Bavarian language

Language or dialect

Bavarian is commonly considered to be a dialect of German, but some sources classify it as a separate language: the International Organization for Standardization has assigned a unique ISO 639-3 language code (bar), and the UNESCO lists Bavarian in the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger since 2009; however, the classification of Bavarian as an individual language has been criticized by some scholars of Bavarian.

Reasons why Bavarian can be viewed as a dialect of German include the perception of its speakers, the lack of standardization, the traditional use of Standard German as a roofing language, the relative closeness to German which does not justify Bavarian to be viewed as an abstand language, or the fact that no country applied for Bavarian to be entered into the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

The difference between Bavarian and Standard German is larger than the difference between Danish and some varieties of Norwegian or between Czech and Slovak.

Origins

History and etymology

The word Bavarian is derived from the name of the Baiuvarii people who first appeared under this name in Bavaria in the 6th century. The origin of their name is uncertain, but the most common theory reconstructs the word as *Bajowarjōz, meaning 'inhabitants of Boii land'. The Boii were Celtic inhabitants of the area before the Roman conquest, and their name survived.

The local population eventually established the Duchy of Bavaria, forming the south-eastern part of the kingdom of Germany. The Old High German documents from the area of Bavaria are identified as Altbairisch (Old Bavarian), even though at this early date there were few distinctive features that would divide it from Alemannic German.

The dialectal separation of Upper German into East Upper German (Bavarian) and West Upper German (Alemannic) became more tangible in the Middle High German period, from about the 12th century.

Geographical distribution and dialects

• In Europe:
  • In Germany, the language is spoken in Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, and the Upper Palatinate districts in Bavaria. It is also spoken in southern Vogtland, in Saxony;
  • In Austria, except Vorarlberg;
  • In Italy in South Tyrol and a handful of linguistic enclaves of Cimbrian and Carnic people in Northern Italy;
  • In Switzerland, it is spoken in the village of Samnaun, in Grisons;
  • In Sopron (Hungary) and surroundings.
• Outside of Europe:
  • In Treze Tílias, Brazil
  • In Pozuzo, Peru
  • In the United States and Canada (Hutterite German)

Three main dialects of Bavarian are:

• Northern Bavarian, mainly spoken in Upper Palatinate, but also in adjacent areas (small parts of Upper Franconia (Wunsiedel district and Bayreuth district), Saxony (southern Vogtland), Middle Franconia, Upper Bavaria and Lower Bavaria).
• Central Bavarian along the main rivers Isar and Danube, spoken in Upper Bavaria (including Munich, which has a standard German-speaking majority), Lower Bavaria, southern Upper Palatinate, the Swabian district of Aichach-Friedberg, the northern parts of the State of Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Vienna (see Viennese German) and the Northern Burgenland.
• Southern Bavarian in Samnaun, Tyrol, South Tyrol, Carinthia, Styria, and the southern parts of Salzburg and Burgenland.

Differences are clearly noticeable within those three subgroups, which in Austria often coincide with the borders of the particular states. For example, each of the accents of Carinthia, Styria, and Tyrol can be easily recognised. Also, there is a marked difference between eastern and western central Bavarian, roughly coinciding with the border between Austria and Bavaria. In addition, the Viennese dialect has some characteristics distinguishing it from all other dialects. In Vienna, minor, but recognizable, variations are characteristic for distinct districts of the city.

Before the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, the linguistic border of Bavarian with Czech was on the farther side of the Bohemian Forest and its Bohemian foreland was Bavarian-speaking.

Alternatively, there are four main dialects:

• North Bavarian
• Middle Bavarian
• South Middle Bavarian
• South Bavarian

Use

Bavarian has no official status in any country or territory. Bavarian differs sufficiently from Standard German to make it difficult for native speakers to adopt standard pronunciation. Educated Bavarians and Austrians can almost always read, write and understand Standard German, but they may have very little opportunity to speak it, especially in rural areas. In those regions, Standard German is restricted to use as the language of writing and the media. It is therefore often referred to as Schriftdeutsch ("written German") rather than the usual term Hochdeutsch ("High German" or "Standard German"). Given that Central German and Upper German together comprise the High German languages, out of which the then new, written standard was developed and as opposed to Low German, that is an alternative naming many High German dialect speakers regard justified.

School

Bavaria and Austria officially use Standard German as the primary medium of education. With the spread of universal education, the exposure of speakers of Bavarian to Standard German has been increasing, and many younger people, especially in the region's cities and larger towns, speak Standard German with only a slight accent. This accent usually only exists in families where Bavarian is spoken regularly. Families that do not use Bavarian at home usually use Standard German instead. In Austria, some parts of grammar and spelling are taught in Standard German lessons. As reading and writing in Bavarian is generally not taught at schools, almost all literate speakers of the language prefer to use Standard German for writing. Regional authors and literature may play a role in education as well, but by and large, Standard German is the lingua franca.

