Which
Which ( French [ ˈwɛlʃ ], from German Welsch - see Welsche ) or Vosgien is a Gallo-Roman dialect from the Langues d'oïl group , which is spoken in some places in the Vosges in western Alsace .
distribution
The Which is a sub-dialect of Romansh-Lorraine and is also closely related to Walloon . The fact that there is a distinction from Lorraine at all is due to the fact that what is spoken in Alsace. It is traditional in some villages in the canton of Lapoutroie spoken and, like most of the original languages of France from extinction threatened .
The which is spoken in five villages near Colmar in the canton of Lapoutroie in the arrondissement of Colmar-Ribeauvillé in Upper Alsace . The canton is also called Canton which and consists of the villages Lapoutroie , Labaroche , Fréland , Le Bonhomme and Orbey . The villages are partly separated from each other by traditional Alsatian-speaking villages. The area is located in the Vosges on the western edge of Alsace and has around 9,700 inhabitants, of whom around 2,000 ( i.e. 20%) and 2% of primary school students still speak Patwé (analogous to French Patois ) in 1983, so the which is furthest still widespread in Labaroche. Further north in Alsace, in the Val de Villé near Neuviller-la-Roche , there is a second Romansh-speaking enclave.
history
The which has been spoken in five villages in the Vosges for around 1500 years, although it is not clear whether its speakers go back to a native Gallo-Roman population or were later settled there. Romansh-speaking farmers from the Saint-Dié-des-Vosges monastery were probably settled in its possessions in the Weisstal . The geographical isolation, the rural way of life and the Catholic faith ensured that the Which could survive in a German or Alsatian-speaking environment.
In 1775 Jakob Jeremias Oberlin described what his home village was like, which is considered to be the first mention of the dialect.
Before the German annexation of Alsace in 1871, very few people in the which-speaking villages, for example pastors, traveling teachers and other officials, spoke standard French - public schools did not yet exist. After 1871 primary schools of the German administration set up because the German Reich the general compulsory education was in France (until 1881), the classes were held bilingual in German and French, such as textbooks evidence from that period. Only religious instruction, sermons and prayers were given monolingually in French.
The patois fulfilled the function of a secret language, since the German administrative officials mostly understood French, but not which one. As a result, the differences between What and Standard French were emphasized more to make the language even more incomprehensible to the imperial administration. Even during the First World War, it is documented that the which was widespread, in 1900 the pastor of Lapoutroie published a grammar of the dialect. With the new connection of Alsace to France, the Jacobean (i.e. centrally managed state and monolingual French) school system also moved in there, German lessons in primary schools were abolished and the slow decline of the Which began because one of the main functions of the dialect, the demarcation of the administration of foreign rule and its use as a means of identification now ceased to exist.
The following has been handed down from the 1920s:
“Un instituteur de la vallée, jugeant que les élèves sont, dans l'expression, moins spontanés en classe qu'au dehors or ils patoisent à l'aise et de tout leur soûl, a l'idée singulière mais juste au point de vue pédagogique, de faire raconter en patois une fable de La Fontaine inscrite au program. Les doigts des écoliers jaillissent comme des fusées. Chacun glasses de faire son numéro en patois. L'inspecteur à qui ce brave maître d'école rapporte cette expérience, n'a pas assez de mots pour la fustiger. "
“A teacher in the valley who was of the opinion that the pupils were less spontaneous in their expression in the classroom than outside, where they could pato to their heart's content, had the unique, but pedagogically justified idea, a fable by La Fontaine that on the schedule was to have the patois told. The students' fingers rose like rockets. Everyone was dying to give their patois lecture. The inspector to whom this good schoolmaster reported this experience did not have enough words to admonish him. "
During the occupation of Alsace during the Second World War , the Which once again experienced its last heyday, as a demarcation and protection against the occupation by Hitler Germany, as French was forbidden in schools and in public and German was avoided as the language of the unpopular occupiers . A few dozen men from Canton who were forcibly recruited, but were busy with German courses throughout the war and never came to the front. An anecdote from this period tells of the use of which as a secret language.
“Cet instituteur venu d'outre-Rhin, arbitrant times un match de football, se voit cerné par ses potaches: Il o fô, il o fô, le mat 'd'école. (Il est fou, le maître d'école). Une dernière fois, le patois fut une poor. "
“... this teacher, who came from the other side of the Rhine, was surrounded by children because he had badly directed a football game as a referee: Il o fô, il o fô, le mat 'd'école. ("He's crazy, he's crazy, the schoolmaster.") For the last time the patois was a weapon. "
After the liberation, however, it was immediately switched to French. The which was forbidden in the schools and it was made clear to the children that they would not get further than the next village with the patois. The emerging mass media like television and the onset of immigration did the rest, around 1950 people stopped talking to their children.
In the last few years, with the danger of the imminent extinction of their dialect in front of their eyes, the Which has seen another boom. In Orbey , which is even taught in the college and the mass is held on which. There are also stickers with the motto No n'vlo mi peud le patwé on them to promote the preservation of the dialect . (Standard French : Nous ne voulons pas perdre le patois. - "We don't want to give up the dialect".)
In place of what is today, the regional colloquial language , the français régional , has largely taken the place , a development that also happened to Alsatian.
Language examples
| Which | French | German |
|---|---|---|
| Nya | non | No |
| l'èneye | l'année | the year |
| lo wènyè | l'automne | the autumn |
| lè cyerje | la cerise | the cherry |
| lo tchèmi | le chemin | the way |
| lo fermaitche | le fromage | the cheese |
| lè gray | l'herbe | the grass |
| lo laiseye | le lait | the milk |
| lè natche | la neige | the snow |
| lo pcheleye | le pissenlit | Dandelion (coll. Bed seicher ) |
| lè kmartèye | la pomme de terre | the potato |
| lo futa | le printemps | the spring |
| lo ru | la rivière | the river |
| lè rète | la souris | the mouse |
| lo patoe | le trou | the hole |
| lè vètche | la vache | the cow |
| lè valaye | la vallée | the valley |
| lo ouèzi | le voisin | the neighbor |
Numbers from 1 to 10
| Which | French | German |
|---|---|---|
| in | U.N | one |
| douss | deux | two |
| trâche | trois | three |
| couet | quatre | four |
| sync | cinq | five |
| choeye | six | six |
| set | sept | seven |
| oeyt | huit | eight |
| nuf | neuf | nine |
| deyje | dix | ten |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Note sur le patois du Ban de la Roche ( Memento of August 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )