Alsatian dialect

"Alsacien" redirects here. For the German wine grape that is also known as Alsacien, see Elbling.

Not to be confused with Lorraine Franconian.

Alsatian
Elsässerdeutsche, Alsacien
Native to	France
Region	Alsace
Native speakers	unknown (1.5 million in France cited 1987)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Upper German Alemannic German Alsatian
Official status
Recognised minority language in	France
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gsw (with Swiss German)
Glottolog	swis1247  (Swiss German)

Alsatian (Alsatian and Alemannic German: Elsässerditsch (literally Alsatian German); French: Alsacien; German: Elsässisch or Elsässerdeutsch) is a Low Alemannic German dialect spoken in most of Alsace, a region in eastern France which has passed between French and German control five times since 1681.

File:Alsace Dialects.PNG

Language family

A bilingual (French and Alsatian) sign in Mulhouse.

Alsatian is closely related to other nearby Alemannic dialects, such as Swiss German, Swabian, and Markgräflerisch as well as Kaiserstühlerisch. It is often confused with Lorraine Franconian, a more distantly related Franconian dialect spoken in the northeast corner of Alsace and in neighbouring Lorraine. Like other dialects and languages, Alsatian has also been influenced by outside sources. Words of Yiddish origin can be found in Alsatian, and modern conversational Alsatian includes adaptations of French words and English words, especially concerning new technologies.

Many speakers of Alsatian could, if necessary, write in reasonable standard German. For most this would be rare and confined to those who have learned German at school or through work. As with other dialects, various factors determine when, where, and with whom one might converse in Alsatian. Some dialect speakers are unwilling to speak standard German, at times, to certain outsiders and prefer to use French. In contrast, many people living near the border with Basel, Switzerland, will speak their dialect with a Swiss person from that area, as they are mutually understandable for the most part; similar habits may apply to conversations with people of the nearby German Markgräflerland. Some street names in Alsace may use Alsatian spellings (they were formerly displayed only in French but are now bilingual in some places, especially Strasbourg and Mulhouse).

Orthography

Majuscule forms
A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	Ä	À	É	Ö	Ü	Ù
Minuscule forms
a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z	ä	à	é	ö	ü	ù
IPA
/a/, /ə/	/b̥/	/k/, /ɡ̊/	/d̥/	/e/, /eː/, /ə/	/f/	/ɡ̊/	/h/	/ɪ/	/j/	/k/	/l/	/m/	/n/, /ŋ/	/o/	/p/	/k/	/ɾ/	/s/	/t/	/ʊ/	/v/	/ʋ/	/ks/	/j/	/z/	/ɛ/	/ɑ/, /ɑː/	/ɛ/	/œ/	/y/	/u/

C, Q, X, and Y are only used in loanwords.

Phonology

Consonants

Alsatian has a rather simple set of 14 consonants:

	Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n			ŋ
Stop	b̥	d̥			ɡ̊, kʰ
Affricate	pf	ts
Fricative	f	s	ʃ	ç	(x)
Sonorant	ʋ	l

Two consonants are restricted in their distribution: /kʰ/ only occurs at the beginning of a word or morpheme, and then only if followed immediately by a vowel; /ŋ/ never occurs at the beginning of a word or morpheme.

Alsatian, like some German dialects, has lenited all obstruents but [k]. Its lenes are, however, voiceless as in all Southern German varieties. Therefore, they are here transcribed /b̥/, /d̥/, /ɡ̊/.

The phoneme /ç/ has a velar allophone [x] after back vowels (/u/, /o/, /ɔ/, and /a/ in those speakers who do not pronounce this as [æ]), and palatal [ç] elsewhere. In southern dialects, there is a tendency to pronounce it /x/ in all positions, and in Strasbourg the palatal allophone tends to conflate with the phoneme /ʃ/.

Vowels

Short vowels: /ʊ/, /o/, /ɒ/, /a/ ([æ] in Strasbourg), /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /i/, /y/.

Long vowels: /ʊː/, /oː/, /ɒː/, /aː/, /ɛː/, /eː/, /iː/, /yː/

Comparative vocabulary list

English	Alsatian	High Alemannic	Standard German	Swabian German	Standard French	Standard Dutch
house	Hüüs [hyˑs]	Huus	Haus	Hous	maison	huis
loud	lüüt [lyˑd̥]	luut	laut	lout	bruyant	luid
people	Lit [lɪd̥]	Lüt	Leute	Leid	gens/peuple	lui
today	hit [hɪd̥]	hüt	heute	heid	aujourd'hui	heden
beautiful	schen [ʃeːn]	schö	schön	sche	beau	schoon (Belgium), mooi (the Netherlands)
Earth	Ard [aˑɾd̥]	Ärd	Erde	Erd	terre	aarde
Fog	Nabel [naːb̥l̩]	Näbel	Nebel	Nebl	brouillard	nevel
water	Wàsser [ʋɑsəɾ]	Wasser	Wasser	Wasser	eau	water
man	Mànn [mɑˑn]	Maa	Mann	Mà	homme	man
to eat	assa [asə]	ässe	essen	essa	manger	eten
to drink	trenka [d̥ɾəŋɡ̊ə]	trinkche	trinken	trenka	boire	drinken
little	klai [ɡ̊laɪ̯]	chlei	klein	kloi	petit, petite	klein
child	Kind [kɪnd̥]	Chind	Kind	Kind	enfant	kind
day	Däi	Dag	Tag	Dàg	jour	dag
woman	Frài	Frou	Frau	Frau	femme	vrouw

Status of Alsatian in France

The constitution of the Fifth Republic states that French alone is the official language of the Republic. However, Alsatian, along with other regional languages, is recognized by the French government in the official list of languages of France. France is a signatory to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages but has never ratified the law and has not given regional languages the support that would be required by the charter. The policies of the Paris government have had the deliberate effect of greatly weakening the prevalence of native languages in France that are not "French." As a result, the Alsatian dialect of German has gone from being the prevalent language of the region to one in decline. A 1999 INSEE survey counted 548,000 adult speakers of Alsatian in France, making it the second most-spoken regional language in the country (after Occitan). Like all regional languages in France, however, the transmission of Alsatian is on the decline. While 43% of the adult population of Alsace speaks Alsatian, its use has been largely declining amongst the youngest generations.

References

• (French) [1] François Héran, et al. (2002) "La dynamique des langues en France au fil du XX^e siècle". Population et sociétés 376, Ined.
• (French) [2] "L'alsacien, deuxième langue régionale de France" Insee, Chiffres pour l'Alsace no. 12, December 2002
• (French) Brunner, Jean-Jacques. L'alsacien sans peine. ASSiMiL, 2001. ISBN 2-7005-0222-1
• (French) Laugel-Erny, Elsa. Cours d'alsacien. Les Editions du Quai, 1999.
• (French) Matzen, Raymond, and Léon Daul. Wie Geht's ? Le dialecte à la portée de tous La Nuée Bleue, 1999. ISBN 2-7165-0464-4
• (French)Matzen, Raymond, and Léon Daul. Wie Steht's ? Lexiques alsacien et français, Variantes dialectales, Grammaire La Nuée Bleue, 2000. ISBN 2-7165-0525-X

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• 'Hover & Hear' Alsatian pronunciations, and compare with equivalents in English and other Germanic languages.
• Euromosaic: The status of Germanic languages in France (on website of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya).
• Alsatian placenames
• (German)Wörterbuch der elsässischen Mundarten
• Alsatian artists