], [s] |
| Accusative |
[me] |
[d̥e] |
[n(ɐ)] |
| Dative |
[mɐ] |
[d̥ɐ] |
- |
[ɐrɐ] |
[n(ɐ)] |
|
Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
, Stressed |
| First person |
Second person |
Third person |
| Nominative |
[miɐ] |
[d̥iɐts], [eŋk(s)] |
- |
| Accusative |
[unz̥] |
[eŋk(s)], [aiç] |
| Dative |
[eɐ̃nɐ] |
|
Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
, Unstressed |
| First person |
Second person |
Third person |
| Nominative |
[mɐ] |
[s] |
[z̥], [s] |
| Accusative |
- |
| Dative |
[nɐ] |
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
1980sFile:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, 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
VerbA verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s in Northern Bavarian are
conjugatedIn linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
for
personGrammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
,
tenseA tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
and
moodIn linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
. The Northern Bavarian verbs are also subject to both vowel change and
apophonyIn linguistics, apophony is the alternation of sounds within a word that indicates grammatical information .-Description:Apophony is...
.
Non-finite forms
The
non-finiteIn linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person...
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 German
sein,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to be; [ɡ̊ɛi], Standard German
gehen,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to go; [ʒ̊d̥ɛi],
Standard GermanStandard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
stehen,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to stand; and [d̥o͡u], Standard German
tun,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to do. The second ending is the most common ending found on most verbs, such as [b̥itn̩], Standard German
bitten,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to ask. The third ending is used with verbs having a certain stem-final consonant, such as [z̥iŋɐ], Standard German
singen,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to sing.
Present tense
The personal endings for the
present tenseThe present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
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].
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Singular In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
|
Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
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| First person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
|
-Ø |
nf. |
| Second person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
|
-[z̥d̥] |
-[t͡s] |
| Third person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
|
-[d̥] |
nf. |
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 German
sein,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to be, which is [b̥iː].
Past tense
Only one verb with a distinct
simple past tenseThe simple past, sometimes called the preterite, is the past tense of Modern English. It is used to describe events in the past. It may combine with either or both of two aspects, the perfect and the progressive...
form remains, [z̥a͡i], Standard German
sein,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to be, with the simple past tense form [βo͡ə], Standard German
war,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
was. The
past tenseThe past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
of other verbs is formed in the same way as Standard German uses
haben or
sein,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to have and
to be, respectively, and the past participle.
The past participle in Northern Bavarian is formed by the
prefixA prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
[ɡ̊]-, although not on verbs beginning with a plosive consonant, where the prefix is left out. Thus we see [ɡ̊ʒ̊it], Standard German
geschüttet,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
shaken; [ɡ̊numɐ], Standard German
genommen,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
taken; [b̥rɑxd̥], Standard German
gebracht,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
brought; and [d̥roŋ], Standard German
getragen,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
carried.
The verbs [hɔm] and [z̥a͡i], Standard German
haben and
sein,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to have and
to be, can be seen conjugated in the scheme below in the present, as they are
irregularIn contrast to regular verbs, irregular verbs are those verbs that fall outside the standard patterns of conjugation in the languages in which they occur. The idea of an irregular verb is important in second language acquisition, where the verb paradigms of a foreign language are learned...
. They have the past participles, [ɡ̊hɔt] and [ɡ̊βeːn], respectively. Compare with Standard German
gehaben and
gewesen,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
had and
been.
[hɔm]
|
Singular In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
|
Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
|
| First person |
[hoː] |
[hɔm] |
| Second person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
|
[hɔ͡uz̥d̥] |
[hɔ͡ut͡s] |
| Third person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
|
[hɔ͡ud̥] |
[hɔm] |
[z̥a͡i]
|
Singular In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
|
Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
|
| First person |
[b̥in] |
[z̥an, han] |
| Second person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
|
[b̥iːz̥d̥] |
[z̥at͡s, hat͡s] |
| Third person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
|
[iːz̥] |
[z̥an, han] |
Examples can be seen below:, Standard German
Ich habe geschüttet,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
I have shaken, Standard German
Er hat gebracht,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
He has brought
Subjunctive
It is quite straightforward to form the subjunctive in Northern Bavarian. The subjunctive of verbs is formed with the suffix -[ɐd̥], as in [βisn̩] > [βisɐd̥], Standard German
wissen >
wüßte,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to know >
I would know.
Apophony
Both
weak verbWeak verb may refer to:*light verb, or "semantically weak verb", verb participating in complex predication that has little semantic content of its own, but provides through inflection some details on the event semantics, such as aspect, mood, or tense...
s and
strong verb*for the strong inflection in various languages, see strong inflection*for irregular verbs, see irregular verb*for the strong verbs in Germanic languages, see Germanic strong verb...
s may undergo
apophonyIn linguistics, apophony is the alternation of sounds within a word that indicates grammatical information .-Description:Apophony is...
. 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:
> [i(ː)]: [ʒ̊na͡in] > [ɡ̊ʒ̊niːn], Standard German
schneiden >
geschnitten -
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to cut > [o], [uɐ]: [b̥e͡in] > [b̥uɐn], Standard German
bieten >
geboten -
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to offer > [u]: [ziŋɐ] > [ɡ̊z̥uŋɐ], Standard German
singen >
gesungen -
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to sing > [o]: [d̥rɛʃn̩] > [d̥roʃn̩], Standard German
dreschen >
gedroschen -
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to thresh
Apophony is not at common with weak verbs as in Standard German. However, the number of weak verbs with
morphophonologicalMorphophonology is a branch of linguistics which studies, in general, the interaction between morphological and phonetic processes. When a morpheme is attached to a word, it can alter the phonetic environments of other morphemes in that word. Morphophonemics attempts to describe this process...
variations is high, especially change in
vowel lengthIn linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
is common.
Example
This is a phonetic transcription of a text in Northern Bavarian, with translations in German and English.
| Northern Bavarian |
German German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
|
English English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
|
ɪç bɪn ɪn ʒdoːᵈl ɡɔŋə, ᶷn do βoən daːm drɪnə, ᶷn dao ɪz uəm və də mlʲ aː ɪz uəm troi̯t aːvɡʒit kβeːzd... |
Ich bin in den Stadel gegangen, und da waren Tauben drinnen, und da ist oben von der Mühle auch ist oben Getreide aufgeschüttet gewesen... |
I went into the barn, and there were pigeons in it, and then, upstairs, there was grain heaped up as well, from the mill... |
External links
- Sprechender Sprachatlas von Bayern (Speaking Language Atlas of Bavaria, with dialect maps from the book Kleiner Bayerischer Sprachatlas, and sound recordings)
- DiWA - Digitaler Wenker-Atlas (Digital Wenker-Atlas, with dialect maps and more) - the map Nordbairischer Sprachatlas from the menu item DiWA --> Karten, and then Auswahl (a technical advice: choose erweiterte Ausgabe, and then in the menu item DiWA --> Installation/Einstellungen under ECS-Darstellung the radio button HTML, its independent from plugins and java)