Transylvanian-Saxon

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Transylvanian-Saxon

Spoken in

Transylvania ( Romania ), Germany , Austria
speaker approx. 200,000
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in -
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

gem (other Germanic languages)

Former area of ​​distribution of Saxon in southern and northern Transylvania. Danube Swabian was spoken in the west and north-west of Romania ( Banat , Sathmar )
Our Father in Transylvanian-Saxon (1666)

Transylvanian Saxon dialect (proper name: Siweberjesch Såksesch or simply Såksesch, Romanian : săseşte, Hungarian : Erdélyi Szasz Landlerisch : Soksisch ) is the language of the Saxons . Transylvanian-Saxon is spoken by around 200,000 speakers in Germany, Austria and the original region of origin Transylvania in what is now Romania .

definition

Transylvanian-Saxon is a predominantly Moselle-Franconian based relict dialect. It is one of the oldest surviving German settler languages, which emerged from the 12th century as a compensatory dialect of various dialects and has preserved many medieval forms and idioms, with West Central German elements clearly predominating. The closest related dialects are Riparian and Luxembourgish .

The contact with Hungarians ( Szeklern ) and Romanians mediated influences from these languages ​​for centuries. From the 16th century onwards, however, the Reformation and the language of the Luther Bible had a stronger influence , making New High German the written language of the Transylvanian Saxons. In the spoken language, i.e. in the private sphere, the Transylvanian-Saxon dialect always dominated, both in the villages of Transylvania and in the urban centers such as Kronstadt , Sibiu , Schäßburg and Bistritz .

Due to the flight from Transylvania during the Second World War and the wave of emigration after the end of communism in 1989, of the once 250,000 (1910) now only around 17,000 Transylvanian Saxons live in Romania, who still use the language in its various local vernaculars as their mother tongue speak. In Germany, Austria, Canada and the United States, the Saxon of the emigrants is partially still spoken at home or at meetings of Transylvanian Saxon cultural associations, but rarely passed on to the second and third generations, which makes it quite to the endangered languages is to count .

Transylvanian-Saxon is not to be confused with the languages ​​of other German minorities in Romania, such as the Sathmar and Banat Swabians , the Banat Berglanddeutsche , the Landlern , the Zipsern and the Bukowina Germans , each with a different history and dialect.

Origin and name

Transylvanian-Saxon emerged in the High Middle Ages as a balancing dialect for different groups of settlers. Research used to assume that the Transylvanian Saxons came from a certain German-speaking region as part of a closed immigration process, but this has been refuted. Nevertheless, a group of settlers from Lower Lorraine played the decisive role in shaping the language. This came in Transylvania to earlier immigrants, but less numerous Bavarian and Low German settlers. It is believed that the process of language adaptation took several generations. The smaller settler groups largely adapted to the Moselle-Franconian language forms, which means that the West-Central German forms clearly dominate in Transylvanian-Saxon. Exact statements about this alignment process are only possible to a limited extent, however, as only a few non-Latin texts have survived.

The oldest text in a form closely related to today's Transylvanian-Saxon is only passed down from the 17th century. Including a description of Transylvania by Johannes Tröster under the title Das Alt- und Neu-Teutsche Dacia (1666), which contains text examples in Transylvanian-Saxon. From this time onwards, Transylvanian-Saxon was well documented, although later, especially from the 19th century, it was largely superseded in writing by New High German.

With the historical people of Saxony has Transylvanian Saxon dialect hence no direct points of contact, just not with today's Free State of Saxony , as the core group came from the Frankish language Lower Lorraine, so from a historical region that is divided today between Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands is. The name is rather derived from the Latin Saxones in old Hungarian documents, which meant all German-speaking settlers in the Middle Ages (see also Transylvanian Saxony ).

The self-name Saksesch also emerged only recently. In the old peasant dialects, their own language was simply referred to as detsch "German", while the German of foreign, mostly Austrian soldiers and civil servants in the time when Transylvania was Habsburg was called mueseresch, moëseresch , which was actually "foreign, soldierly, incomprehensible ”means.

Characteristics

Due to the historical settlement structure, Transylvanian-Saxon is divided into around 250 different local dialects. The Transylvanian Saxons did not live continuously in a closed settlement area, but their Saxon settlements were next to Hungarian and Romanian places and the next Saxon village was often a few kilometers away. Sometimes the villages even consisted of two districts, a Saxon and a Hungarian or a Saxon and a Romanian. This resulted in typical local dialects, which, however, were largely understandable despite the sometimes considerable differences in pronunciation and vocabulary among each other ( mutual intelligibility ).

The following example illustrates the different pronunciation of the sentence A crow is sitting on a pole in different towns in southern Transylvania . While in Meschen (near Mediasch ) it is pronounced as En Kroh sätz åf em Pohl , in Nimesch, only 3 km away, it is En Kröëh sätz åf em Pöëhl, while in Großalisch (near Schäßburg ) it is En Kreëh sätz åf em Peëhl . The example can be continued in a large number of variants. The people understood each other without any major difficulties, except for a few very local expressions. It happened that when moving to another place in order to avoid teasing, the pronunciation of the new place was adopted. Especially when moving to the city, the urban pronunciation, which is considered to be finer, was gladly accepted. In moments of excitement, there was an occasional change back to the native tone.

