The Eifel dialects () are those

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s spoken in the

Eifel mountains The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. They divide into two language regions: the dialects spoken in the southern Eifel (''Eifelisch'') are part of the

Moselle Franconian dialect group Moselle Franconian (; ) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian dialects, Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish. Overview Moselle Franconian is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the ...

and closely resemble

Luxembourgish Luxembourgish ( ; also ''Luxemburgish'', ''Luxembourgian'', ''Letzebu(e)rgesch''; ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. The language is standardized and officiall ...

. In the northern Eifel, by contrast, the dialects (''Eifelplatt'') belong to the Ripuarian dialect group and are more like ''

Öcher Platt Ripuarian ( ) or Ripuarian Franconian is a German dialect group, part of the West Central German language group. Together with the Moselle Franconian which includes the Luxembourgish language, Ripuarian belongs to the larger Central Franconian ...

'' or '' Kölsch''. In between there is a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

of typical transitions, whereby more or less every village speaks a little differently from its neighbours.

Linguistic geography

The development of territorial structures in the

Eifel The Eifel (; , ) is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Com ...

since the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

is reflected in the development of the Eifel dialects. From a linguistic point of view, the Eifel can be divided into the Moselle Franconian and the Ripuarian dialect regions. The "Eifel language barrier", which separates the two dialects along a broad strip of territory, extends from the northern part of the

Bitburg-Prüm The Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm () is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) Luxembourg, Belgium and the districts of Euskirchen, Vulkaneifel, Bernkastel-Wittlich and Trier-Saarburg. History ...

, via Kronenburg,

Blankenheim Blankenheim may refer to: Places * Blankenheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, a municipality in western Germany * Blankenheim, Saxony-Anhalt, a municipality in eastern Germany *Blankenheim Castle Blankenheim Castle () is a ''schloss'' above the village ...

Nettersheim Nettersheim () is a municipality in the Euskirchen (district), district of Euskirchen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the Eifel hills, approx. 20 km south-west of Euskirchen. The rivers Erft and Urft have thei ...

Altenahr Altenahr () is a municipality in the district of Ahrweiler, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative centre for the eponymous collective municipality, to which it belongs. Altenahr is a state-recognised tourist resort and is ra ...

and

Ahrweiler Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler () is a spa town in the German Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate that serves as the capital of the Ahrweiler district. The A61 motorway connects the town with cities like Cologne and Mainz. Formed by the merging of the ...

along the

Vinxtbach The Vinxtbach is a stream of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is around long, rises south-southwest of Schalkenbach-Obervinxt and east of the ''Adert'' and discharges into the River Rhine near Rheineck Castle between Bad Breisig and Brohl-Lü ...

to its confluence with the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

at Bad Breisig. The old Roman border between

Germania superior Germania Superior ("Upper Germania") was an imperial province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of today's western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany. Important cities were Besançon ('' Vesont ...

and

Germania inferior ''Germania Inferior'' ("Lower Germania") was a Roman province from AD 85 until the province was renamed ''Germania Secunda'' in the 4th century AD, on the west bank of the Rhine bordering the North Sea. The capital of the province was Colonia Cl ...

ran here too. In the

feudal period Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring societ ...

, the border between the

Electorate of Trier The Electorate of Trier ( or '; ) was an Hochstift, ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that existed from the end of the 9th to the early 19th century. It was the temporal possession of the prince-archbishop of Trier (') wh ...

and

Electorate of Cologne The Electorate of Cologne (), sometimes referred to as Electoral Cologne (), was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that existed from the 10th to the early 19th century. It consisted of the Hochstift—the temporal posses ...

also followed this line and, today, the border between

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

and

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

runs within this strip of land, which in linguistics is also referred to as the Vinxtbach Line or Dorp-Dorf Line.http://www.rheinische-landeskunde.lvr.de/sprache/namen/ortsnamen/ on 3 September 2012 The Eifel dialect is also spoken in the neighbouring

German-speaking Community of Belgium The German-speaking Community (, , DG), also known as East Belgium ( ), is one of the three Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, federal communities of Belgium. The community is composed of nine municipalities in Liège Province, ...

. Especially in the southern part of this region, which is also called the

Belgian Eifel The Belgian Eifel (, Luxembourgish: ''Belscher Äifel'') in the German-speaking part of Belgium generally refers to the southern part of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, German-speaking community which forms the Canton of Sankt Vith (Germ ...

, the dialect has been able to preserve its importance in everyday life. Historically, these territories belonged mainly to the

Duchy of Luxembourg The Duchy of Luxembourg (; ; ; ) was a Imperial state, state of the Holy Roman Empire, the ancestral homeland of the noble House of Luxembourg. The House of Luxembourg became one of the most important political forces in the 14th century, comp ...

(until 1815), while smaller elements belonged to the Electorate of Trier.

Literature

* Fritz Koenn: " - Eifeler Wörter und Ausdrücke gesammelt und kurzweilig erklärt von Fritz Koenn". Helios, Aachen, 1995, . * Hans-Dieter Arntz: ''Jüdisches im Dialekt und Platt der Voreifel und Eifel – Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit durch Erinnerung an sprachliche Relikte''. In: Kreis Euskirchen (publ.): ''Jahrbuch des Kreises Euskirchen 2010'', pp. 8–17.

References

External links

{{Commonscat, Eifel Dialects
www.eifelfux.de - Website with many examples of the Eifel dialect

Central German languages Tonal languages Culture of the Eifel German dialects