Vosges

Vosgean (Vosgien - Lo prochège des Vosges)
Spoken in	France
speaker	unknown
Linguistic ; classification	Indo-European languages Italian languages Romance languages Gallo-Roman languages French, Lorraine, Vosges ;
Language codes
ISO 639 -1	fr (french)
ISO 639-3	fra (French)

Language map of France

Vosan is a Romance language .

distribution

Its distribution area extends to the east of the Vosges department , to parts of the neighboring departments of Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle, and to some Alsatian valleys on the other side of the Vosges ridge, where it is called "Welsch". Vosges is also spoken in the Breusch valley near Schirmeck-Saales in the Lower Rhine department, which was part of the Vosges department before the German annexation in 1870. The extreme limits of the Vosges variant of Lorraine correspond by and large to natural, relief-related dividing lines: in the east the high peaks of the Vosges and in the west heavily wooded, mostly barren areas around 500 m high. The Vosges massif is bicultural and forms the language border between the Romansh and the German-speaking areas. The influence of the German-Alsatian dialects on Romansh is unmistakable.

It is a subgroup of the Gallo-Romance languages of the Lorraine region , commonly called Lorraine . Many people, including those in Alsace-Lorraine , confuse the term "Lorraine" with the officially recognized term " Fränkisch " (Francique), a German dialect that is spoken in different forms along the German and Luxembourg borders in the Moselle department.

history

Before it was ceded to France in the 18th century ( Louis XIV's reunion policy ), the so-called ducal Lorraine was at odds with the centralized French kingdom because of its Romanesque-German diglossia . The German-speaking part of the independent duchy was then still called " bailliage d'Allemagne" ( Landvogtei of Germany). The Franconian dialects of this area were called "allemand" by the Romansh fellow citizens, in other words "German" in the medieval sense of the word: everything that was not Gallo-Romance. It made no difference to the Romansh-Lorraine citizens whether this German was Franconian, Alsatian or any other standard German. In the three other provincial bailiffs of the duchy, Romance dialects were spoken, which more or less differentiated from standard French . From the revolution of 1789 onwards, all regional languages were devalued as hostile to the republic and fought against. This is why most of the dialects of the Oïl group are either extinct or critically endangered. One of these dialectic lingua franca is Vosic.

spelling, orthography

There is no such thing as a Vosges alphabet. Since most of the northern French dialects are restricted to the family and micro-regional area, they have remained almost exclusively oral, with the exception of a few episodic texts in the local language. Every author of writings or works in the Vosges language has used his own, often phonetically, close to French spelling, so that no uniform graph has been achieved. The Latin alphabet is therefore used and adapted to the special Voscian sounds. In the course of time, the graphic of the Ach sound in the Vosonic language in the form of "HH" has established itself. The "H" is breathed in like in German. The nasal "i" is written "ïn".

Alphabetical order and value of the graphemes


A.	À	B.	C.	Ç	CH	D.	É	È	EU	F.	G	GN	H	HH	I.	Ï	J	K	L.	M.	N	O	OU	P	QU	R.	S.	T	U	V	W.	X	Y	Z
a	à	b	c	ç	ch	d	é	è	eu	f	G	gn	H	hh	i	ï	j	k	l	m	n	O	ou	p	qu	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z
[⁠ a ⁠]	[⁠ å ⁠]	[⁠ b ⁠]	[⁠ k ⁠]	[⁠ s ⁠]	[⁠ ʃ ⁠]	[⁠ d ⁠]	[⁠ e ⁠]	[⁠ ɛ ⁠]	[⁠ ø ⁠] [⁠ œ ⁠]	[⁠ f ⁠]	[⁠ g ⁠]	[⁠ ɲ ⁠]	[⁠ h ⁠]	[⁠ x ⁠]	[⁠ i ⁠]	[⁠ ĩ ⁠]	[⁠ ʒ ⁠]	[⁠ k ⁠]	[⁠ k ⁠]	[⁠ m ⁠]	[⁠ n ⁠]	[⁠ o ⁠]	[⁠ u ⁠]	[⁠ p ⁠]	[⁠ k ⁠]	[⁠ ʀ ⁠] [⁠ r ⁠]	[⁠ s ⁠]	[⁠ t ⁠]	[⁠ y ⁠]	[⁠ v ⁠]	[⁠ v ⁠] [⁠ w ⁠]	[ ks ]	[⁠ j ⁠]	[⁠ z ⁠]

Phonology

Consonants

Due to the phonetic diversity of the dialects in the Vosges, the table shows all consonants and vowels that can occur. That doesn't necessarily mean that they appear in every single dialect.

