Vogtländisch
Encyclopedia
Vogtländisch is an East-Franconian
dialect, spoken in Vogtland
.
and the Erzgebirge, the Vogtland is one of few areas in Saxony still having regions of comparatively self-contained dialect. There is a relation between Vogtländisch and Erzgebirgisch, including sharing some linguistic features, which originates in similarities and interdependencies in their respective settlement history.
The dialects of the Vogtland are anything but uniform. The sub-dialects that can be spotted in the various sub-regions sometimes differ drastically. In Plauen, for instance, a Vogtländisch is to be heard differing completely from that spoken in Klingenthal (vogtl. Klengedohl /klenɡədoːl/) — a common remark between speakers from neighboring regions is "die singe doch ihre Wördder" (en.: they are singing [contrasted to articulately speaking] their words).
This is the main reason there is an extra differentiation to be made between the following sub-varieties:
Translated literally: "There, where hares are called a pair of pants and a pair of pants are called Husen, that's the place I call home."
This proverb is also quite common in neighboring Erzgebirge due to the shift of vowels described in it, which is also a feature of Erzgebirgsich.
– Zwickau
, Upper Franconian in the area south to Hof
, and South Eastern Thuringian in the area around Gera
.
Pre-Vogtländisch is the name for the transitional area to Sächsisch, which surrounds Reichenbach
. Here the originary singing of words is only audible rudimentally, which also holds true for the over-emphasis of intonation within a sentence. Following the Göltzsch upstream, these phenomena will increase strongly.
As in the upper and less densely populated areas of the Vogtland everyday Vogtländisch is more in use than in the other distributional areas of the variety, Upper Vogtländisch is commonly perceived to be highly (ab)original and representative for all Vogtländisch varieties. Upper Vogtländisch shows but few differences compared to Western Erzgebirgisch, while diachronic change within the distribution area of Erzgebirgisch seems to be currently occurring. Making a difference between Upper Vogtländisch and Western Erzgebirgisch seems impossible when not having detailed experience or data of their distinctive features.
One shared feature seems to be double negation:
On the mountain lies no snow not.
The area surrounding Hof, also referred to as Bavarian Vogtland, is part of the transitional zone where many originally Vogtländisch features occur, while phonologically Upper Franconian seems to be closer.
Yet, big differences occur in Vogtländisch morphosyntax, giving it features that encourage it be ranked among the East Franconian dialects. Accordingly, many monosyllabic words of Vogtländisch are not intellibible for speakers of Sächsisch, for instance aa /ɑː/ or ae /ɑːᵊ/ (en: also, High German auch /aux/, Sächsisch ooch /oːx/) or the affirmation hoa /haː/ or hae /haᵊ/, which, while it can be used meaning "yes", does not have an equivalent in Standard English or High German, but corresponds with Sächsisch nu /nu/ (in meaning roughly equivalent to aye in Scots
).
Franconian
Franconian may refer to:*anything related to Franconia , a historic region in Germany, now part of Bavaria, Thuringia and Baden-Württemberg*Franconian languages*Franconian , a stage in North American stratigraphy...
dialect, spoken in Vogtland
Vogtland
The term Vogtland refers to a region reaching across the German free states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia and into the Czech Republic . The name of the region contains a reference to the former leadership by the Vögte of Weida, Gera and Plauen, which translates approximately to advocates or lord...
.
Distribution and history
Vogtländisch is mainly spoken in rural and small town areas. The speakers are mainly to be found among the elderly, as school and preschool education tend to be negligent about fostering this linguistic tradition — nowadays, dialect use tends to be discouraged from an early age. Just like LusatiaLusatia
Lusatia is a historical region in Central Europe. It stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the east to the Elbe valley in the west, today located within the German states of Saxony and Brandenburg as well as in the Lower Silesian and Lubusz voivodeships of western Poland...
and the Erzgebirge, the Vogtland is one of few areas in Saxony still having regions of comparatively self-contained dialect. There is a relation between Vogtländisch and Erzgebirgisch, including sharing some linguistic features, which originates in similarities and interdependencies in their respective settlement history.
The dialects of the Vogtland are anything but uniform. The sub-dialects that can be spotted in the various sub-regions sometimes differ drastically. In Plauen, for instance, a Vogtländisch is to be heard differing completely from that spoken in Klingenthal (vogtl. Klengedohl /klenɡədoːl/) — a common remark between speakers from neighboring regions is "die singe doch ihre Wördder" (en.: they are singing [contrasted to articulately speaking] their words).
This is the main reason there is an extra differentiation to be made between the following sub-varieties:
- Core — or Middle Vogtländisch (in the area around MühltroffMühltroffMühltroff is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 10 km southeast of Schleiz, and 16 km northwest of Plauen.- References :...
– TreuenTreuenTreuen is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 13 km east of Plauen, and 7 km northwest of Auerbach ....
– OelsnitzOelsnitzOelsnitz may refer to two towns in Saxony, Germany:* Oelsnitz, Vogtland, in the Vogtlandkreis district* Oelsnitz, Erzgebirge, in the district of Stollberg...
) - Northern — or Nether Vogtländisch (along the line ReichenbachReichenbach- In Germany :* Reichenbach , in the Niederschlesischer Oberlausitzkreis district, Saxony* Reichenbach im Vogtland, in the Vogtlandkreis district, Saxony* Reichenbach am Heuberg, in the Tuttlingen district, Baden-Württemberg...
– MylauMylauMylau is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany with 2912 citizens. It is situated in the valleys of the Göltzsch river and the Raumbach, a stream flowing from Reichenbach im Vogtland that is locally known as the Soap Stream because of the textile painting...
