Westphalian language

Westphalian Westphalian dialects and belongs to Lower Saxony. There are four dialect groups differed: the Munsterlander Platt, Ostwestfälisch, which also includes the " Platt" in the Osnabrück area, Sauerland Platt and the Westmünsterländische, but also Twents, Achterhoeks and Westerwoldinger Platt in the Netherlands, as well as the southern variant of Emsländer Platt and the Grafschafter Platt of Bentheim.

The following features are characteristic of the Westphalian:

• Distinction of the old long a as in red ( the Council) from later expanded as a sake- ( thing);
• Diphthongization of the old short vowels in open syllables ( " Westphalian refraction " ) as in iäten ( eat ) Wieten, ( know) iems (Ems ) uapen, (open), your wings ( bird). In some areas, are also the long vowels - as in Ostfälischen - diphthongised. Triphthongs occur;
• The words küern ( talk, talk ) and Ruée ( dog).

The Westphalian has preserved numerous archaic grammatical forms and pronunciation habits.

In the verschriftlichten form, there is no standardized spelling rules; is written mostly by phonetic point of view. For the Münsterländische and for the Eastern Westfalia in Ravensberger country there are elaborated spellings.

The vocabulary is described in the Westphalian Westphalian dictionary ( Westphalia North Rhine -Westphalia ) and in the Lower Saxon Dictionary ( Westphalian in Lower Saxony). The Westphalian dictionary is processed by the Commission dialect of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe of a single employee. The final delivery of the Westphalian dictionary goes up to the letter G (2008 ).

The ISO 639-3 code for Westfälisch is wep.