Bern German

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bern German

Spoken in

Switzerland ( Canton Bern )
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in -
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

gsw (Swiss German)

ISO 639-3

gsw (Swiss German)

Berndeutsch (own name Bärndütsch ) are the Swiss German dialects that are spoken in the Bernese Mittelland and some neighboring regions. They are part of the High Alemannic .

distribution

There is no uniform, clearly delimited Bern German language area. The dialects spoken in the German-speaking part of the canton of Bern are usually called Berndeutsch , but the actual dialect boundaries are only partially along the cantonal borders. In the north-east of the canton of Freiburg (lake district) and in the south of the canton of Solothurn (Bucheggberg), Bern German is also spoken, and in the south-west of the canton Aargau and in the south-west of the canton of Lucerne (Entlebuch) there are dialects that are very similar to Bern-German. In the valleys of the Bernese Oberland , on the other hand, they speak the highest Alemannic Bernese Oberland , which differs significantly from the Bern German of the Mittelland. In the otherwise French-speaking Bernese Jura , Berndeutsch is spoken by the Anabaptists who settle on various mountain ranges such as the Sonnenberg ; Biel , at the southern foot of the Jura, is a city that speaks both Bernese and French. Bern German is also spoken by 6,000 Amish in a language island in the American state of Indiana in Adams County .

Internal structure

There are numerous dialect variants in the area of ​​the canton of Bern, but their characteristics and numbers are on the decline.

City of Bern

Within the city of Bern there were still a number of sociolects in the middle of the 20th century who can only be heard to a very limited extent today: The patricians spoke the archaic patrician Bern German, which is closer to standard German, which is characterized by the lack of l-vocalization (for example Milch [ mɪlɣ̊ ], not Miuch [ mɪu̯ɣ̊ ] ‹ milch ›, donkey [ ɛz̥əɫ ], not Esu [ ɛz̥u ] ‹Esel›), missing nd-velarization (for example different [anːdərs] , not angers [aŋːərs] ‹anders›) - for both see below, pronunciation - as well as keeping the ending-ending (for example Zytung [ t͡sitːʊŋ ], not Zytig [ t͡sitːɪg ] ‹Zeitung›) and the Rachen -r as in French. The long-established Bernese middle and upper classes spoke the upscale city Bern German, which differed from that of the lower middle and lower classes; the lower class in the Matte district spoke some of the so-called Matten English ; those who had immigrated from the surrounding area spoke country dialects.

The modern urban dialect is largely based on the country dialects, but also has some words from Matten English, and there are also many new loan words, primarily from standard German and English. The urban dialect, for its part, radiates back to the countryside, which in the catchment area of ​​the Bern agglomeration is increasingly leveling the dialect differences.

City of Biel

Today, the dialect of most of the German-speaking residents of Biel corresponds to that of northern Bern German. The traditional Stadtmundart, however, like the traditional Stadtberner dialect, has neither l-vocalization nor nd-velarization (see above). An additional peculiarity of the Biel city dialect is or was the greater proximity to the north-west Swiss German, since the city had belonged to the Prince Diocese of Basel until 1798 . For example, until at least the 20th century, conservative speakers kept old Upper German / iu / before Labial and Velar, Northwest Swiss German / iə / , for example in dieff ‹tief›, for which North Bernese / øy / (töüff) knows. Even into the 19th century as misshapen in Basel, Biel, so it was said / e / , / ⁠ e ⁠ / , / ei / , / i / , / ⁠ i ⁠ / , / iə / for normal Bernese German / o / , / ⁠ ø ⁠ / , / øy / , / y / , / ⁠ y ⁠ / , / yə / , such as mosques, nei, dytsch, grien <beautiful, new, German, green> ( normal Bernisch beautiful, nöi, dütsch / tütsch, green ).

Northern Bern German

The most noticeable variant that is still pronounced today is the a / o difference. In the northern part of the canton, d. H. in the Seeland , in Oberaargau and in parts of the lower Emmental , in Middle High German long / aː / is dulled to / ɔː / ( ja / jo, year / Johr ). However, the o area is on the decline.

