East Franconian German

East Franconian ( ), usually referred to as Franconian (' ) in German, is a dialect spoken in Franconia, the northern part of the federal state of Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Nuremberg, Bamberg, Coburg, Würzburg, Hof, Bayreuth, Meiningen, Bad Mergentheim, and Crailsheim. The major subgroups are ' (spoken in Lower Franconia and southern Thuringia), ' (spoken in Upper and Middle Franconia) and ' (spoken in some parts of Middle Franconia and Hohenlohe). Until the wholesale expulsion of Germans from Bohemia, the dialect was also spoken around Saaz (today: Žatec).

In the transitional area between Rhine Franconian in the northwest and the Austro-Bavarian dialects in the southeast, East Franconian has elements of Central German and Upper German. The same goes only for South Franconian German in adjacent Baden-Württemberg. East Franconian is one of the German dialects with the highest number of speakers.

The scope of East Franconian is disputed, because it overlaps with neighbouring dialects like Bavarian and Swabian in the south, Rhine Franconian in the west and Upper Saxon in the north.

East Franconian is researched by the "Fränkisches Wörterbuch" project in Fürth, which is run by Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Erlangen-Nuremberg University.

Grouping

East Franconian is subdivided in multiple different ways.

One view differentiates three major sub-dialects:
* (East Franconian)
** (Upper East Franconian): in the ''Würzburger Übergangsstreifen, Regnitz-Raum Obermain-Raum, Bayreuther-Raum, Obermain-Raum, Bayreuther-Raum, Nailaer-Raum, Plauener-Raum''
** (Lower East Franconian): in the ''Würzburger-Raum'', subdivided in a Northern and Southern part, ''Coburger-Raum, Henneberger-Raum, Reußischer-Raum''
** (South East Franconian)

Another view differentiates two major sub-dialects:
* (East Franconian): in Franken and a part of Baden-Württemberg with Wertheim and Tauberbischofsheim and also in the Vogtland
** (Lower East Franconian): in Unterfranken and in the Coburger and Henneberger Raum
** (Upper East Franconian): in Ober- and Mittelfranken

A third view has:Peter Wiesinger: ''Die Einteilung der deutschen Dialekte.'' In: ''Dialektologie. Ein Handbuch zur deutschen und allgemeinen Dialektforschung. Herausgegeben von Werner Besch, Ulrich Knoop, Wolfgang Putschke, Herbert Ernst Wiegand. Zweiter Halbband.'' Volume 1.2 of ''Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft'' (HSK). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York, 1983, p. 807ff., here p. 842–846 (sub-chapter: ''Das Ostfränkische'') and p. 862
* (East Franconian)
** (Lower East Franconian)
*** : around ''Meiningen – Suhl – Schmalkalden''
*** (Lower East Franconian in a stricter sense): ''hohenlohischer Raum'', ''Würzburger Raum''
**** : in the Würzburg area ()
** ''area between Unterostfränkisch and Oberostfränkisch:''
** (Upper East Franconian):
*** (= ):

See also

* Franconia
* Eberhard Wagner, German regional dialect researcher, in the dialect of Upper Franconia (East Franconian German).

References

External links

Linguistic atlas of Middle Franconia


Linguistic atlas of Lower Franconia

{{Authority control

German dialects
Languages of Germany
Bavaria
Upper German languages