Bernese German
Spoken in
- Indo-European Germanic West - Germanic German upper German Alemannisch High Alemannic Bern German
-
Gsw ( Swiss German )
Gsw ( Swiss German )
Bern German ( proper name Bärndütsch ), the Swiss German dialects are spoken in the Bernese Mittelland. They include, for high Alemannic.
- 5.1 sentence structure (syntax)
- 5.2 diffraction (morphology)
Dissemination
There is no single, clearly defined bern German language area. Usually, the language spoken throughout the German-speaking part of the canton of Bern Bern German dialects are called, but the actual dialect boundaries run only partially along the cantonal borders. In the northeast of the Canton of Freiburg ( lake district ) and in the south of the canton of Solothurn ( Bucheggberg ) is also spoken bern German, and in the south west of the canton of Aargau and in the south west of the canton of Lucerne ( Entlebuch ), there are dialects that are very similar to the Bern Germans. In the valleys of the Bernese Oberland, however, the Bernese Uplands is spoken, that differs significantly from Bern Germans of the Central Plateau. In the Bernese Jura - apart from the bern German Anabaptists who settled on different mountain ranges such as the Sonnenberg - spoke French in Bern Biel both German and French. Bernese German is also spoken by about 6,000 Amish in a linguistic island in the U.S. state of Indiana in Adams County.
Internal structure
In the area of the Canton of Bern, there are numerous dialects, their characteristics and number, however, are on the wane.
City of Bern
Within the city of Bern, there were mid-20th century a number of sociolects which are hardly to be found: the patrician spoke the standard German more archaic patrician Bern German ( no l - vocalization, no nd velarization, maintaining the ending- ung, throat -r as in French ); the old established Bernese the middle and upper classes spoke the upscale city of Bern German, which differed from that of the lower middle class and lower class; the bottom layer in the Matte district said in part, the so-called Matt English; the immigrants from the surrounding country spoke dialects.
The modern city dialect is based to a large part of the country dialects, but also has some words of Matt English, along with many new loanwords mainly from the standard German and English. The city dialect shines his hand back to the country, which in the catchment area of the agglomeration of Bern is an increasing leveling of dialectal differences.
Northern German Bern
The most obvious variant, which is pronounced today, is the a / o difference. In the northern part of the canton, that is the Seeland, in the Upper Aargau and in parts of the lower Emmental is in many words / a ː / to / ɔ ː / verdumpft (yes / jo, Year / Johr ). The o - field, however, is on the decline.
Southern German Bern
On and on the Alpine region recedes originally throughout the Bernese Mittelland widespread loss of / n / before following / x / (ch ) and / kx /, for example Treiche / treiɣ̊ə /
Typical of the area south of Bern is the monophthongization of / ei oy ou / to / ɪ ː ʏ ː ʊ ː /.
Examples are Gììss / ɡ̊ɪ ː ː s / instead Geiss / ɡ̊eis ː /
Bernese Oberland
In the Bernese Oberland, you encounter a larger dialect diversity as the Central Plateau. The Oberland dialects with Include in dialektologischer respects those of previous Amtsbezirks Schwarzburg belong to the High Alemannic; recognizable among other things, the vowel system that has kept the Middle High German monophthongs in hiatus ( snowing / schnye, boue / buue ). Also missing from the Oberland typical of the Bern German l - vocalization (milk / Miuch ) and the nd velarization ( Dog / Hung ). Often only the dialects of the Central Plateau are called Bernese German, while the dialects of the Bernese Oberland Brienz Oberländisch and / Haslitaler dialect are called.
Pronunciation ( phonology )
One feature that distinguishes the Bern German by most high of Alemannic dialects, the very widespread, not alone - as in other high- Alemannic dialects - to the position before / t / limited reduction of the historical long and therefore closed high vowels.
As in other high- Alemannic dialects no vocal strain has taken place in open syllables.
Similarly as in Middle High German, but in contrast to the High German, so words like charging
To be particularly typical of the Bern German, the following two features apply, although they are not considered in the traditional patrician Bern German and do not occur continuously in the presence of:
- L - vocalization: / l / before a consonant or at the end of the syllable is pronounced as [u (w) ], for example Miuch [ mɪu̯ɣ̊ ]
, Faue / Fauue / Fauwe [ fau̯wə ] , Esu [ ɛz̥u ] ; - Nd - velarization: / nd / is pronounced mostly [ ŋ ( ː ) ], for example angers [On ː ərs ]
, Ching [ ɣ̊ɪŋ ː ] . In certain words omitted the nd velarization, for example in Fründ [ frʏnd̥ ] .