Larger regional differences existed only between the northern settlement area in the Nösnerland (around Bistritz ) and the Reener Ländchen (around Saxon Rain ) on the one hand and the southern area around Sibiu and Mediasch , the Burzenland (around Kronstadt ) and the Unterwald on the other hand, with the southern varieties being the more speakers were and are. For this reason, in addition to the general Transylvanian-Saxon dictionary, there is also the North Transylvanian-Saxon dictionary .

However, the following features are characteristic of all dialects:

  • Contrary to the High German sounds, but according to the Moselle Franconian sound level, the second sound shift in Transylvanian-Saxon is only partially implemented (see the article Rheinischer Fächer ). While it is similar to the High German varieties, Wåsser ( Dutch : water), nåss (Dutch: nat) and Zekt (time, Dutch: tijd), other words have the unshifted forms, such as: det (das) , dåt (that) and wåt (what), genet (that), en gadet (a good one) and taschen (between; Dutch: tussen).
  • In all dialects n and ch disappeared before an s : Gås (goose), aser (our), Fuss (fox), Uëßelt (armpit).
  • Many Transylvanian Saxon dialects know the Rhenish gutturalization : Zekt (time).
  • Middle High German / i / is often spoken in Transylvanian-Saxon as in all Moselle Franconian dialects as / ä /: mät (with), Däsch (table), Fäsch (fish), mäschen (mix).
  • Like the Moselle Franconian, the Transylvanian-Saxon diphthongized short Middle High German vowels: Iësch (ash), wiëschen (wash), riëchts (right)

City dialects

While the rural local dialects are largely incomprehensible for people who only have standard German language skills, more moderate forms of Transylvanian-Saxon developed in the larger cities in the 19th and 20th centuries, which have standard German elements both in pronunciation and in vocabulary have recorded. The Sibiu and Kronstadt Saxons in particular were considered exemplary here and were therefore also used for poems, literature and song texts. These forms enjoyed a high reputation and, in contrast to Germany, were also spoken by middle-class circles and the educated class, comparable to the language situation in Alsace, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Nevertheless, these city dialects also had a considerable linguistic distance from Standard German, and a sharp distinction was made between Transylvanian-Saxon and Standard German. A conversation was held either in one variety or in the other, but not switched back and forth on a variety continuum, as is often the case in Austria and Bavaria. The mother tongue was the dialect for almost all Saxons, while the children first had to learn High German at school like a foreign language. Until the end of the 19th century, it was therefore customary in the Protestant Church, to which the Saxons belong with a large majority, to preach and sing in Transylvanian-Saxon. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that Standard German was introduced as the language of preaching.

Multilingualism

In addition to this diglossy situation, which already existed between Transylvanian-Saxon and High German, many Transylvanian Saxons had and still have competence in Romanian and often also in Hungarian . This multilingualism was not limited to educated circles either, because almost every Saxon had direct contact with Romanian or Hungarian-speaking neighbors, work colleagues, craftsmen, farmers and traders. While until 1918, when Transylvania belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary , Hungarian was clearly the language with the higher prestige, later this became more and more Romanian. Today, almost all of the Transylvanian Saxons living in Romania speak fluent Romanian, while the knowledge of Hungarian has declined sharply and can only be found in older or very old people. However, there is sometimes a clear gap in Romanian competence between people who learned Romanian before the end of World War II and those who learned it later or between people from villages with a high proportion of Transylvanian Saxons and those from places with a small proportion of German-speaking residents recognizable.

codification

Transylvanian-Saxon has a spelling that is almost universally recognized by its speakers and has been specified by the Transylvanian-Saxon dictionary since 1907 . This form of writing is very similar to the Luxembourg spelling, especially with regard to the conventions for writing the different vowels and diphthongs. It is a non-binding recommendation to the writers, who can adapt their personal spelling to their local dialect. For the purpose of easier readability, however, most of the publications in Transylvanian-Saxon follow this codification.

Since textbooks for learning Luxembourgish are also published in Luxembourg, due to the great similarity between the two languages, people interested in Transylvanian-Saxon are often even recommended to acquire their first knowledge of these Luxembourgish publications, as there are corresponding teaching materials for the Transylvanian-Saxon doesn't exist.

