Low Alemannic German

Subdivisions

• Lake Constance Alemannic (de)
  • Northern Vorarlberg (de)
  • Allgäu dialect (de)
  • Baar dialect
  • Southern Württemberg
• Upper Rhenish Alemannic (de)
  • Basel German
  • Baden dialects north of Markgräflerland
  • Alsatian, spoken in Alsace, in some villages of the Phalsbourg county in Lorraine and by some Amish in Indiana
  • Low Alemannic dialects in the Black Forest
  • Colonia Tovar dialect, Venezuela

Features

The feature that distinguishes Low Alemannic from High Alemannic is the retention of Germanic /k/, for instance kalt 'cold' vs. High Alemannic chalt.

The feature that distinguishes Low Alemannic from Swabian is the retention of the Middle High German monophthongs, for instance Huus 'house' vs. Swabian Hous or Ziit 'time' vs. Swabian Zejt.

Phonology

Consonants

Voiced obstruents do not occur, as is typical for Upper German dialects.

¹/x/ is palatalized as [ç] after front vowels in the northern varieties (like in Standard German) but kept as [x] in southern varieties. Diverging from Standard German /x/ is not palatalized after /r/, a feature shared with other alemannic varieties.

²/r/ is most commonly pronounced as [ʁ].

³ /pʰ/ and /tʰ/ don't occur in autochthonous vocabulary but are used by speakers in differing frequency when using words from Standard German or speaking in more formal registers.

Vowels

Orthography

There exists no official orthography and authors use different kinds of orthographies for their work.

(All of the below is specific to the dialects spoken near Freiburg im Breisgau)

Vowels:

Consonants:

Are as in Standard German, with the following notes:

• kh is an aspirated
• ng is a velar nasal
• ngg is a velar nasal followed by a velar plosive
• ph is an aspirated
• th is an aspirated
• s is always voiceless [s] or [z̥]
• b, d and g are voiceless [b̥], [d̥] and [g̊].

Articles

Definite Article

Indefinite Article

Substantives

Plurals

• Class I: Plural = Singular (e.g. Ääber → Ääber)
• Class II: Plural = Singular + Umlaut (e.g. Baum → Baim; Vader → Väder)
• Class IIIa: Plural = Singular + -e (e.g. Man → Mane; Ags → Agse)
• Class IIIb: Plural = Singular + -̈e (e.g. Frosch → Fresche)
• Class IVa: Plural = Singular + -er (e.g. Lyyb → Lyyber; Schùg → Schùger)
• Class IVb: Plural = Singular + -̈er (e.g. Wald → Wälder; Blad → Bleder)
• Class V: No Plural (e.g. Chees; Zemänd)
• Class VI: No Singular (Plural Only) (e.g. Bilger; Fèèrine)

Diminutives

• Standard ending is -li (e.g. Aimer → Aimerli)
• If the word ends in -l, then the ending is -eli (e.g. Dääl → Dääleli)
• If the word ends in -el, then the ending is -i (e.g. Degel → Degeli)
• If the word ends in -e, remove the -e and add -li (e.g. Bèère → Bèèrli)
• The rules for this can be quite complex and depend on the region. Sometimes diminutives require umlaut, other times not.

Adjectives

Weak Declension

Strong Declension

Comparative

• Standard ending -er (e.g. fèin → fèiner)

Superlative

• Standard ending -(e)schd (e.g. fèin → fèinschd)

Irregular

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Verbs

1. Infinitive

Infinitive ends in -e

• Some monosyllabic verbs do not have this ending (e.g. chùù, döe, goo, gschää, haa, loo, nee, sää, schdoo, schlaa, syy, zie, etc.)

2. Participle

2.1 Prefix

• The prefix for g- or ge-
• Before b, d, g, bf, dsch, and z is merged into the word and not visible (e.g. broochd, glaubd, etc.) 2.2 Suffix
• Strong Verbs end in -e (e.g. gäse, glofe)
• Weak Verbs end in -d or -ed (e.g. bùzd, gchaufd)

2.3 Types

2.3.1 Infinitive and Present Sg y/èi/ai - Participle i

2.3.1.1 y i (e.g. abwyyse abgwiise)

2.3.1.2 èi i (e.g. verzèie verziie)

2.3.1.3 ai i (e.g. schaide gschiide)

2.3.2 Infinitive and Present Sg ie/u/au/èi/i - Participle o/öu/öe

2.3.2.1 ie o (e.g. biede bode)

2.3.2.2 u o (e.g. sufe gsofe)

2.3.2.3 au o (e.g. laufe glofe)

2.3.2.4 èi öu (e.g. rèie gröue)

2.3.2.5 ie öe (e.g. riefe gröefe)

2.3.2.5 i o (e.g. wiige gwooge)

2.3.3 Infinitive and Present Sg i - Participle ù

2.3.3.1 i u (e.g. binde bùnde)

2.3.4 Infinitive ä/e - Present i - Participle o/u

2.3.4.1 ä - i - o (e.g. bräche broche)

2.3.4.2 ä - i - u (e.g. hälfe ghùlfe)

2.3.4.3 e/è - i - o (e.g. verdèèrbe verdoorbe)

2.3.4.4 e - i - ù (e.g. schmelze gschmùlze)

2.3.5 Infinitive ä/i - Present i - Participle ä

2.3.5.1 ä - i - ä (e.g. äse gäse)

2.3.5.2 i - i - ä (e.g. bide bäde)

2.3.6 Infinitive Vowel is the same as the Participle

2.3.5.1 (e.g. bache bache; fale gfale)

3. Conjugation

3.1 Present Tense 3.1.1 Regular Verb

Numbers

References

References

1. [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=swg Ethnologue entry: Swabian ''(swg)'']
2. Noble, Cecil A. M. (1983). ''Modern German dialects'' New York [u.a.], Lang, p. 67/68