Literature

Although there exist grammars, vocabularies, and a translation of the Bible in Bavarian, there is no common orthographic standard. Poetry is written in various Bavarian dialects, and many pop songs use the language as well, especially ones belonging to the Austropop wave of the 1970s and 1980s.

Although Bavarian as a spoken language is in daily use in its region, Standard German, often with strong regional influence, is preferred in the mass media.

Ludwig Thoma was a noted German author who wrote works such as Lausbubengeschichten in Bavarian.

Web

There is a Bavarian Wikipedia. Also, the official FC Bayern Munich website was available in Bavarian.

Phonology

Consonants

Notes:

• Aspiration may occur among voiceless plosives in word-initial position.
• The phoneme is frequently realised as or word-internally and is realised as word-initially.
• Intervocalic can be voiced to , unless it is fortis (lengthened), such as in 'to be named', compared to 'to travel', where the sibilant is lenis.
• Realization of trill sounds varies by dialect. Some (especially those close to the Czech and Swiss border) realize it as a alveolar trill () or sometimes tap (). Others such as almost all southern Bavarian dialects realize either as a Uvular trill () or fricative ().
• Intervocalic can be realised as [] or [, ].
• Some dialects, such as the Bavarian dialect in South Tyrol, realise as an affricate word-initially and before , which is an extension of the High German consonant shift to velar consonants.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes in parentheses occur only in certain Bavarian dialects or only appear as allophones or in diphthongs. Nasalization may also be distinguished in some dialects.

Bavarian has an extensive vowel inventory, like most Germanic languages. Vowels can be grouped as back rounded, front unrounded and front rounded. They are also traditionally distinguished by length or tenseness.

Orthography

Grammar

• Northern and Central Bavarian usually have case inflection only for the article. With very few exceptions, nouns are not inflected for case.
• The simple past tense is very rare in Bavarian and has been retained for only a few verbs, including 'to be' and 'to want'. In general, the perfect is used to express past time.
• Bavarian features verbal inflection for several moods such as indicative, subjunctive, imperative and optative. See the table below for inflection of the Bavarian verb måcha, 'make; do':

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

• These are typically used in the very northern dialects of Bavarian.

Possessive pronouns

The possessive pronouns Deina and Seina inflect in the same manner. Oftentimes, -nige is added to the nominative to form the adjective form of the possessive pronoun, like mei(nige), dei(nige), and the like.

Indefinite pronouns

Just like the possessive pronouns listed above, the indefinite pronouns koana, "none", and oana, "one" are inflected the same way.

There is also the indefinite pronoun ebba(d), "someone" with its impersonal form ebb(a)s, "something". It is inflected in the following way:

Interrogative pronouns

The interrogative pronouns wea, "who", and wås, "what" are inflected the same way the indefinite pronoun ebba is inflected.

Society

Bavarians produce a variety of nicknames for those who bear traditional Bavarian or German names like Josef, Theresa or Georg (becoming Sepp'l or more commonly Sepp, Resi and Schorsch, respectively). Bavarians often refer to names with the family name coming first (like da Stoiber Ede instead of Edmund Stoiber). The use of the article is considered mandatory when using this linguistic variation. In addition, nicknames different from the family name exist for almost all families, especially in small villages. They consist largely of their profession, names or professions of deceased inhabitants of their homes or the site where their homes are located. This nickname is called Hausname (en: name of the house) and is seldom used to name the person, but more to state where they come from or live or to whom they are related. Examples of this are:

• Mohler (e.g. Maler – painter)
• Bachbauer (farmer who lives near a brook/creek)
• Moosrees (Theresa (Rees/Resi) who lives near a moss)
• Schreiner (joiner/carpenter)

Samples of Bavarian dialects

This table compares two Bavarian dialects with Yiddish and Standard German. The dialects can be seen to share a number of features with Yiddish.

References

References

1. Rowley, Anthony R.. (2023). "Boarisch – Boirisch – Bairisch: Eine Sprachgeschichte". Friedrich Pustet GmbH & Co. KG.
2. "Bavarian". Ethnologue.
3. {{harvnb. Zehetner. 1985
4. . ["Bairisch versus bayerisch"](https://bwb.badw.de/bairische-mundarten.html). *[[Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities]]*.
5. Anthony Rowley. (2010-04-26). "Bairische Dialekte". [[Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities]].
6. "bar {{!}} ISO 639-3".
7. {{harvtxt. Hinderling. 1984 quoted in {{harvtxt. Rowley. 2011
8. Hasenfratz, Hans-Peter. (2011). "Barbarian Rites: The Spiritual World of the Vikings and the Germanic Tribes". Simon and Schuster.
9. Kurt Gustav Goblirsch, ''Consonant Strength in Upper German Dialects'', John Benjamins Publishing Company 2012 as [https://benjamins.com/catalog/nss NOWELE Supplement Series] vol. 10 (originally Odense University Press 1994), p. 23 f.
10. (2021-10-11). "Home – FC Bayern München".
11. Weinrich, Uriel. (1979). "Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems". [[Mouton de Gruyter]], The Hague.