Literature in Transylvanian-Saxon

The beginnings:

Later dialect authors:

In an anthology published in 1988, Horst Schuller Anger also includes many contemporary authors: Erhard Antoni (1898–1985), Georg Baku (* 1928), Michael Barner (1881–1985), Anni Barthelmie (* 1924), Daniel Bayer (1901– 1983), Maria Beckert (* 1935), Frieda Binder (1908–1986), Anni Böhm (* 1929), Heinrich E. Bretz (1891–1987), Adelheid Elst (* 1965), Maria Gierlich-Gräf (* 1930) , Ernst Gyöngyösi (* 1946), Doris Hutter (* 1957), Hedwig Kellner (* 1920), Elisabeth Kessler (* 1951), Oswald Kessler (* 1948), Hermann Klein (* 1928), Hermine Kloos (1903–1987) , Gerhardt Hermann Klöss (* 1960), Georg Kraus (* 1914), Rosa Kraus (1896–1984), Christian Lang (* 1926), Rudolf Martini (1904–1986), Wilhelm Meitert (* 1956), Richard Mildt (* 1923), Walter Plajer (* 1920), Michael Reisenauer (* 1929), Michael Risch (* 1914), Katharina Schmidt (* 1919), Friedrich Schuster (* 1950), Walter Gottfried Seidner (* 1938), Katharina Thudt (* 1923), Grete Welther (* 1911), Petrus Windt (* 1900).

Language examples

The following language example reproduces an old ballad in Transylvanian-Saxon and in Standard German. It should be emphasized that the individual words correspond almost one to one, but the spelling and pronunciation differ significantly.

De Råch

(Siweberjesch Ballad)

Hië ritt berjuëf, hië ritt berjåff,
bäs e se un em Brånnen tråf.

Geaden Dåch, geaden Dåch, ir läf Härrn,
nea wäll I wäln met ech riëde yar

What huët ech menj Miss Känjd gedon,
dåt ir mer se huët nedergeschlon?

What huët ech dä jang Easchuld gedon,
dåt sä nea stiindiut äm Iëren lån?

The enen compression hië vum soot eruëf
diëm åndren schleach e det Hiift em uëf.

They were down there in Fäsch,
the fourth headed in the Gränen Bäsch.

Net ener wul do bläiwe stohn,
net ener wul to Åntwert son.

Hië rode donné with fresh meat,
esi bezuëlt em de Fånden geat.

The revenge

(Transylvanian ballad)

He rode downhill, he rode uphill
until he met her at a well.

Good day, good day, dear lords,
now I would like to talk to you!

What did my wife and child do
to you that you knocked them down for me?

What has the young innocence done to you
that they are now lying stone-dead on the ground?

One he stabbed off his horse,
the other he cut off the head.

The third he split like a fish,
the fourth ran into the green bush.

No one wanted to stay there,
no one wanted to give an answer.

He rode there with fresh courage,
so you pay your enemies well.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Adolf Armbruster: On the history of origin of the Transylvanian Saxons. Research on folklore and regional studies. Edited by the Academy of Social and Political Sciences of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Volume 14, No. 1. Bucharest 1971, pp. 98–115 (quoted from Waltraut Schuller)
  2. ^ Johannes Tröster: The old and new German Dacia. That is: New description of the country of Transylvania / Inside its age, and current inhabitants, true heritage, religion, languages, discussed according to historical truth from two thousand years ago / the first Mahrl published by Johanne Tröster, Cibinio-Transylv. SS. Th. & Philosopher. Medicae Studioso. Nuremberg 1666; Reprint: Böhlau 1981, ISBN 3-412-06280-4 .
  3. ↑ Papal history from 1667 auctioned for Gundelsheim. In: Transylvanian newspaper
  4. ↑ Mueser, Moser, Moeser "Landfremder, Deutscher, Soldat" is a loan word from Hungarian, where mazur means "homeless, removed from his position, refugee, beggar" (ultimately borrowed from Persian-Arabic via Turkish); See Transylvania-Saxon Dictionary , Volume VII, p. 267 ff. ( Mueser, Mueserisch etc.).
  5. ^ Udo-Jürgen Weber: The dialect of the Transylvanian Saxons - help for spelling and pronunciation. Sibiweb
  6. ↑ Recently, a congratulatory poem by the Kronstadt student Paulus Francisci in Saxon dialect, which was printed in the appendix to a Stassburg disputation in 1668, is regarded as the oldest Saxon poem. Poetry in the first mother tongue by Horst Schuller Anger ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.siebenbuerger-bw.de
  7. ^ Enriching social and cultural life, 40th anniversary of the Fürstenfeldbruck district group with a varied program . (PDF; 201 kB)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Siebenbürgische Zeitung , May 20, 2011, p. 5@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.carlwolff.de  
  8. ↑ Vill Spoken än der Wält. Dicht im Dialekt, Dacia-Verlag, Cluj-Napoca, 1988, pp. 139-148 contains short biographies by 40 authors
  9. ↑ Michael Markel (ed.): A little forest bird sang. Transylvanian folk songs, Saxon and German . Dacia Verlag, Cluj-Napoca, 1973.
  10. ↑ Iëren, related to the old Franconian Ern (hall), means floor or floor .
  11. ↑ Translation into standard German by DietG , whereby emphasis was placed on a word- exact equivalent.
  12. ↑ Bäsch , translated into High German means forest . To get the rhyme right, bush was used here .
  13. ↑ Literally: "Not one wants to stop there, not one wants to say an answer"