– NetzschkauNetzschkauNetzschkau is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated 6 km southeast of Greiz, and 21 km southwest of Zwickau....
– ElsterbergElsterbergElsterberg is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Weiße Elster, 6 km southwest of Greiz, and 13 km north of Plauen.-Location:...
– PausaPausaIn linguistics, pausa is the end of a prosodic unit, such as an utterance. Some sound laws specifically operate in pausa only; for example, certain phonemes may be pronounced differently at the end of a word, when no other word follows within the same prosodic unit, such as in citation form...
) - Eastern Vogtländisch (in the Göltzschtal area, from FalkensteinFalkensteinFalkenstein or Falckenstein is the name of several places and castles in Central Europe as well as a surname:- Places in Germany and Austria :* Falkenstein, Bavaria, district Cham...
– LengenfeldLengenfeldLengenfeld is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. During World War II, a subcamp of Flossenburg concentration camp was located here. The town is situated 19 km southwest of Zwickau, and 18 km northeast of Plauen....
) - Upper Vogtländisch (south to the line Bobenneukirchen – OelsnitzOelsnitzOelsnitz may refer to two towns in Saxony, Germany:* Oelsnitz, Vogtland, in the Vogtlandkreis district* Oelsnitz, Erzgebirge, in the district of Stollberg...
– Werda – SchöneckSchöneckSchöneck may refer to:*Schöneck, Hesse, town in Germany*Schöneck, Saxony, town in Germany*Schœneck, municipality in Lorraine, France*Skarszewy , Poland...
)
Vogtländisch proverb
Do, wu de Hasn Hoosn haaßen un de Hosen Huusn haaßen, do bi iech dr ham.Translated literally: "There, where hares are called a pair of pants and a pair of pants are called Husen, that's the place I call home."
This proverb is also quite common in neighboring Erzgebirge due to the shift of vowels described in it, which is also a feature of Erzgebirgsich.
Commonalities and differences
Vogtländisch appears as a more than less fluent transition between Meißenisch in the area ChemnitzChemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
– Zwickau
Zwickau
Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
, Upper Franconian in the area south to Hof
Hof
Hof may refer to:In places:* Hof, Germany, a city in Bavaria, Germany** Hof , a district in Bavaria* Hof, Rhineland-Palatinate, a municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany* Hof, Iceland, a small village in Iceland...
, and South Eastern Thuringian in the area around Gera
Gera
Gera, the third-largest city in the German state of Thuringia , lies in east Thuringia on the river Weiße Elster, approximately 60 kilometres to the south of the city of Leipzig and 80 kilometres to the east of Erfurt...
.
Pre-Vogtländisch is the name for the transitional area to Sächsisch, which surrounds Reichenbach
Reichenbach
- In Germany :* Reichenbach , in the Niederschlesischer Oberlausitzkreis district, Saxony* Reichenbach im Vogtland, in the Vogtlandkreis district, Saxony* Reichenbach am Heuberg, in the Tuttlingen district, Baden-Württemberg...
. Here the originary singing of words is only audible rudimentally, which also holds true for the over-emphasis of intonation within a sentence. Following the Göltzsch upstream, these phenomena will increase strongly.
Vogtländisch and Erzgebirgisch
- See main article ErzgebirgischErzgebirgischErzgebirgisch is an Upper German dialect, probably belonging to the Franconian dialect group, spoken mainly in the central Erzgebirge . It has received relatively little academic attention...
As in the upper and less densely populated areas of the Vogtland everyday Vogtländisch is more in use than in the other distributional areas of the variety, Upper Vogtländisch is commonly perceived to be highly (ab)original and representative for all Vogtländisch varieties. Upper Vogtländisch shows but few differences compared to Western Erzgebirgisch, while diachronic change within the distribution area of Erzgebirgisch seems to be currently occurring. Making a difference between Upper Vogtländisch and Western Erzgebirgisch seems impossible when not having detailed experience or data of their distinctive features.
One shared feature seems to be double negation:
- Aufm Bersch liecht kaa Schnee net. (Western Erzgebirgisch)
- /ʔaufm beʳʃ liːxt kɑː ʃneː nətʰ/
On the mountain lies no snow not.
Vogtländisch and Upper Franconian
Also the delineation of Vogtländisch against Upper Franconian seems to be rather troublesome, if tried within small-scale regional comparisons. One tendency seems to be the absence of the "rolled R" in Vogtländisch, while distinctive exceptions may still occur.The area surrounding Hof, also referred to as Bavarian Vogtland, is part of the transitional zone where many originally Vogtländisch features occur, while phonologically Upper Franconian seems to be closer.
Vogtländisch and Sächsisch
In addition to Pre-Vogtländisch as a transitional form common features are recognizable on a geographically somewhat larger scale. In similarity to Sächsisch, in Vogtländisch there are almost none but de-labialized vowel sounds and aspiration of consonants is almost completely absent. Especially recipients from southern and western Germany may perceive of the sound of Vogtländisch in a way encouraging the misconception, they would actually hear spoken Sächsisch. Furthermore, ne instead of oder is used as a Question tag at the end of sentences, which is commonly perceived as a typicality of Sächsisch and Saxon use of High German.Yet, big differences occur in Vogtländisch morphosyntax, giving it features that encourage it be ranked among the East Franconian dialects. Accordingly, many monosyllabic words of Vogtländisch are not intellibible for speakers of Sächsisch, for instance aa /ɑː/ or ae /ɑːᵊ/ (en: also, High German auch /aux/, Sächsisch ooch /oːx/) or the affirmation hoa /haː/ or hae /haᵊ/, which, while it can be used meaning "yes", does not have an equivalent in Standard English or High German, but corresponds with Sächsisch nu /nu/ (in meaning roughly equivalent to aye in Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
).