From dialects east Brünigbahn -well - Reuss line, such as the Zurich German, the German Bern differs by the pronunciation of diphthongs, which date back to Middle High German EI and OU.
They are pronounced as [ ei] and [ou ], and not [ aɪ ] and as [ aʊ ], for example, meat / flei̯ʒ̊ /
Vocabulary ( lexis )
Many bern German - specific words have been lost in recent decades;
the bern German vocabulary corresponds to today not least to a large part of the general Swiss German vocabulary.
However, there are special features, for example gäng / geng / went / ɡ̊æŋ ː, ɡ̊ɛŋ ː, ɡ̊ɪŋ ː /
As bern German Schibbolethe the words are äuwä / äuä / æu̯wæ ː /
Grammar
The bern German grammar differs in many areas from the standard German, but is largely identical with the grammar of other Alemannic dialects.
Sentence structure (syntax)
Verbsequenzen have more of the default language from dialects than in the more eastern German Switzerland:
- Berne German: " Wiu i's ha bhouptet "
- Zurich German: " I Wil 's bhauptet han"
- Standard language: "Because I have asserted it "
As in other Alemannic dialects relative clauses are formed with the relative particle where: " Ds Ross, where mer gfueret hei"
Diffraction (morphology)
Typical Swiss German ( Swiss German and West ), the plural ending -e is also in the ( monosyllabic ) strong masculine nouns, where most other high- Alemannic dialects null terminator know:
- Berne German: Wääg e, e table, e Stei, plural zwe Wääge, zwe tables, zwe stones
- Zurich German: en Wääg, s table, en Stäi, plural zwee Wääg, zwee table, zwee Stäi
- Standard German is a path, a table, a stone, plural two -way, two tables, two stones
However, this e - tended in recent times to spread in the rest of German Switzerland.
Typically Bern German, that the weak neuter of the adjective originates in nominative and accusative in-e, even here most of the other high- Alemannic dialects have at least conventionally null terminator:
- Berne German: s groosse Ching
- Zurich German: s Grooß Chind
This -e, however, has spread in recent times in the rest of German Switzerland.
West as in the other dialects Brünigbahn -well Reuss - line ( and in standard German ) in Bern also has the German verb conjugation no plural unit on, but are two different forms:
- Berne German: me / hei si - dihr unit
- Zurich German: me / you / si dealer
- Standard German: we / they have - do you have
The marking of grammatical gender on the number of words - which is also otherwise known in Swiss German - two and three is relatively common:
- Zwe man
- Two Froue
- Zwöi Ching
- Three man
- Three Froue
- Press Ching
Like other Upper German dialects also knows the Bern German no past tense. The High German we looked corresponds to the perfect tense me gluegt hot. To print the Vorvergangenheit the double Perfect is used:
- Berne German: Won i bi inecho, hei si scho ggässe gha.
- Standard German: When I came in, they had already eaten.
The designation of a future event with the auxiliary verb be is not common.
Instead, if necessary, Temporalpartikel used: I gseh 's de
Speech behavior ( pragmatics )
A striking feature concerns the polite form: In Bern German, the polite form is not, as in Standard German with the third person plural you made , but as in French with the second person plural Dihr / dɪ ː r /
Spelling
Bernese German is primarily a spoken language, even if a relatively extensive bern German literature exists. A single spelling there in Bern Germans did not, however, there may be two main directions, one older and one younger are distinguished:
- The older spelling is trying to adapt as possible to the standard German typeface. This approach, as it represents Werner Marti in his book Bärndütschi Schrybwys is chosen by most Bernese dialect writers such as Rudolf von Tavel, Simon Gfeller, Otto von Greyerz, Carl Albert Loosli and Kurt Marti and is also common in the newer Bernese dialect literature.
- The newer spelling attempts, however, to reproduce the dialect sounds as accurately as possible phonetically, regardless of the usual typeface. This Dieth as Scripture - by Eugen Dieth, the author of the 1938 book published Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift - known orthography in Berne less appeal than in the other parts of German Switzerland.
Like all dialects of German Switzerland is Bern German as a written language in areas currently on the rise, where a " quasi- verbal " expression is used, that is, in SMS, chat, children's songs and personal letters and emails.
It is usually written phonetically " by feel " and more or less.
Thus the spellings do not fit into the above two approaches, which on one hand may be that the young writers have little knowledge of the vernacular literature, and on the other hand, the fact that they do not want to adhere to established rules or can.
This convention may arise which are not found in the traditional dialect spelling, for example, playing the schwa with < ä > as in < ä Taschälampä > or