The consonants with color in the background are the ones that don't exist in high French.

	bilabial		labio- dental		alveolar		post- alveolar		labio- palatal		palatal		labio- velar		velar		uvular		glottal
	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.
Plosives	p	b			t	d									k	G
Nasals		m				n						ɲ				ŋ
Vibrants					r \|														R.
Fricatives			f	v	s	z	ʃ	ʒ							x			ʁ	H
Approximants										ɥ		j		w
Lateral						l

Digraphs

In addition to the digraphs "CH", "GU" or "QU" commonly used in French, the following affricates can occur depending on the dialect:

tch [tʃ] tchampa (chance)
dj [dʒ] mindji (manager)

They occur mainly in the extreme southern part of the Vosges, a transition area to the language area of the Free County of Burgundy (Upper Moselle Valley, Chajoux Valley, also near Fraize in the Upper Meurthetal).

The letters H and HH

In the Vogesian "Patois" the letter "h" is pronounced with a breath like in the Germanic languages "house" or "Haus". Sometimes you can still hear it in regional French: les hauts [le ho:], la hache [la haʃ]. While it is unusual for a Romance language to claim the "H", the phenomenon is repeated in Wallonia in the Liège dialects. In contrast, the graphic «hh» should not be interpreted as two «h». It is a voiceless velar fricative like the German “Ach-Laut”, the Dutch “g” or “ch” or the Spanish iota “j”. The German in particular must remember that this HH sound can never become the corresponding palatal form (ego sound) before certain vowels. “HH” remains voiceless and velar at the beginning or end of the word and in the middle. There are otherwise combinatorial variants in Vosges for the pair G - CH (or J - CH), where the voiced alveolar fricative [ʒ] is pronounced voiceless [ʃ] in the final. fromège (cheese) sounds more like [fromɛʃ]. The ah-sound HH is very common in the Vosges dialects. If you oversimplify, this sound occurs where you find “ss”, “rs”, “xc”, “sc”, “rc”, “x” in high French. It is a little more voiced in the middle of a word than in the end.

This sound enables the Lorraine-speaking area to be divided into three zones, whereby the HH zone is generally and somewhat exaggeratedly considered "real" Lorraine.

The western zone is characterized by the fact that the words are more reminiscent of the high French form "poisson".
The central zone with the sound “CH” (in German “SCH”) is in a linguistic continuum with the dialects in Wallonia and Franche-Comté ( Free County of Burgundy ).
The eastern zone is unique in the Romansh region with the Ach sound, which Walloonians from Liège also have, although both zones are geographically separated by German and Romansh-speaking dialects.

The nasals with slight velarization

At the end of nasal vowels (in, ïn, on, an, en) one hears a nasalized N as in German NG [ŋ] in the adjective "long", but with the big difference that the German "A" is not nasalized. German: laŋ / Hypothetical Vogesian form would be: lãŋ Other examples:

House: mohon [mɔhõŋ]
Hand: main [mẽŋ]

Vowels

The nasal "ïn" does not exist in French; it is a nasalized "i". An “i” is pronounced and part of the air escapes through the nose. The nasal “un” is still recognizable in the dialect and clearly distinguishable from the nasal “in” (brun and brin do not sound exactly the same). This is usually also the case in French, but this nasal tends to disappear in the standard language because a large part of the French population can no longer pronounce it. In places one hears a velares A as in the Romance dialects ch'timi or breton gallo , whereby a German or a French who does not know dialect perceives an “O” rather than an “A”. However, this does not apply to the Germans who have this "A" in their dialect, as in southern Germany (e Mànn, e Màà = one man). This "A" [å] lies in the Vowesian vowel inventory between the "O" and the front "A".

