Thirty-Sixth Edition - The German Language
About the German Language and its Dialects
by Daniela Blum
Communication is essential for people living together in a community – a region,
city, town, state or country. Sometimes communication in the same language is
complicated by the existence of different dialects.
Within Germany, people from the North sometimes cannot understand people from
the South. However, the written language is the same and understood by all.
Dialects are often the result of geography. For instance, many nautical
expressions became an integral part of the language of coastal communities,
while the Alpine regions developed their own vocabulary.
The reason is that dialects have developed over history and adapted to the
special needs of each region.
German dialects exist only as spoken and not written languages, and this makes
it difficult to trace their history, since in general there is very little
written evidence of the first occurrence of a German dialect.
Currently, we are able to look back at approximately 1250 years of history of
the German language:
The first occurrence of written German was approximately in the year 750. In
768, Charlemagne was crowned king of the Franks; his empire included almost all
of France, Northern Italy, what is today Austria and all the Germanic territory
- the Allemannians, as well as the Bavarians and Saxons. The languages of these
regions were: Franconian, Bavarian and Saxon.
After the era of Charlemagne, his Empire was divided several times, until the
Eastern region became the German Empire. A single German language evolved in
this community for purposes of disseminating information. However, the spoken
languages still retained their regional characteristics.
This means that even today, it is easy to differentiate, for example, a Swabian
from a Saxon when they speak. Every German can immediately detect a different
dialect or at least an accent when speaking to another German citizen from a
different region where one of these dialects is spoken.
In the largest and most southern province, Bavaria, they speak a dialect that
Germans from the Northern regions, such as Schleswig-Holstein, find difficult to
understand. Even people from neighboring provinces sometimes have difficulty
understanding each other. In fact, it is not only the dialect that are
different, but also the customs and culture of each region. Nowhere is this more
noticeable than in Bavaria, where Southern Bavarians speak German with a very
strong regional accent that Northern Bavarians have trouble understanding.
Southern Bavarians are known for their traditional costume, or “Tracht”
consisting of leather trousers worn by the men and the “dirndl” worn by the
women, at special occasions, like during the famous celebration of Oktoberfest.
Sometimes a particular accent can influence how people perceive other people
from a particular region. For example, people in Upper Palatinate, speak with a
very strong accent that some interpret as not particularly friendly. On the
other hand, the people of Saxony speak with a very distinctive accent that may
sound strange to people from other regions of Germany.
However, increased access to education and the ability to travel are making
differences between dialects and accents less noticeable. For example people
marry people from other parts of the country, they travel around, move to other
areas of the county and no longer always stay in the region where they were
born. Therefore, different accents and dialects are becoming mixed with each
other and the language is becoming more standardized.
German is spoken not only in Germany, but also in other countries, such as
Austria and Switzerland. However, this does not mean that Austrians and Germans,
or Swiss and Germans can readily understand each other. Austrians wonder why
Germans speak such a funny language and Germans wonder the same about
Austrians. For example, when an Austrian speaks about their wardrobe,
they call it Kasten a word that a German would interpret as a box.
The German word for wardrobe is Schrank. Austrians also use the
word Docke for doll, which means absolutely nothing to a German
(The word for doll in German is Puppe).
It is important also to mention the strong influence of other languages,
particularly English, on the German language. Most German children speak at
least some English and they commonly use American expressions such as cool,
kids, beach, band or body. This trend continues into adulthood. In the
business work in particular, many English terms have become part of the
language, such as clustering or Unique Selling Proposition.
The German language will certainly retain its own characteristics, even as the
European Union continues to grow and develop increasingly requiring the ability
to communicate across countries and in different languages. Currently, many
German children learn at least one foreign language in school and many citizens
are bilingual and even multilingual.
Finally, if you are considering translating your website, marketing materials or
product documentation, you need not be concerned about different varieties of
spoken German, since all Germans can read and understand a standardized written
language.
References:
The following websites were consulted during the writing of this newsletter:
http://www.deutsche-staedte.de/sprache/index.html
http://german.about.com/library/blhist_time01.htm
http://www.wer-weiss-was.de/theme46/article39339.thml#39339