Southern Bern German

On and on the Alpine region back originally spread throughout the Bernese Midlands loss differs from / ⁠ n ⁠ / before next / ⁠ x ⁠ / (ch) and / k /, for example treiche / treiɣ̊ə / <drink>, däiche / d̥æi̯ɣ̊ə / “think” as well as the still common sheikhs / ʒ̊ei̯ɣ̊ə / “leg” ( etymologically related to ham ).

Typical for the area south of Bern is the monophthongization of / ei zu øy̆ ou̯ / to / ɪː ʏː ʊː / . Examples are Gììss / ɡ̊ɪːsː / instead of Geiss / ɡ̊eisː / ‹Geiss›, zwǜǜ / t͡sʋʏː / instead of zwöi / t͡sʋøy / ‹zwei› and glùùbe / ɡ̊lʊːb̥ə / instead of gloube / ɡ̊loub̥ə / ‹believe›. However, this variant is also on the decline; While at the beginning of the 20th century it was still widespread in large parts of the central and southern Central Plateau (excluding the city of Bern), today it is almost only found in rural areas of the foothills of the Alps and the Oberland.

Bernese Oberland

In the Bernese Oberland you will find a greater variety of dialects than in the Central Plateau. The Oberland dialects, which in dialectological terms also include those of the former district of Schwarzenburg , belong to the Höchst Alemannic ; recognizable, among other things, by the vocal system, which has preserved the Middle High German monophthongs in the hiatus (schneie / schnye, boue / buue). The l-vocalization ( Milch / Miuch ) and the nd-velarization ( dog / hung ), which are typical for Bern German, are also missing in the Oberland . Often only the dialects of the Central Plateau are called Bern German, while the Oberland dialects are called Bernese Oberland and Brienzer / Haslital dialect.

Pronunciation (phonology)

One feature that distinguishes Bern German from most High Alemannic dialects is the very widespread shortening of the historically long and consequently closed high tongue vowels, not just - as in other High Alemannic dialects - limited to the position in front of / t /.

Bern German vowel abbreviation
Bern German Other Alemannic dialects Standard German
wit / ʋit / wiit / ʋiːt / far
schrybe / ʒ̊rib̥ə / write / ʒ̊riːb̥ə / write
suge / z̥uɡ̊ə / suuge / z̥uːɡ̊ə / suck
Hüser / hyz̥ər / Hüüser / hyːz̥ər / Houses
Zile / tsilə / Ziile / tsiːlə / row

As in other high Alemannic dialects, in most of the Bernese language area - with the exception of Oberaargau - there was no vowel expansion in open tone syllables. Similar to Middle High German, but in contrast to Standard German, words such as Lade ‹Laden›, läse ‹lesen› are pronounced with a short vowel as / ˈlad̥ə / , / læz̥ə / .

The following two features are considered to be particularly typical of Bern German, although they do not apply in traditional patrician Bern German on the one hand and in the Bernese Oberland on the other:

  • l-vocalization : / ⁠ l ⁠ / before a consonant or at the end of the syllable as [u (w)] expressed, for example Miuch [ mɪu̯ɣ̊ ] <Milk>, Faue / Fauue / Fauwe [ v̥au̯wə ] <case> Esu [ ɛz̥u ] ‹Esel›;
  • nd-Velarization : / nd̥ / is mostly pronounced [ ŋ (ː) ], for example angers [aŋːərz̥] ‹anders›, Ching [ɣ̊ɪŋː] ‹kind›. In certain words the nd-velarization is omitted, for example in Fründ [v̥rʏnd̥] ‹Freund›.