Graphics IPA	Articulation type
[⁠ a ⁠]	a palatal short
[ ɑ: ]	a long
[⁠ å ⁠] [ å: ]	a velar short / long
[⁠ ɛ ⁠] [ ɛ: ]	ä open short / long
[⁠ e ⁠] [ e: ]	e closed short / long
[⁠ ə ⁠]	e unstressed, Schwa
[ œ [ œ: ]	ö open short / long
ø ] [ ø: ]	ö closed short / long
[⁠ o ⁠] [ o: ]	o closed short / long
[⁠ ɔ ⁠] [ ɔ: ]	o open short / long
[⁠ y ⁠] [ y: ]	ü closed short / long
[⁠ u ⁠] [ u: ]	u closed short / long
[⁠ i ⁠] [ i: ]	i closed short / long
[⁠ ã ⁠] [ ã: ]	a nasalized short / long (en, an, em)
[⁠ õ ⁠] [ õ: ]	o nasalized short / long (on)
[⁠ É ⁠] [⁠ É ⁠]	ä nasalized short / long (in, ain)
[⁠ ĩ ⁠]	i nasalized (ïn)
[ œ̃ ]	œ nasalized (un)

Diphthongs

There are no real diphthongs in the Vosges dialect. Rather, it is a pair of vowels / semi-consonants or semi-consonants / vowels.

The most common pair is with the semiconsonant [j], which is written as “y” as in the word “kurèye” (curé). Below is a summary of the common diphthongs:

IPA	Graphics	Example*
[ ɛj ]	-èy, -èye, -eil, -eille	lo m'tèye = le métier (profession)
[ ej ]	-éy, -éye	lè guéye = la quille (cone)
[ aj ]	-aye, -ail, -aille	l'onaye = l'année (year)
[ ɒj ]	-aye, -ail, -aille	like [aj] scenic
[ åj ]	-aye, -àye, -åye	like [aj], scenic
[ oj ]	-oye, -oil, -oille	lo stoye, stoille = l'étable (stable)
[ ɔj ]	-oye, -oil, -oille	froyi = frayer (spawn)
[ œj ]	-euye, -euil, -euille	lo beuystiou, beuillestiou = boîteux (limping)
[ øj ]	-euye, -euil, -euille	i breuseuille = je bricole (I tinker)

For semi-consonants with a vowel:

Sun	Graphics	example
[ wé ]	-oué, -wé	lo fwé = le fer (iron)
[ wɛ ]	-ouè, -ouais, -wè, ...	lo pwèvre = le poivre (pepper)
[ wa ]	-oua, -ois, -wa, ...	èbwayé = aboyer (bark)
[ where ]	-ouo, -ouau, -wo, ...	lo pwo = porc (pig)
[ wɔ ]	-ouo, -wo	lè bouòtte = moustique (schnake)
[ wi ]	-oui	l'ègrèouisse = l'écrevisse (crayfish)

The sound [[ wå ]] written -ouà, -ouå, -ouo, -wà, -wå is a purely facultative phonetic variant of [wa].

(The examples do not come from a single dialect, because some sounds do not exist or occur very rarely, depending on the location)

Apocope and syncope

The words with an unstressed vowel are also often pronounced syncopated, as in oral French with “petit”, which is pronounced “p'tit”. This phenomenon is often marked with an apostrophe.

lè m'naye (monnaie coin) - d'mourè (demeurer-remaining) - lo lanç'mot / lançemot (lancement initiation) - lo s'moyou (somnoleur dozing) - l'embaul'rosse / embaulerosse (emballeuse - packer)

Most of the Vosges dialects have an apocope of the unstressed vowels in the final. In the word “fromège” (cheese) the “e” is written, as in French, but not pronounced.

As a rule, it is about an unstressed “e” in the final like “une femme” [fam] in high French. In the dialect, where there are no graphic rules so far, you cannot write this "e", but when reading it can lead to doubts:

lè pare ou lè par (dung heap). The first word is easier to read for a foreign language reader, as the “A” has to be pronounced long rather than short.

tyèhhe / tièhh (clear) - lè sèlle (chair)

Apocope and syncope are particularly noticeable in small grammatical words such as personal pronouns, the negative form or the preposition «de». However, this also applies to the spoken language in standard French: "j'lui dis" or "tu l'veux?"

ous kè t'vè? = Où vas-tu? Où est-ce que tu vas?

j'vâ = je vais

t's'rè = tu seras (here an apocope for "tè" and a syncope for "serè")

Of course, the rule also applies to the demonstrative pronoun (cé, ço) in conjunction with the auxiliary verb “sein”, as in French “c'est”: ço, ç'o

morphology

Genres

There are two genera: masculine and feminine.

lo fon (the hay) - lè chorotte (the cart)

One finds the same differentiation in certain suffixes as -ou / -iou in the masculine and -rosse, -osse, - (o) yosse, -ouse in the feminine. (French -eur / -euse, -ice, -esse)

hhlopou: ivrogne (drinker) - hhloprosse: une ivrogne (drinker)

moquou: moqueur (mockers) - moquerosse: moqueuse (mockers)

pônou: pénible (annoying man) - pônouse: pénible (annoying woman)

Verbs

Modes

Depending on the geographical variations are found partially or completely the same modes as in full French: infinitive - indicative - imperative - conditional - subjunctive - participle Perfect / Present

By and large, they are used as in high-level language.

