Liechtenstein dialects
Liechtenstein dialect (in the dialect Liachtaschtaner, etc.) is a collective term for the Alemannic dialects spoken in the Principality of Liechtenstein . Their affiliation to the Alemannic partial dialects is, apart from the highest Alemannic Walser German on the Triesenberg, not clear. Due to their vowelism, the Lower and Upper Lands are most likely to be characterized as Middle Alemannic - High Alemannic transitional dialects.
The dialect examples are reproduced below in the Dieth spelling .
Historical background
The area of today's Principality of Liechtenstein was Romanized during Roman times . In the 13th century, Romansh was gradually replaced by an Alemannic dialect from Feldkirch . It is assumed that the German-Romance language border was around 1300 south of Balzers. At the same time, Walser settled in Triesenberg and they have kept their old Walser dialect to this day, even if the dialects have converged over time. The Romanesque substrate is still clearly recognizable in the entire area, especially in the names of places and fields.
In the later Middle Ages , the rule of Schellenberg was formed in the northern Unterland and the county of Vaduz in the southern Oberland . The boundary of the two historical territories roughly corresponds to the current dialect boundary between the Lower and Upper Country.
structure
The dialects of the Principality of Liechtenstein can be divided into three dialects, which is already evident in the country name itself:
- the lowland in the north of the Füarschtatum Liachtaschtoo with the communities Ruggell (Ruggäll), Schellenberg (Schellabärg), Gamprin (Gamprii), Eschen (Escha), Mauren (Mura)
- the Oberland in the south of the Förschtatum Liachtaschtaa with the communities Planken (Planka), Schaan (Schaa), Vaduz (Vadoz), Triesen (Tresa) and Balzers (Baltsers)
- the Walser German in the southeast of the Fürschtatum Liachtaschtei in the municipality of Triesenberg (Trisabäärg)
The most noticeable feature between Lower and Upper German is the representation of Middle High German / ei /, which is implemented as a long / oo / in Lower Country, but as a long / ää / in Upper Country. In between is a small area where, except for z. T. disappeared nasal, / aa / appears. In Walserian in Triesenberg, the diphthong is preserved as / ei /.
In Oberland, the Middle High German diphthongs / ie, üö, uo / as / ie, üe, ue / are consistently preserved, while in Unterland they are monophthongized before nasal to long / ee, öö, òò / with a nasal sound. In contrast to this, short / i, ü, u / before / r / were diphthongized in Lowerland to / ier, üer, uer /, in Upperland they were lowered to / er, ör, or /; in Walser German they have been preserved as / ir, ür, ur /. While open syllables are consistently stretched in Unterland, this is only partially done in Oberland.
The Walser German of Triesenberg shows typical Walser peculiarities with many conservative features. The conservatisms already mentioned are joined by the preservation of mhd. / Â / as long / aa / (otherwise / òò /) and mhd. / Ou / as / òu / (otherwise / oo /), the preserved high tongue vowels in hiat and Final as in frii, buue, nüü «frei, build, neu» as well as many peculiarities in the inflection, especially in the adjective and the verb . Noticeable is z. B. the two-form verb plural / -en, -ed, -en /, while the Unterland and Oberland use the single-form plural / -en, -en, -en /. Innovations in Walser German, which also appear in the Triesenberg dialect, are palatalization of / s / in words such as Iisch «Eis», schi « sie », böösch «böse» or Müüsch «Mäuse» or the scion vowel in final / re / for / -rn / and / -rm /.
| Mhd. | Unterland | Oberland | Triesenberg | German |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| egg | stone | |||
| egg | Òòcha, | Oak | ||
| ou | leaves | |||
| ie | belt | |||
| uo | flower | |||
| iu | deep | |||
| â | Eve | |||
| i | Meadow | |||
| ir | pear | |||
| ur | tower | |||
| or | grain | |||
| rn | horn | |||
| k- | cheese | |||
| s | ice | |||
| nd | dog | |||
| - | ant | |||
| - | Wèschpl | Wèschkì | Laundry | wasp |
See also
literature
- Roman Banzer: The dialect of the Principality of Liechtenstein. Use of forms of language, sound change and sound variation. In: Yearbook of the Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein 95, 1998, pp. 142–247. At the same time dissertation at the University of Friborg / Switzerland, 1994 ( digitized version ).
- Roman Banzer: Pragmatics and Interferences of the Dialects of the Principality of Liechtenstein, the St. Gallen Rhine Valley and Vorarlberg. In: Ludger Kremer, Hermann Niebaum (Hrsg.): Grenzdialekte (= German linguistics. 101-103). Olms, Hildesheim 1990, ISBN 978-3-487-09474-8 , pp. 341-359.
- Roman Banzer: Wia ma bi üüs red: A collection of sounds from Liechtenstein local vernaculars. Self-published, Triesen 1998.
- Alexander Frick: The dialects of Liechtenstein. Edited by Eugen Gabriel . Liechtenstein Dialect Foundation, Vaduz 1990.
- Arthur Gassner, Annie Hilbe: The Walser dialect in Triesenberg. Schaan 2009 [extended edition by Arthur Gassner: Der Walserdialekt in Triesenberg. cit. 1980].
- Society Switzerland-Liechtenstein (ed.): The linguistic landscape of the Rhine Valley. Zollikofer, St. Gallen 1981 (Series No. 4). In this:
- Hans Stricker: On the linguistic history of the Rhine Valley, especially Werdenberg and Liechtenstein (p. 7–58).
- Eugen Gabriel: The Liechtenstein dialect in the context of its neighboring dialects (pp. 59–95).
- Philipp Albert Schaedler: Something about the dialect of the valley communities of Liechtenstein. In: Yearbook of the Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein 15, 1915, pp. 5-74.
Dictionaries
- Leo Jutz : The dialect of South Vorarlberg and Liechtenstein. Heidelberg 1925 (Germanic Library. Collection 1st row 1st vol. 15).
- Leo Jutz: Vorarlberg dictionary including the Principality of Liechtenstein. 2 volumes. Vienna 1955–65 (Volume 2 from the estate, edited by E. Gabriel and E. Kranzmayer ).
- Hans Stricker, Herbert Hilbe: The composer as a lexicographer. Joseph Rheinberger's unpublished dictionary of the Liechtenstein dialect from 1896. In: Yearbook of the Historical Association for the Principality of Liechtenstein 88, 1990, pp. 136–169.
Place names
- Hans Stricker et al .: Liechtenstein name book. The place and field names of the Principality of Liechtenstein, Volume 5: Lexicon . Vaduz 1999. ISBN 3-906393-25-9 .
- Hans Stricker et al .: Liechtenstein name book. The place and field names of the Principality of Liechtenstein, Volume 6: Introduction, Sources, Register. Vaduz 1999 (especially pages 65-86). ISBN 3-906393-25-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Peter Wiesinger: The division of the German dialects. In: Werner Besch u. a. (Ed.): Dialectology. A handbook on German and general dialect research, Berlin 1983, esp. Pp. 832–836 as well as maps 47.4 and 47.5