Eastphalian language

Eastphalian, or Eastfalian (, Eastphalian and Low Saxon: ''ostfälsch Platt''), is a Low German language spoken in southeastern parts of Lower Saxony and western parts of Saxony-Anhalt in Germany.

Geographical extent

The language area between the Weser and Elbe rivers stretches from the Lüneburg Heath in the north to the Harz mountain range and Weser Uplands in the south. It comprises the Hanover Region, Brunswick and Calenberg Land as well as the Magdeburg Börde, including the cities of Hanover, Braunschweig, Hildesheim, Göttingen and Magdeburg. It roughly corresponds with the historic region of Eastphalia.

Classification

Eastphalian as a separate dialect was determined by 19th century linguistics, tracing it back to Old Saxon variants spoken in eastern parts of the medieval stem duchy of Saxony. Towards the Elbe region in the southeast, the language area is increasingly influenced by the High German consonant shift.

Features

The most prominent characteristic in Eastphalian is the object pronouns ''mek'' and ''dek'' in contrast to ''mi'' and ''di'' in Northern Lower Saxon, respectively for High German ''mir'' and ''mich'' resp. ''dir'' and ''dich''), as well as ''öhne'', ''ösch''/''össek'' and ''jöck'' (Northern Low German ''em, u , jo u'' High German ''ihm/ihn, uns, euch''). Although Eastphalian agrees with many Low German dialects (with exceptions, e.g., in southern Westphalian) in that the dative has coincided with the accusative in the forms mentioned, its peculiarity is shown by the fact that the accusative has prevailed over the dative in all of these forms (in Northern Low Saxon it is the other way around). In Eastphalian, an accusative of the first person plural has been preserved with the form ''üsch'' and southern Eastphalian ''össek'' (cf. Old High German ''unsih,'' Old English ''ūsic'' esides ''ūs'' also High Alemannic ''üs'', südbairisch ''ins'' in Upper German).

Much like in most Dutch Low Saxon variants, the e-apocope, i.e. the omission of the ''-e'' at the end of the word, as took place in North Lower Saxon, was entirely absent in Eastphalian. Thus, the ablaut ''-e'' in words like ''Sprake'' (language, speech) and ''Wiele'' (while) remains and is not dropped. Furthermore, the ''-e'' is also preserved in nouns in the nominative case, where High German no longer has them either, such as in Harte (heart), Frue (woman), Herre (man), Bäre (bear). The same is true for many adjectives, such as dicke (fat, thick) and wisse (clear, fast; cf. German ''gewiss'') and substantivizing endings such as -unge and -nisse, as well as for the older form -ig(e) / , which developed from Middle Low German ''-inge''. The ''-e'' ending has also survived for nouns in the dative case. Thus, for example, ''uppen Felle'' (on the field).

Another feature of Eastphalian is the residual preservation of the prefix ''ge-'' as ''e-'' in the participle II (past participle) of verbs; since this prefix has also been lost in the very Northern regions of Eastphalia, e. g., for example, in Celle its ''wään'' ("been") is opposed to southern ''ewää(se)n'' , or ''ewest'' . However, this prefix is dropped if the previous word already ends in a schwa like ''-e'' or ''-er''. Again, this is very similar to most Dutch Low Saxon varieties classified as Westfalian.

Another striking difference between Eastphalian and all other Low German dialects is the absence (or undoing) of sound expansion in open syllable before ''-el, -en, -er'' in the following syllable, e. g. Eastphalian ''Löppel'' , ''betten'' , ''Pepper'' ("spoon, bit, pepper") versus Northern Low Saxon ''Läpel'' , ''bäten'' , ''Päper'' .

Eastphalian also takes its own position in equalizing Old Saxon phonetic positions, especially in reducing vowels distinguished in open syllables, by simplifying more than Westphalian (which has no reduction in its southern dialects), but not going as far as the core area of Northern Lower Saxon (where only three of the original eight vowel phonemes remain). Despite the diversity of the sounds in detail, most of the Eastphalian dialects thus have a common sound system. (In this case, besides the Heide-Eastphalian the Göttingisch-Grubenhagen-Eastphalian - which in this case is in the same position as the East-Westphalian - is left out).

Another thing to mention is that prepositions in most of Eastphalian do not contain an umlaut. These include ''for'' , ''unner'' and ''over'' , as opposed to Northern Lower Saxon ''för'', ''ünner'' and ''över''.

Subdivisions

* Elbe Eastphalian (around Oschersleben and Haldensleben in the Magdeburg Börde between Helmstedt and Magdeburg)
* Göttingisch-Grubenhagensch (around Göttingen, Northeim and Osterode am Harz
* Heide Eastphalian (around Celle, with Northern Low Saxon elements)
* Central Eastphalian is the Eastphalian subdialect spoken in a large area surrounding Braunschweig and Hanover.
** Hildesheimsch (from around Hildesheim and Peine up to Braunschweig)
** Hannoversch (in the city of Hannover)
** Calenbergsch (west of Hannover)
** Einbecksch (around Einbeck)
** Bronswieksch (in the city of Braunschweig)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eastphalian Language
Low German
German dialects
Languages of Germany
Saxony-Anhalt
Culture of Lower Saxony
Culture in Braunschweig