However, the indicative in Vosian contains a tense that the French (actually also German) high-level language does not know: the close, simultaneous past tense. It serves to express the immediate simultaneous occurrence in the past. Here is an example in high French below:

Lorsque tu téléphonas here for 8 hours, j'étais déjà en train de retourner le foin.

When you called yesterday at 8 o'clock, I was already turning the hay.

The form “war” in German corresponds to either “tè” or “tèzo” or “fereus” in Vosges. “Tè” describes a lengthy action in the past without anything else happening at the same time. “Tèzo” describes a longer storyline in the past, where something else was happening at that moment. “Fereus” describes a shorter, completed act in the past (cf. past tense). So only the second form “tèzo” fits the sentence above. Qwan t'm'o tèlèphonè hirmin o 8 heure, j'r'tônèyezo jo lo fon.

Verb groups

First group, depending on the area, starting with -è, -é, -a

They correspond to the French verbs in -er. (The pronoun for "we" is called "j '" or "nos" or "dj'", we use "j" below)

Present	Past tense completed	Past tense simultaneously	preterite	Future tense
j'trove	j'trovè	j'trovèyezo	j'troveus	j'troverâ
t'trove	t'trovè	t'trovèyezo	t'troveus	t'troveré
i trove	i trovè	i trovèyezo	i troveus	i troveré
j'trovos	j'trovin	j'trovèyinzo	j'trovons	j'troverons
vos trovès	vos trovin	vos trovèyinzo	vos trovons	vos troverès
i trovot	i trovin	i trovèyinzo	i trovont	i troveront

For the close, simultaneous imperfect there are also the following forms: - eyèzeur , - eyèto , - eyor depending on the area.

J 'troveyèzeur - j'troveyèto - j'troveyor

Lower forms are also used for the past tense : (French: je trouvai, nous trouvâmes)

j'trov OS / j'trov Osses - j'trov é / j'trov your - j'trov eus / j'trov eunes - j'trov eux / j'trov ons

The present subjunctive also exists in Vosonic depending on the region. Below are three variants among the most common:

version 1	Variant 2	Variation 3
qu'j'troveusse	qu'j'trovôsse	qu'j'trové
qu't'troveusse	qu't'trovôsse	qu't'trové
qu'i troveusse	qu'i trovôsse	qu'i trové
qu'j'trovînsse	qu'j'trovînsse	qu'j'trovînnse
qu'vos trovînsse	qu'vos trovînsse	qu'vos trovînsse
qu'i trovînsse	qu'i trovînsse	qu'i trovînsse

Second group starting with -i

As an example we take “puni” (punir).

Present	Past tense completed	Past tense simultaneously	preterite	Future tense
j'puni	j'punissè	j'punissèzo	j'punisseus	j'punirâ
t'puni	t'punissè	t'punissèzo	t'punisseus	t'puniré
i puni	i punissè	i punissèzo	i punisseus	i puniré
j'punos	j'punissin	j'punissinzo	j'punissons	j'punirons
vos punès	vos punissin	vos punissinzo	vos punissons	vos punirès
i punot	i punissin	i punissinzo	i punissont	i puniront

Other groups in - de, -te, - re (cf.French -dre, -tre, -re)

It is a long series of irregular verbs, the listing of which would go beyond the scope of an introduction to Vosonic. Usually they have to be learned individually and by heart.

The following verbs belong to this group: crâre (to believe), prenre (to take), vouère (to see), pleure (to rain), condûre (to drive), etc.

Auxiliary verb "have"

It is of course impossible here to list all the variants of the conjugation of the auxiliary verb «haben» for each valley and each microzone. The following variant is that of the Central and Upper Vologne between Bruyères and Gérardmer.