Bern German differs from the dialects of northern and (more) eastern German-speaking Switzerland such as Zurich German in the pronunciation of the diphthongs , which go back to Middle High German EI and OU. They are pronounced as [ei̯] and [ou̯] , and not as [æɪ̯] and [æʊ̯] , for example meat / flei̯ʒ̊ / ' meat' or Frou / frou̯ / ' woman'. In Bern German, unlike in most other German dialects, the Middle High German diphthongs coincide with the diphthongization products of mhd. Ī, Ū and ǖ in hiat and end, cf. - based on mhd. Ein frîez bein - Bern German es freis Bei / əz̥ v̥rei̯z̥ b̥ei̯ / opposite Zurich German e freis Bäi / ə v̥rei̯z̥ b̥æi̯ / .

Vocabulary

Many Bern German-specific words have been lost in the last few decades; This is one of the reasons why the Bern German vocabulary today largely corresponds to the general Swiss German vocabulary . However, there are peculiarities, for example common / geng / went / ɡ̊æŋː, ɡ̊ɛŋː, ɡ̊ɪŋː / ‹always›, shaft / ʒ̊aft / ‹Schrank› (in most other Swiss dialects Chaschte / ɣ̊aʃtə / ), or Mütschli / mʏt͡ʃli / ‹ rolls ›Instead of bread rolls , for example .

The words äuwä / äuä / æu̯wæː / ‹allweg /wohl› and the originally Matt English words ieu / iu / i (ə̯) u̯ / ‹ja›, Gieu / ɡ̊iə̯u̯ / ‹Knabe› and Modi / mɔd̥i / ‹Mädchen are considered to be Bernese shibboleths ›. In some cases, strong influences from French can also be identified, and of course there are now also numerous English loans.

grammar

The Bern German grammar differs from standard German in many areas, but is largely identical to the grammar of other Alemannic dialects .

Sentence structure (syntax)

Verb sequences deviate more often from the standard language than in dialects of more eastern German-speaking Switzerland:

  • Bern German: Wiu i's ha bhouptet
  • Zurich German: If I want to, ha
  • Standard Language: Because I said so

As in other Alemannic dialects, relative clauses are formed with the relative particle wo : Ds Ross, wo mer hei gfueret ‹The horse we fed›.

Diffraction (morphology)

Typically Bern German (and Southwestern Swiss German) is the plural ending -e also in the (monosyllabic) strong masculine, where most other high Alemannic dialects have zero ending:

  • Bern German: e Wääg, e table, e Stei, plural two weighs, two tables, two stones
  • Zurich German: en Wääg, en table, en Stäi, plural two Wääg, two table, two Stäi
  • Standard German: one way, one table, one stone, plural two ways, two tables, two stones

However, this -e has recently tended to spread to the rest of German-speaking Switzerland.

It is typical of Bern German that the weak neuter of the adjective ends in -e in the nominative and accusative , here too, most of the other high Alemannic dialects have at least the conventional zero ending:

  • Bern German: ds groosse Ching
  • Zurich German: s grooss Chind
  • Standard German: the big child

However, this -e has recently spread to the rest of German-speaking Switzerland.

As in the other dialects west of the Brünig-Napf-Reuss line (and in Standard German), the verb conjugation in Bern German does not have a unit plural, but distinguishes between two different forms:

  • Bern German: me / si hot - you are
  • Zurich German: me / her / si hand
  • Standard German: we / they have - you have

The marking of the grammatical gender on the number words - which is also otherwise known in Swiss German - two and three is relatively common:

  • zwe man <two men>
  • zwo Froue ‹two women›
  • zwöi Ching ‹two children›
  • three man <three men>
  • three Froue ‹three women›
  • drü Ching ‹three children›

Like other Upper German dialects , Bern German does not have a past tense . The high German we watched corresponds to the perfect form, me Hei gluegt . The double perfect is used to express the past:

  • Bern German: Won i bi inecho, hot si scho ggaß gha .
  • Standard German: When I came in, they had already eaten .

It is not customary to use the auxiliary verb to designate a future event . Instead, if necessary, temporal particles are used: I gseh's de ‹we will see it then / we will see›.

Speaking behavior (pragmatics)

One noticeable feature concerns the politeness form : in Bern German, as in other western and some eastern dialects of German-speaking Switzerland, the politeness form is not formed with the third person plural Sie , as in standard German , but as in French with the second person plural Dihr / d̥ɪːr / ‹Ihr› . The question what do you want to drink? in Bern German means what else to drink? (literally: what do you want to drink? ), the polite greeting is Grüessech / ɡ̊ryə̯sːəɣ̊ / (literally: [God] greet you; for the distribution and use of this greeting, see Grüezi ).

spelling, orthography

Bern German is mainly a spoken language, even if there is a comparatively extensive Bern German literature. There is no uniform spelling in Bern German, but two main directions, an older and a younger, can be distinguished:

  • The older spelling tries to adapt to the standard German typeface as much as possible. This approach, as represented by Werner Marti in his book Bärndütschi Schrybwys , is chosen by most Bernese dialect writers such as Rudolf von Tavel , Simon Gfeller , Otto von Greyerz , Carl Albert Loosli and Kurt Marti and is also common in the more recent Bernese dialect literature.
  • The newer spelling, on the other hand, tries to reproduce phonetic sounds as accurately as possible, regardless of the usual typeface. This  orthography, known as Dieth script - after Eugen Dieth , the author of the book Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift published in 1938 - is less popular in Bern than in other parts of German-speaking Switzerland.

Like all dialects in German-speaking Switzerland, Bern German is currently gaining ground as a written language in areas where a “quasi-oral” language is used, i.e. H. in SMS , chat , nursery rhymes and personal letters and emails . It is mostly written "according to feeling" and more or less phonetically. This means that the spellings cannot be classified into the two approaches mentioned above, which may be due to the fact that the young writers have hardly any knowledge of the dialect literature and, on the other hand, because they do not want to or cannot adhere to established rules. This can lead to conventions that cannot be found in traditional dialect spelling , for example the rendering of the Schwa through ‹ä› as in ‹ä Taschälampä› or ‹machä›. The function of this ‹ä› could be to mark the text as dialect text.

literature

  • Heinrich Baumgartner : The dialects of the Bernese Seeland. Huber, Frauenfeld 1922 (contributions to Swiss German grammar XIV).
  • Heinrich Baumgartner: City dialect. Urban and rural dialect. Contributions to Bernese dialect geography. Lang, Bern 1940 (Writings of the Literary Society Bern. New series of the New Year's Papers. III).
  • Walter Bieri: Läbigs Bärndütsch. A collection of beard-German words and speeches. Haupt, Bern 1958.
  • Otto von Greyerz , Ruth Bietenhard : Bern German dictionary for today's dialect between Burgdorf, Lyss and Thun . Bern 1976; 9th edition, ibid. 2008, ISBN 3-305-00255-7
  • Werner Hodler : Contributions to word formation and word meaning in Bern German. Francke, Bern 1915; Reprinted by Kraus, Nendeln / Liechtenstein 1970.
  • Werner Hodler: Bern German Syntax. Francke, Bern 1969.
  • Rudolf Hotzenköcherle : The language landscape of Bern. In: Rudolf Hotzenköcherle: The language landscapes of German-speaking Switzerland. Edited by Niklaus Bigler and Robert Schläpfer with the assistance of Rolf Börlin. Aarau / Frankfurt a. M./Salzburg 1984 (Sprachlandschaft 1 series), pp. 193–225.
  • Rudolf Hotzenköcherle u. a .: Linguistic Atlas of German-speaking Switzerland. Volumes I – VIII Francke, Bern and Basel 1962–1997.
  • Rudolf E. Keller : Schwyzertütsch: Bärndütsch. In: German Dialects. Phonology & Morphology, with selected texts. Manchester 1961, pp. 87-115.
  • Werner Marti : Bärndütschi Schrybwys. A guide to writing down in the Bernese German language. Francke, Bern 1985, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-305-00074-0
  • Werner Marti: Bern German grammar for today's dialect between Thun and Jura. Francke, Bern 1985, ISBN 3-305-00073-2 .
  • Roland Ris : Bibliography of the Bern German dialect literature. Independently published, purely or mostly Bern-German publications from the beginning up to and including the year of publication 1987. Emmentaler Druck, Langnau 1989, ISBN 3-85654-901-3 .
  • Beat Siebenhaar , Fredy Stäheli: Stadtberndeutsch. Speech portraits from the city of Bern. Licorne, Murten 2000 (Swiss dialects in text and sound 5.1), pp. 7–32.
  • Beat Siebenhaar: Linguistic varieties in the city of Bern and what the speakers think of them. In: German Studies in Switzerland. Online journal of the Swiss Academic Society for German Studies , 1/2002, pp. 5–17; uni-leipzig.de (PDF).
  • Beat Siebenhaar: Language change and language geography - the influence of the city of Bern on the region. In: Thomas Krefeld (Hrsg.): Languages ​​and speaking in urban areas. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 2008 (Spazi comunicativi - communicative spaces 2), pp. 173–195; uni-leipzig.de (PDF).
  • Samuel Singer (Ed.): Contributions to the knowledge of the Bern German verb. In: Zeitschrift für Hochdeutsche Mundarten 2 (1901), pp. 13-25 [ Goldbach im Emmenthal and the city ​​of Bern and the surrounding area, by H. Haldimann, F. Balsiger and H. Wäber]; ibid. pp. 226–36 [ St. Stephan im Simmenthal, by H. Zahler]; 6 (1905), pp. 65-83 [ Herzogenbuchsee in Oberaargau, by Friedrich Born].
  • Paul Zinsli : Bern German dialect. On the spatial structure of Bern German. In: Bern State Book. Authorities, history, culture and economics of the Canton of Bern and its 30 administrative districts. 2nd, expanded edition. Berner Tagblatt, Bern 1957, pp. 93–114.

