West Lusatian dialect
| West Lusatian | ||
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Spoken in |
Saxony | |
| Linguistic classification |
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The West Lusatian dialect is an East Central German dialect that is mainly spoken in the west of the Saxon Upper Lusatia . He belongs to the group of Lusatian dialects .
features
The Westlausitz dialect is a transition dialect between the Upper Saxon dialect and the Upper Lusatian dialect , and has features of both.
- Similarities with Upper Saxon
Likewise, a Konsonantenerweichung place as in most Saxon dialects, though less strong, instead, mainly from P to B and T to D .
- Differences to Upper Saxon
The voice intonation is less melodic. The consonant softening from K to G does not take place for the most part. Typical Saxon diphthongs such as the characteristic OU (as in Dienoamou ) or EJ ( nej ( no )) do not occur in West Lusatia.
- Similarities with the Upper Lusatian dialect
The speech melody is very similar, even if the West Lusatian sounds a little more "Saxon" than the Upper Lusatian. As in Upper Lusatia, longer word groups are often merged with one another (e.g. weeß'ch'ne for "I don't know" or backmersch ("let's do it")). The characteristic Nu is also used consistently.
- Differences to the Upper Lusatian dialect
The R is not rolled, but pronounced as in High German. The same applies to the L. Most vowels are as moved in Oberlausitzischen, but less strongly, for example, E mostly Ä not to A . (See reading in High German - read West Lusatian - read Upper Lusatian ) The shift from E or Ä to I does not take place either.
- particularities
A peculiarity in some West Lusatian areas is the addition of the ending - (e) n to nouns in the dative or accusative instead of using a specific article. Something similar can be observed in Scandinavian languages, but not in neighboring dialects.
distribution
The language area of the West Lusatian dialect is located in today's Bautzen district . To the west, roughly along the former district border Bischofswerda - Dresden-Land and to the south, roughly along today's district border Bautzen - Saxon Switzerland-Eastern Ore Mountains, there is a relatively sharp language border with the Upper Saxon dialects. In the north and north-east there is a gradual transition to Neulausitzischen , while the dialect in the south-east between the communities of Schmölln-Putzkau , Neukirch / Lausitz and Steinigtwolmsdorf is gradually changing into the Upper Lusatian dialect.
In the northeast, the dialect area borders on the Upper Sorbian language area and in the south on the Czech Republic .
The number of speakers of the West Lusatian dialect is estimated at 50,000, but an exact number cannot be scheduled due to the dialect continuity described.