Present	Past tense completed	Past tense simultaneously	preterite	Future tense
Yes	j'ovoi	j'ovoyezo	j'aureus	j'èrâ
t'è	t'ovoi	t'ovoyezo	t'aureus	t'èrè
l'è	l'ovoi	l'ovoyezo	l 'aureu	l'èrè
j'ons	j'ovouin	j'avoinzo	j'eurons	j'èrons
vos os	vos ovouin	vos avoinzo	vos eurons	vos èros
iz ont	iz ovouète	iz avouènzo	iz euront	iz èront

With the past participle "èvu", the compound forms can be formed:

j'â èvu = j'ai eu (I had)
j'ovoi èvu = j'avais eu (I had had)
j'ovoyezo èvu = j'avais eu (I had had)
j'aureus eu = j'eus eu (inusité) (I had)
j'èrâ èvu = j'aurai eu (I will have had)

Subjunctive II present tense	Subjunctive II past tense	Subjunctive I present	Subjunctive I present	Subjunctive I past tense
j'èro	j'èro èvu	qu'j'êye	qu'j'èvesse	qu'j'èvesse èvu
t'èro	t'èro èvu	qu't'êye	qu't'èvesse	qu't'èvesse èvu
l'èro	l'èro èvu	qu'il êye	qu'il èvesse	qu'il èvesse èvu
j'èrins	j'èrins èvu	qu'j'ins	qu'j'èvinsse	qu'j'èvinsse èvu
vos èrins	vos èrins èvu	qu'vos ins	qu'vos èvinsse	qu'vos èvinsse èvu
iz èrins	iz èrins èvu	qu'iz insse	qu'iz èvinsse	qu'iz èvinsse èvu

Examples of variants depending on the zone for the subjunctive I present tense for the persons "que j'aie" and "que nous ayons":

Fiménil	Le Valtin	Fraize	Corcieux	Vagney	La Bresse
qu'j'ôs	qu'j'ôs	que dj'âye	qu'j'êye	qu'j'âye	qu'idj 'âye
qu'j'ins	qu'j'ans	que dj'onsses	qu'j'èyins	qu'nos ayins	qu'nos insses

Auxiliary verb "to be"

Present	Past tense completed	Past tense simultaneously	preterite	Future tense
j'sèye	j'tè	j'tèzo	j'fereus	j's'râ
t'o	t'tè	t'tèzo	t'fereus	t's'rè
l'o	l'tè	l'tèzo	l 'fereu	l's'rè
j'sos	j'tin	j'tinzo	j'ferons	j's'rons
vos sos	vos tin	vos tinzo	vos ferons	vos s'ros
i sot	i tin	i tinzo	i feront	i s'ront

With the past participle "tu", the compound forms can be formed:

j'â tu = j'ai été
j'ovoi tu = j'avais été
j'ovoyezo tu = j'avais été
j'aureus tu = j'eus été (inusité)
j'èrâ tu = j'aurai été

Subjunctive II present tense	Subjunctive II past tense	Subjunctive I present	Subjunctive I present	Subjunctive I past tense
j's'ro	j'èro tu	qu'j'sèye	qu'j'feusse	qu'j'èvesse do
t's'ro	t'èro tu	qu't'sèye	qu't'feusse	qu't'èvesse do
i s'ro	l'èro tu	qu'i sèye	qu'i feusse	qu'il èvesse tu
j's'rins	j'èrins do	qu'j'sinsse	qu'j'finsse	qu'j'èvinsse do
vos s'rins	vos èrins tu	qu'vos sinsse	qu'vos finsse	qu'vos èvinsse tu
i s'rins	iz èrins tu	qu'i sinsse	qu'i finsse	qu'iz èvinsse tu

Examples of variants depending on the zones for the present subjunctive for the people "que je sois" and "que nous soyons":

Fiménil	Le Valtin	Fraize	Corcieux	Vagney	La Bresse
qu'j'sôs	qu'j'sôs	que dje sôs	qu'j'sôs	qu'j'sâys	qu'i sâye
qu'j'sins	qu'j'sans	que dje sonsses	qu'j'sèyins	qu'nos sinnses	qu'nos sinsses

syntax

Sentence structure

The Vogesian sentence structure is Romansh, so it is similar to French. The principle "subject - verb - object" applies to all Lorraine dialects " sujet - verbe - complément " (SVO).

However, a special feature of Lorraine has to be pointed out here: the attributive adjective is placed in front of the noun, like in German. As is well known, in French this usually only happens for very few adjectives such as bon, petit, grand, gentil ou mauvais and the like. a. In Vosco, on the other hand, it is the norm: ène bianche môhon (a white house), ène mahh onaye (a bad year).

