Palatine German (
Pfälzisch/
Pälzisch or
Pfaelzisch/
Paelzisch) is a West Franconian dialect of
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
which is spoken in the Rhine Valley roughly in an area between the cities of
ZweibrückenZweibrücken is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river at the border of the Palatinate forest.- Etymology :Zweibrücken is the Latin Bipontinum; it appears in early documents also as Geminus Pons, and is called by the French Deux-Ponts.- History :The town was the capital...
,
Kaiserslautern' is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century and is within easy reach of Paris , Frankfurt , and Luxembourg .Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...
,
AlzeyAlzey is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the district of Alzey-Worms, and the fourth-largest town in Rheinhessen, after Mainz, Worms, and Bingen...
,
WormsWorms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over title of "Oldest City in Germany"...
,
MannheimMannheim is a city in Germany. With 327,318 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg after the capital Stuttgart....
,
HeidelbergHeidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2008, over 145,000 people live within the city's area. Heidelberg is a unitary authority...
,
SpeyerSpeyer is a city in Germany with approx. 50,000 inhabitants, located beside the river Rhine. It lies 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Its oldest known name was Civitas Nemetum, named by a Teutonic tribe, the Nemeter, settling in this area...
,
Wörth am RheinWörth am Rhein is a municipality in the southermost part of the district of Germersheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, approx. 10 km west of the city center of Karlsruhe and just north of the German-French border....
and the border to the
AlsaceAlsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km²...
region in (
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
) but also beyond.
Pennsylvania GermanThe Pennsylvania German language is a variety of West Central German possibly spoken by more than 250,000 people in North America...
, or Pennsylvania Dutch is descended primarily from the Palatine German dialects spoken by Germans who immigrated to North America from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries and who chose to maintain their native language.
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Palatine German (
Pfälzisch/
Pälzisch or
Pfaelzisch/
Paelzisch) is a West Franconian dialect of
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
which is spoken in the Rhine Valley roughly in an area between the cities of
ZweibrückenZweibrücken is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river at the border of the Palatinate forest.- Etymology :Zweibrücken is the Latin Bipontinum; it appears in early documents also as Geminus Pons, and is called by the French Deux-Ponts.- History :The town was the capital...
,
Kaiserslautern' is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century and is within easy reach of Paris , Frankfurt , and Luxembourg .Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...
,
AlzeyAlzey is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the district of Alzey-Worms, and the fourth-largest town in Rheinhessen, after Mainz, Worms, and Bingen...
,
WormsWorms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over title of "Oldest City in Germany"...
,
MannheimMannheim is a city in Germany. With 327,318 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg after the capital Stuttgart....
,
HeidelbergHeidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2008, over 145,000 people live within the city's area. Heidelberg is a unitary authority...
,
SpeyerSpeyer is a city in Germany with approx. 50,000 inhabitants, located beside the river Rhine. It lies 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Its oldest known name was Civitas Nemetum, named by a Teutonic tribe, the Nemeter, settling in this area...
,
Wörth am RheinWörth am Rhein is a municipality in the southermost part of the district of Germersheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, approx. 10 km west of the city center of Karlsruhe and just north of the German-French border....
and the border to the
AlsaceAlsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km²...
region in (
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
) but also beyond.
Pennsylvania GermanThe Pennsylvania German language is a variety of West Central German possibly spoken by more than 250,000 people in North America...
, or Pennsylvania Dutch is descended primarily from the Palatine German dialects spoken by Germans who immigrated to North America from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries and who chose to maintain their native language.
Danube SwabiansThe Danube Swabians is a collective term for Germans who lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary, especially in the Danube River valley. Because of differential development within the territory settled, the Danube Swabians cannot be seen as a unified people...
in
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
and
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
also use many elements of it. Normally, one distinguishes the Pfälzisch spoken in the western part of the Palatinate (Westpfälzisch) and the Pfälzisch spoken in the eastern part of the Palatinate (Vorderpfälzisch). Some examples of the differences between High German and Pfaelzisch are:
| Vorderpfälzisch |
Westpfälzisch |
High German |
English Equivalent |
| Mais |
Mais |
Mäuse |
mice |
| Lais |
Lais |
Läuse |
lice |
| Grumbeer |
Grumbeer |
Kartoffel |
potato |
| Schnoog(e) |
Stechmigg |
Mücke |
a mosquitoNematocera , is a primitive suborder of elongated flies with thin, segmented antennae and mostly aquatic larvae, consisting of the mosquitoes, crane flies, gnats, and midges....
|
| Bääm |
Bääm |
Bäume |
trees |
| Schdää |
Schdää |
Stein |
stone |
| soi |
sei |
sein |
his (possessive) |
| unser |
unser |
unsere |
ours |
| nit |
net |
nicht |
not |
| dowedder |
degeje |
dagegen |
against |
| Fusch |
Fisch |
Fisch |
fish |
| ebbes |
ebbes |
etwas |
something |
| Ärwett |
Arwett |
Arbeit |
work |
| Dor |
Dor |
Tor |
gate |
| Abbel |
Abbel |
Apfel |
apple |
| Haan |
Hann |
Haben |
have |
A few examples of sentence pronunciation in Vorderpfälzisch would be:
Isch habb's'm schunn verzehlt, awwer där hot mer's nit geglawt.
In Westpfälzisch:
Ich hann's'm schunn verzehlt, awwer er hat mer's net geglaabt.
In standard German, the sentence would read as such:
Ich hab's ihm schon erzählt, aber er hat's mir nicht geglaubt.
The English translation would be,
I already told [it to] him, but he didn't believe me.
Hasche a(ch) Hunger? (Identical in Vorderpfälzisch and Westpfälzisch)
In standard German, the sentence would read as such:
Hast du auch Hunger?
The English translation would be,
Are you hungry, too?
Palatine speakers tend to swallow some of the other letters that standard German speakers enunciate. It's important to point out that pronunciation and grammar vary from region to region (even from town to town). Palatine Germans often can tell the part of Palatinate or even the village where other speakers are from. Something all Palatine dialects have in common is that the genitive isn't used, same as the German imperfect.
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