Today’s post is the third and last one about Upper German and we will learn how to speak Bavarian ☺ No, that would be an impossible task, but if you have never heard people speak Bavarian or would like to know more about Bayerisch, or Bayrisch, as it’s also often spelled, then stay here and watch … Read more
In our 8th blog post of German dialects and second part of Upper German we look at the Franconian language – Fränkisch. Wikipedia says:”Franconia (German: Franken, also called Frankenland) is a region in Germany, characterised by its culture and language, and may be roughly associated with the areas in which the East Franconian dialect group, locally … Read more
After having looked at three lower German and three middle German dialects, we come to the upper German dialects. And we start with Swabian, or Schwäbisch, as it’s called in German. Wikipedia says that ‘it is spoken in Swabia, which covers much of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, including its capital, Stuttgart. It is also … Read more
Berlinerisch, or Berliner Schnauze, as it’s also lovingly called, is our last post about the middle German dialects. As the name says, Berlinerisch is spoken in Berlin. Anybody learning German who is struggling with the pronunciation of the ‘ch’ in ‘ich’ will love the Berlin dialect, because they say ‘ick’. I can almost hear you sigh … Read more
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 … Read more
After having covered low German (see bottom of this post for those three) let’s look at middle German dialects. As before, there are too many variations to mention them all, so I have chosen three, starting with Pfälzisch, or Palantine German, as it’s called in English. According to Wikipedia “Palatine German or Pfälzisch is a West … Read more
In this third part of my German dialect series we look at one of the Eastern states in Germany. You may have thought that low German was only spoken in the northwest of Germany, but Niederdeutsch is spoken across the North from the West to to East, with lots of variations in between. So … Read more
EDIT: Sadly, this book is out of print now, but maybe you’ll find a second hand copy somewhere. When I started teaching German many years ago and I needed a good grammar explanation I always turned to Hyde Flippo’s pages, because I liked the way he explained things. I bought one of his first books … Read more
Last month I started telling you about the Hamburger and East Frisian dialects, this month it is another low German dialect, the Grafschafter Platt. This post is possibly more of interest to myself than you, because I spent most of my childhood in Schüttorf, which belongs to the Grafschaft Bentheim and where they speak the … Read more
One of the first thing you learn in your German lessons is that the English ‘you’ can be the formal ‘Sie’ (for singular and plural) and the informal ‘du’ (or ‘ihr’ for plural). You’ve learned to ask ‘Wie heißen Sie?’ if you need to ask somebody’s name formally or ‘Wie heißt du?’ if you ask … Read more
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