Family and place names

Surnames

The first and last names of the Vosges follow the same onomastic rules as those of all other Germanic-Romanic tribes of the former Lotharingen . They consist of baptismal or nicknames, names of origin, residence or occupation, and in the end relatively often of nicknames. The regional pronunciation, on the other hand, can make it difficult to identify some otherwise common first names:

Aigotte (Agatha) - G'hèhtin (Augustin) - Bohhté (Bastian) - Diaude (Claude, Claudius, Klaus) - Lorot (Laurent, Lorenz, Laurentius) - Linaud (Léonard, Leonhardt) - Ménanne (Marianne) - Mayon (Marie , Maria) - Motyïn (Martin) - Chan (Jean, Johann) - Morguite (Marguerite, Margrete)

For other first names, the relationship is more noticeable (at least for the French):

Françoès / Francis - Geôge - Giraud - Modelaine - Marguèrite

Nevertheless, two special aspects must be pointed out here:

The low mountain range of the Vosges has always formed a buffer, immigration and transition zone between Germania and Romania . Romansh-speaking parts of the population lived / live in the German-Alsatian area and German-speakers settled in the French Vosges. The former are still clearly recognizable because they have remained Romansh and have not adopted the Alsatian language, while the latter are completely submerged on Romansh soil due to a slow process of integration and a gradual mixing of the two cultures. Well-known examples of the fusion of Roman and German or Germanic parts of the population are the small towns of Gérardmer , La Bresse or Ventron , half of which, perhaps more, were founded by Alsatians. This fact has logically had unmistakable consequences for the naming and the development of the patronyms over the centuries. Not only local people from the neighboring regions moved to the Vosges low mountain range since the 12th century , but also immigrants from Northern Europe or from the Alpine countries.

Saxon miners came to the high valleys of the Vosges to work in the various mines (iron, silver, salt, ...). Their know-how was very much appreciated, they even brought their technical language into a Romance zone. Vogesian-speaking miners also borrowed German mining terms from German in their everyday work. Swedes also came to the upper Moselle valley in the 15th century, they were mainly active as charcoal burners or miners. The valley where they lived until the French Revolution and where they were able to maintain their language and customs for a longer period is still called “Vallée des Charbonniers” (Köhlertal) today . Tyroleans , German Swiss and Bavarians came to the Vosges either as seasonal workers or as new settlers after devastating wars such as the Thirty Years' War 1618–1648. They often worked as bricklayers, millers, alpine farmers, glassmakers or charcoal makers. The German-speaking settlers introduced German-sounding family names into the Romance-speaking area.

Before the 17th century, Alsatians were almost exclusively German-speaking, especially in the country. The Romanesque Vosges / Lorraine people called all those who lived beyond the ridge line "Allemands" (Germans) and the country "Allemaigne" (Germany). The alpine pastures of the Vosges (locally called “chaumes” ) have been contracted to have been used by Alsatian shepherds from May to September since the high Middle Ages to produce the famous mountain cheese ( PDO products Munster cheese, Gérômé see designation of origin ). At some point some alpine farmers decided not to return to the Alsatian plain and to stay a little further in the high valleys on the rather deserted, Romanesque side. They also brought German-sounding family and place names to this part of the massif.

The second point is to be derived from this historically conditioned diglossia . The language border was more than just a linguistic dividing line: it also separated cultures and attitudes, it sometimes evoked widely divergent feelings of ethnicity between “ Welschen ” and “Allemands” . But it would be wrong to believe that both cultures were always in opposition to one another. The amateur genealogists of Eastern France know from experience how difficult the search for an ancestor can be if the spelling or the form of his surname in the respective church books, civil or notarial registers or other directories vary greatly.

In the Vosges, as in the neighboring country of Alsace, it often happened that a family name was translated into the other language, an employee or pastor disfigured the family name in such a way that identification was no longer possible. Sometimes some names were dialectalized, comically translated into German or Frenchized. In addition, there was the fact that the documents of Protestant church records were written in German and Catholic church records in Latin. This resulted in amazing situations where a father could have a Romance-sounding surname while his daughter had the corresponding German name because she lived over there in a German-speaking community, and vice versa. Sometimes there is no logic: the Romanesque name was retained on the Alsatian side and the German name on Romanesque soil. But it is most complicated when several changes of different origin (from generation to generation a loan translation , a graphic change, a new transfer ...) have been made. Such situations were not as rare as one might think. Especially with people who often moved, such as charcoal burners, glassmakers or craftsmen who moved from place of work to place of work, an onomastic confusion happened . The following example can illustrate this well:

A Swiss glassmaker named Bündner (i.e. from the canton of Graubünden ) left the canton of Lucerne and came to Lützel on today's Swiss-French border , where his name was Bindner. He moved on to Upper Alsace and was called Binder there. The next generation, partly in Alsace and partly in the Vosges, illustrates the transition phase, because in the same family some are still called Binder, while others are Peintre . The new Romanesque form can only surprise you, because “Peintre” actually means “painter” in French. But when an Alsatian with a strong Germanic accent tries to pronounce “Binder” as French as possible, such a deformation can arise. The “in” is nasalized, the ending “er” becomes “re” and the B is often pronounced like a P in Alemannic dialects. The clerk or pastor must have identified “Peintre” . But if this name “Peintre” should be translated into German again for any reason, it results in “painter” or “Moler”, sometimes also “Mahler”. A native of Graubünden could become a painter over the generations!

As a result, the name "Sonntag" became "Dimanche" or "Demenge" , "Kohler" became "Colin" or "Colle" or "Collé" . For example, a “Waldner” became a “Valdenaire” . Great flexibility is therefore required. After the revolution in 1789 and the more uniform management of the civil registers, this confusion quickly ceased. The spontaneous correlation between a Romance and a German form was no longer practiced. A “tailor” from Alsace, who opted for French nationality in 1871 and fled to the neighboring Romanesque Vosges as an “optant”, remained a “tailor” and was not a “tailleur” , unless he expressly requested a loan translation patriotic rebellion against the Prussian occupiers of Alsace.

Another characteristic of Vosonic naming, which is also common in many regions of France or Germany, relates to the habit of giving a person and sometimes his descendants an epithet that is often associated with their physical or mental characteristics. The epithet can also be a residence name. The mountain mentality a bit reinforces this tendency to give names that is common elsewhere.

The epithet does not only refer to one person, usually the father, but is often carried over to the descendants of this man. One of them is not called "Mathieu Colin" , but Grande Baugeotte ( baugeotte : basket). Likewise, all residents of a hamlet or village were given an epithet in order to somehow differentiate themselves from them. It contributed to the development of the village's identity. Since the population in the High Vosges is particularly thin, this practice does not apply to scattered farms. In this last case, the name of the residence was the most important: one did not go to the "Martin", but to the "Faigneulle" , i. H. to the Martin's house, which was in a place called Faigneulle .

Place names

In contrast to the family names, the place names in the Vosges were more stable in their form (but not in the graphic) and in their language family. The people move, the places don't. Newcomers, if they are at least in the minority, usually adapt to local customs and traditions. Along the language border, especially for the alpine pastures and mountain peaks, there was still a certain diglossia that still persists today. Each side, Romanesque or Alsatian, names the mountain pastures or famous peaks in its own way, the Vosges name almost always being derived from the Alsatian. An alp can therefore be called Balveurche , Bellfirst or Bàllfirscht . The Vosges have by far not been affected as much by the permanent change of place names as in the Moselle department, which underwent two periods of German occupation in succession and at short intervals (1871–1918, 1940–1944). Except for the Breusch Valley beyond the Saales Pass, the Vosges always remained on the French side. The place and mountain names refer mostly to nature and the immediate vicinity. They are formed in exactly the same way as in German: a determiner is placed before a basic word. The basic word is a noun that designates settlement or location and is made more precise by the preceding word. The Vosges dialect looks similar to German in this area, more so than standard French. It has adapted location-specific terms that are necessary to describe a Central European mountain range. The equivalences between the basic German and Vogesian words underline a historically conditioned common place-name science. In addition to the compounds, you can also notice Simplizia in the Vosges , not infrequently from Celtic times, and more Merovingian - Carolingian derivatives , which are only present on the edge of the massif and especially on the Lorraine plateau. In the Gallo-Roman and later Carolingian times, the western part of the Vosges department was more heavily populated. The higher elevations in the east were still wasteland, "eremus" as it was called in the High Middle Ages .

The most common derived place name of Lorraine, and thus of the western Vosges, is also very well represented in German: The ending -ingen (-ing) in the sense of group is often preceded by a personal name that is not always identifiable today, as in “ Sigmaringen ”, literally “the people from Sigmar ”. In predominantly Romance regions, the ending “–ingen” was changed to “-ange”. This type of place name occurs almost like a monopoly in the northern half of Lorraine.