Web links

Wikipedia on Bern German and other Alemannic dialects

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For details of the variants of the Biel city dialect, see Heinrich Baumgartner: Die Mundarten des Berner Seelandes. Huber, Frauenfeld 1922 (Contributions to the Swiss German Grammar XIV), according to which at the beginning of the 20th century, in addition to the burgers, the older and middle generation generally spoke a city dialect that stood out from the rural surroundings (pp. 169–179). Baumgartner presents the dialect in the 19th century on pp. 66–68; after that, the last Bieler who rounded off died in the 1880s; in Bözingen the rounding was maintained until “a few years ago” and in Lüscherz until the 1860s, and in Ligerz , Twann and Tüscherz-Alfermée even around 1920 speakers could be found among the middle generation, who rounded off the younger generation would also have needed the older rounded vowels. Adam Friedrich Molz wrote texts in the Biel dialect of the time: Two Bielergedicht and three hochdytsch Liggebießer (Bern 1843, 4th edition under the title Bieldytschi Gedicht mit hochdytsche Liggebießer, Biel 1943) and Es scheen, ney Lied vo d'r Heerlichkeit, Abnahme and the sad end of the ancient, well-known Free State of Biel (Bern 1854); see also the Biel version of the parable of the prodigal son, which Franz Joseph Stalder printed in 1819 in his book Die Landessprachen der Schweiz .
  2. ↑ a b Cf. Christoph Landolt : Dialectal Morphology and Morphonology in Transition - Example Zurich German . (PDF; 449 kB) In: Helen Christen, Sibylle Germann, Walter Haas, Nadia Montefiori, Hans Ruef (eds.): Alemannic dialectology: ways into the future. Contributions to the 16th conference for Alemannic dialectology in Freiburg / Friborg from September 7th to 10th, 2008. Stuttgart 2010, pp. 97-113 (ZDL supplement 141).
  3. ↑ Cf. Chapter “6 Ending Vowel in Infinitive” in: Beat Siebenhaar : Linguistic and geographical aspects of morphology and writing in Swiss-German chats . In: Linguistics online . tape 15 , no. 3 , 2003, doi : 10.13092 / lo.15.818 ( bop.unibe.ch [accessed on April 13, 2020]).