Rheinische Dokumenta

The Rhenish documentation is developed in the early 1980s and 1986 from the Rhineland Regional Council presented transcription for the Rhenish dialects of northern and southern Lower Rhine, the western and central Rhineland, the Bergisch Land, the Westerwald, the western and eastern Eifel, the lower and the upper Moselle and the region around the Hunsrück and Nahe.

Besides the usual in High German umlaut letters together with ä, ö and ü find nine special character using:

  • The a sub with a dull point represents a
  • The ä with lower tick stands for a open ä as in Engl. "can" or is spoken in the eastern Eifel region and the Lower Moselle: " Bään " ( = legs), " määst " ( = usually).
  • The ch with sub-loop is the " ah - sound" ( unvoiced uvular fricative ).
  • The E with Unterstrichlein stands for schwa, as in "Pause".
  • The o with Sub checkmark represents the open o as in " cooking " (approximate half-open back vowel ).
  • The ö with lower tick stands for the open ö as in "hell" (approximate half-open front vowel ).
  • The r with lower dot stands for the strongly grated, voiced, ch -like r.
  • The s with lower point represents the voiced s as in "Sage" ( voiced alveolar fricative ).
  • The sch with sub-loop stands for the voiced fricative as in " journalist " ( voiced postalveolar fricative ).

The documentation is strictly phonemic. Thus, in the Rheinische documentation consistently consonants are simply written. The length of the vowels results from the single or double letters, for example:

  • Plaat ( = bald ). /. Plat ( = platform )
  • Kiis ( = cheese). /. Kis ( = gravel)
  • Hööt ( = head, hats ). /. Höt ( = hut)
  • Püütsche ( = little children ). /. Pütsche ( = pouts )

Also you write - in contrast to the high German - for example,

  • Schtambooch ( = Studbook )
  • Mongk ( = mouth)
  • Dr tSOCh KOEt! ( = The train is coming! )
  • Los Vrau di ents langks! ( = Let the woman take a look! )

However, intonation or other distinctive and typical for individual regions subtleties can not capture the Rheinische documentation.

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