Onomastic suffixes / prefixes

Suffixes of place names in the Vosges

The Vosges prefer the endings "-ey" or "-y" , similar to the German - "ach" (Latin aqua , also near Aachen ), which indicate water (bodies of water of all kinds) and the period between the 7th and 10th centuries Go back to the century. In some places the suffix “court” dominates , in English “-hof”. Some names have a clear religious connotation such as Saint-, Dom-, -elize (from église , meaning “church”) for example. ( Saint-Dié , Dompierre , Vézelize )

In the Châtenois area , the suffix " court " (in German Hof) represents 35% of all toponyms, those in " ville " (-stadt, -dorf) or " ey " (-ach, -ig) 17% each, those in " Dom " and " Saint " 4% each. All together represent 83% of the total toponyms that were founded before the 10th century Romanesque-Franconian place names. In fact, the western part of what is now the department was a transit region between Trier-Cologne and Lyon during the Roman and Carolingian times. If you look at the area around Bruyères in the Vologne Valley, you notice that the above name types (-court, -ey, ...) only occur in 10%, in the deeper massif near Gérardmer 0%. In contrast, 33% of the place names in the same valley end with "- mont " (in German - mountain), 25% of the names near Gérardmer are formed with the suffix "- rupt " (in German "bach"). The higher you go, the more numerous streams and springs are.

The suffix "- ménil " is more represented in the level. "Ménils" from the Latin "mansioniles" are reminiscent of the smaller stage towns or villas on the Roman roads between two larger villas / towns.

The suffix - viller is old, mostly dating back to before the 5th century. It is directly connected to a villa rustica because a “villare” was always in the catchment area of a more important homestead. In addition, in eastern France and southern Germany, this suffix appears mainly in sparsely populated locations with forests and not very fertile soil. Depending on the region, they are called - viller , - willer , - weiler or - wihr . Place names that start out in viller occur a lot at the foot of the massif, in the plains or in the layered landscape made of red sandstone .

Some place names in Vosges

There are actually almost no villages that have the real Vosges name, i.e. in its dialectal form. The official names are in French. In the Germanic Moselle department there is a village whose name appears officially on the place name sign in dialectal form: Dabo . In French the village is called or was called "Dagsbourg" , in German "Dagsburg" and in Rhine-Franconian "Dàgschburri" . The form “Dabo” is the Vogesian pronunciation of “Dagsbourg” , just like Sarrebourg is called “Sabo” in Vosonic .

Some place names in dialectal form:

Pinau ( Épinal ) - Saint-Di ( Saint-Dié ) - Rambyèlè ( Rambervillers ) - Rovon l'Etaipe (Raon l'Etape) - Giraumouè ( Gérardmer ) - Grainge (Granges) - Corci (Corcieux) - Brouères ( Bruyères ) - Tovon (Thaon) - Vau d'Aijeu (Val d'Ajol) - Rochon (Rochesson) - Nimotèye (Le Tholy) - Lo Tyo (Thillot) - Lo Vayetin (le Valtin) - Lè Bresse ( La Bresse ) - Champdrâ (Champdray ) - Gerbèyepau (Gerbépal) - Mandrâ (Mandray)

variants

The following map shows the major variants of the Vosges family. Communication from valley to valley is possible within the dialect continuum. In this case, the Vosges do not differ from the dialect-speaking Germans, who are used to the fact that the dialect can vary from one village to another. However, this is no longer so natural in centralized France.

La vallée de la Meurthe de Saint-Dié à Fraize, Plainfaing.
Les vallées des Neuné, B'heumey et Corbeline near Corcieux.
La vallée de la basse Vologne de Cheniménil à Bruyères.
La plaine sous-vosgienne de Rambervillers à Xertigny
La Vôge
La vallée de la moyenne Moselle near Remiremont
La vallée de la Mosellotte de Vagney à Cornimont
La vallée de la haute Moselle near you Thillot et de Bussang.
Le pays de La Bresse.
La vallée de la moyenne et haute Vologne de Bruyères à Gérardmer.
La vallée de la Weiss near Orbey-Lapoutroie
Le pays de Steige
La vallée de la Bruche de Saales à Schirmeck
Le pays de Saint-Quirin
Les Vosges comtoises

literature

Pascal Curin: Langues de Lorraine. Volume 1, Patois Lorrain, Collection Mémoire du patrimoine lorrain, Editions CPE, Romorantin 2011, ISBN 978-2-84503-937-7 .
Rosette Gegout: Dictionnaire patois des Vosges. PLI Gérard Louis, Haroué 2002, ISBN 2-914554-08-7 .