Palatine German (

Standard German Standard High German (SHG), less precisely Standard German or High German (, , or, in Switzerland, ), is the umbrella term for the standard language, standardized varieties of the German language, which are used in formal contexts and for commun ...

: ,

endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

: ) is a group of Rhine Franconian dialects spoken in the Upper Rhine Valley, roughly in the area between

Zweibrücken Zweibrücken (; ; , ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach (Blies), Schwarzbach River. Name The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; older forms of the name include Middl ...

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; ) is a town in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, 666 kilometers (414 m ...

Alzey Alzey () is a ''Verband''-free town – one belonging to no ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fifth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, Germany, Worms, Ingelheim am Rhei ...

Worms The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

Ludwigshafen am Rhein Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning "Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ludwig's Port upon the Rhine"; Palatine German dialects, Palatine German: ''Ludwichshafe''), is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in the German state of Rh ...

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the Germany, German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße Route, Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried' ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ; ; ), historically known in English as Spires, is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in the western part of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the r ...

Landau Landau (), officially Landau in der Pfalz (, ), is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990), a long ...

, Wörth am Rhein and the border to

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

and

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

, in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, but also beyond. The English term ''Palatine'' refers to the

Palatinate region The Palatinate (; ; Palatine German: ''Palz''), or the Rhenish Palatinate (''Rheinpfalz''), is a historical region of Germany. The Palatinate occupies most of the southern quarter of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (''Rheinla ...

(). Almost all traditional dialects of the Palatinate belong to the Palatine dialect group, but the Palatine speech area also extends to the west and east into neighboring regions (

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

, Kurpfalz, southern

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

). The main dialect divisions within Palatine German are (also called ) and (also called ). The

Pennsylvania Dutch language Pennsylvania Dutch (, or ) or Pennsylvania German is a Variety (linguistics), variety of Palatine German dialects, Palatine German spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch, including the Amish, Mennonites, Fancy Dutch, and other related groups in the U ...

is descended primarily from the Palatine German that was spoken by Palatines who immigrated to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

from the 17th to the 19th centuries and maintained their native language.

Danube Swabians The Danube Swabians ( ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in the Kingdom of Hungary in east-central Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in greater numbers in the 17 ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

and

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

also use many elements of Palatine German.

Characteristics

To the northwest, Palatine German is separated from

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

by the ''das''/''dat''-isogloss (Palatine German uses ''das'' or similar forms) and the absence of Rhenish pitch accent. To the southeast, it borders on South Franconian, separated by the ''Appel''/''Apfel''-line (Palatine German: ''Appel''). Within the greater Rhine Franconian dialect area, the traditional defining isoglosses are the northern ''fescht''/''fest''-line that separates Palatine German (''fescht'') from the Hessian dialects (''fest''), and the southern ''Haus''/''Hus''-line that separates Palatine German (''Haus'') from

Lorraine Franconian Lorraine Franconian ( native name: or ; or '; ) is an ambiguous designation for dialects of West Central German (), a group of High German dialects spoken in the Moselle department of the former northeastern French region of Lorraine (See ...

(''Hus''). Like other Rhine Franconian dialects, Palatine German has ''e''-apocope (i.e. loss of earlier final ''-e''), ''n''-apocope (i.e. loss of earlier final ''n'' in the suffix ''-en'') and /oː/ for earlier long ''a'', e.g. ''Strooß''/''Strooße'' 'street'/'streets' (cf. Standard German ''Straße''/''Straßen''). The major division of Palatine German into and is based on a bundle of distinguishing features, such as: * lacks the suffix ''-en'' in the past participle of strong verbs (e.g. ''gebroch'' 'broken', ''geschripp'' 'written'). In , the suffix is retained as ''-e'' (with

apocope In phonology, apocope () is the omission (elision) or loss of a sound or sounds at the end of a word. While it most commonly refers to the loss of a final vowel, it can also describe the deletion of final consonants or even entire syllables. ...

of ''n'', e.g. ''gebroche'', ''geschriwwe''). *Loss of medial ''g'' in in words like ''frooe'' (cf. Standard German ''fragen''). In , it is retained as a

voiced velar fricative The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in most varieties of Modern English but existed in Old English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents ...

(''frooche'' ). * ''han''/''hun'' '(I) have' against ''hap''/''häp''.

Samples

Here are some words in Palatine German with their

equivalents: This sentence is pronounced in : In , it would be the following: In Standard German, the sentence would read: In English, it means: ''I have already told t tohim, but he didn't believe me.'' () () (Standard German) ''Are you hungry too?'' (English)

Grammar

Grammatically, all Palatine dialects do not use the genitive case, which is replaced by the dative, with or without , and most dialects have no imperfect tense but only the perfect.

Notable speakers

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as chancellor of Germany and governed the ''Federal Republic'' from 1982 to 1998. He was leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to ...

( German Chancellor 1982–1998)

References

{{Authority control Palatinate (region) Central German languages German dialects Culture of the Palatinate (region)

Characteristics

Samples

Grammar

Notable speakers

See also

References