Rhenish language

The term Rhenish language is used very inconsistently:

instead of the more correct Rhenish pronunciation . This is a form of pronunciation of High German , also called Rhenish speech or Rhenish singsang .
Well-known speakers were politicians like Joseph Goebbels (from Rheydt near Mönchengladbach ) or Konrad Adenauer (born in Cologne, later lived in Rhöndorf near Bonn ), who often spoke pure High German in an intonation colored by their respective local dialect . Adenauer's way of speaking was given the designation " Familienkölsch " - somewhat misleading for non-Rhinelanders . "
Well-known active politicians with Rhenish pronunciation include Ulla Schmidt (from Würselen in the vicinity of Aachen ) and Jürgen Rüttgers (from Pulheim near Cologne ).
for a Regiolekt . The so-called Rhenish Regiolect , which is the only Rhenish language to be a pure dialect of standard German, must be regarded as the "improper Rhenish" language . Because it has a lot of local and regional differences and inconsistencies, is subject to strong, often rapid changes and is so difficult to differentiate, it is or was often dismissed as "just" colloquial language and treated rather disparagingly .

See also: Join-in dictionary of the Rhenish colloquial language

as a generic term for the local languages of the following groups , arranged from south to north:

the Middle Franconian dialect group, which includes the Ripuarian - (west of Siegen, widely around Cologne , including Aachen and the surrounding area) and the Mosel-Franconian group - (from the Moselle to around Siegen).
the South Lower Franconian Group - runs in a crescent shape from Heinsberg (north of Aachen ) via Krefeld-Uerdingen and the northern part of the Neuss and Remscheid districts to near Wuppertal . Since South Lower Franconian continues in the west in Limburg in the Netherlands and neighboring Belgium , the languages in the German part of the dialect area were also referred to as East Limburg . Today this term is rather restricted to a narrow border area in the province of Limburg and in the neighboring German area to Krefeld and Viersen . For the southern Lower Franconian dialects between the Rhine and Wuppertal there is also the designation " (West-) or (Lower-) Bergisch ".
the North-Lower Franconian group with the Kleverland and the Ostbergische , (around Kleve and Venlo to Wesel and Duisburg , Mülheim an der Ruhr , parts of Oberhausen , Essen-Werden , Langenberg in the Rhineland , Wuppertal to Wenden )

The Rhenish fan is the collection of isoglosses that describe the linguistic boundaries between the Rhenish languages and the surrounding language areas. Its northernmost, the unit plural line , is considered to be the border to the Westphalian dialects to the north and east, while the Uerdinger line runs straight through the Rhenish-speaking area, as does the Benrath line . Here it limits the Lower Franconian- speaking area to the south.

literature

Georg Cornelissen , Peter Honnen , Fritz Langensiepen (eds.): Das Rheinische Platt. An inventory . Handbook of the Rhenish Dialects Part 1: Texts. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne. 1989. ISBN 3-7927-0689-X
Jürgen Macha / Elmar Neuss / Robert Peters (eds.): Rhenish-Westphalian language history . Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2000.
Jürgen Macha: Rhenish language relations in the 17th century . In: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter 57, 1993, 1582175.
Klaus J. Mattheier : Is there a regional linguistic history in the Rhineland. In: Werner Besch , Hans Joachim Solms (Ed.): Regional language history . Berlin 1998, 1442151. (ZdPh. 117, special issue).
Rudolf Schützeichel : The Basics of Western Central German. Studies on historical linguistic geography . 2nd edition. Tübingen 1976. (Hermaea 10).
Rudolf Schützeichel: Dialect, document language and written language. A contribution to the history of the Rhenish language . 2nd edition Bonn 1974. (Rheinisches Archiv 54).