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Rhenish Franconian or Rhine Franconian (german: Rheinfränkisch ) is a
dialect chain of
West Central German
West Central German (german: Westmitteldeutsch) belongs to the Central, High German dialect family of German. Its dialects are Franconian and comprise the parts of the Rhinelandic continuum located south of the Benrath line isogloss, includin ...
. It comprises the varieties of German spoken across the western regions of the states of
Saarland,
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) 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 ...
, northwest Baden-Württemberg, and
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Da ...
in Germany. It is also spoken in northeast France, in the eastern part of the of
Moselle
The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...
in the
Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of G ...
region, and in the north-west part of
Bas-Rhin in
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it ha ...
. To the north, it is bounded by the
Sankt Goar line (or '' line'') which separates it from
Moselle Franconian
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Moselle Franconian (german: Moselfränkisch, lb, Muselfränkesch) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish.
It is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the ...
; to the south, it is bounded by the
Main line which is also referred to as the ''Speyer line'' which separates it from the
Upper German dialects.
Subgroups
[Cornelia Stroh: ''Sprachkontakt und Sprachbewußtsein: Eine soziolinguistische Studie am Beispiel Ost-Lothringens.'' Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen, Tübingen, 1993, p. 34]
* or
Hessian
*
** or
Palatinate German
** or
Lorraine Franconian
See also
*
Saarland (section ''Local dialect'')
*
Moselle Franconian
__NOTOC__
Moselle Franconian (german: Moselfränkisch, lb, Muselfränkesch) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish.
It is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the ...
(adjacent language area)
Bibliography
* Hughes, Stephanie. 2005. Bilingualism in North-East France with specific reference to Rhenish Franconian spoken by Moselle Cross-border (or frontier) workers. In Preisler, Bent, et al., eds. ''The Consequences of Mobility: Linguistic and Sociocultural Contact Zones''. Roskilde, Denmark: Roskilde Universitetscenter: Institut for Sprog og Kultur. .
References
Central German languages
German dialects
Rhineland
Lorraine-German people
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