Swabian language

Swabian (Schwäbisch) is one of the Alemannic dialects of High German, spoken in the region Swabia. Swabia covers much of Germany's southwestern Land (state) of Baden-Württemberg (including the capital Stuttgart and in the rural area known as the Swabian Alb) and in the southwest of the Land Bavaria.

The dialect ranges from a 'standard' Swabian, spoken in Stuttgart, to slightly differing and 'thicker' forms found in smaller towns in the countryside. Older people can often tell the exact village a person comes from merely by hearing his or her accent.

Swabian is difficult for speakers of Standard German to understand. It contains vocabulary that differs altogether from Standard German (eg. 'jam' in Standard German is Marmelade while in Swabian it becomes Gsälz).

Variation

The Swabian dialect is composed of numerous sub-dialects, each of which has its own variations. These sub-dialects can be categorized by the difference in the formation of the past participle of 'sein' (to be) into gwä and gsi. The Gsi groupe is nearer to other Alemannic dialects, such as Swiss German.

Characteristics

Characteristics (in comparison to Standard German) include:

• The Middle High German monophthongs î and û have become [e͡i] and [o͡u], not [a͡ɪ] and [a͡ʊ].
• the ending "-et" for verbs in the 3rd person plural
• as in other Alemannic dialects, the pronunciation of "s" before consonants as [ʃ] (e.g. Fest 'party' is pronounced as Fescht)
• the diminutive ending "-le" (spoken very quickly, e.g. Haus may become Häusle) and "-la" for plurals (e.g. Spätzla)

Swabian dialect writers

• Sebastian Sailer (1714-1777)
• August Lämmle
• Sebastian Blau

External links

• The Swabian-English dictionary