Today we move to the East of Germany, to Saxony, where the dialect is Sächsisch. According to Wikipedia “The Free State of Saxony (German: der Freistaat Sachsen) is a landlocked federal state of Germany, bordering the federal states of Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig.”
The sächsisch dialect has one important rule:
“De Weeschn besieschn de Hardn.” Translated: the soft (consonants) beat the hard (consonants).
The German ‘ch’ and ‘ig’ are usually pronounced like a ‘sch’, a ‘t’ sounds like a ‘d’ and a ‘k’ like a ‘g’.
If you’d like to hear and/ or learn some sächsisch, I found a ‘beginners course’ for you on YouTube:
I also found two dictionaries: sachsenwelt.de and Sächsisch-Wörterbuch where you can explore some Saxon words or phrases.
And just for fun, here is a video of an English song, sung in English but with a Sächsisch accent ☺
Some people might say: Nee du, dis iss nisch waa! (*1) and I will reply: Ja, des iss waa! (*2)
Did you miss my other dialect posts?
German dialects – Hamburgerisch and Ostfriesisch
German dialects – das Grafschafter Platt
German dialects – Mecklenburgisch
Translation:
*1 No, that’s wrong.
*2 Yes, it’s true.
Bis bälde! See you soon!
You might like to point out to your students that while the ability to *understand* Sachsen will undoubtedly be very useful if they spend any time in Germany -Saxons being, since the Wall fell, the new “Gastarbeiter”s(migrant workers) of the BRD- speaking it on the other hand is considered , by ‘Wessies’ at least, to be a sign of idiocy at best and neo-nazi inbreeding at worst.
I would rather speak with an Ostfriesan (traditionally the ‘irish’ of German jokes) accent than sachsen…yes it does sound *that* stupid to German ears. It sounds as horribly uneducated to german ‘Ohren’ as Norfolk, Geordie or Scouse do to English ears.
As a foreigner or non-local I wouldn’t attempt to speak any accent, whether German or English. It’s the understanding that is or might be more important. Usually accents happen on their own after years of living in a place. Although I don’t think that I now have a Wiltshire accent, I’m sure if I go ‘up north’ they can tell I’m from ‘down south’ ☺
Another one of my ‘whilst out walking with The Bestest Frau In The Whole Wide World’ occurrences: Talking in German with her a few minutes ago I said “…das Maedchen , mit seiner Mutter (‘the girl with its/his mother)” . My wife corrected me ,saying it should be ‘ihrer Mutter'(‘her mother’) and then realised that ‘seiner’ was infact correct.
I mention this because when we were in the ‘Heimat’ in June , i noticed a lot of Germans using the ‘wrong’ possessive pronoun for ‘das’ nouns , ie giving a girl the ‘ihr’ not ‘sein’ etc. Infact my wife tells me that ‘mit seiner Mutter’ when talking about a girl just sounds wrong to modern Germans.
Of course students would be well advised to stick to the rules but don’t need perhaps to worry about getting it wrong. If they call a girl ‘she’ not ‘it’ then it will not raise eyebrows.
I’ve noticed that, too, but only when people chat. Newsreaders, newspapers, magazines books etc… still use the proper ‘das’ (at least as far as I have seen/ heard it). I once reacted just like your wife (who may have to fight me for the title of Bestes Frau in the Whole Wide World ☺) when hearing das Mädchen und sein …
I guess it’s a case of ‘watch this space’!
“Newsreaders”
Who haven’t spoken proper German for a long time now- and we’re back again to my favourite rant of ‘Why do Newsreaders insist on Fremdwörterei-ing ?!?!’ …and since when have athletes competing in the Olympics been called ” Olympioniken” in German, I don’t recall that word from the last Olympics…not that I follow sport at all (Sport ist Mord) but the sight of Newsreaders fumbling the word was amusing.
By the bye :RIP Walter Scheel 🙁
Olympioniken – it has been used in 2012 (and before I guess).
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympionike
https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/london-2012-deutsche-olympia-bekleidung-vorgestellt-a-829479.html