Franconian (linguistics)

Legend:

  Low Franconian dialects in the Netherlands.

  Low Franconian dialects in Germany.

  West Middle German dialects.

  Transitional Upper German dialects.

Franconian is a linguistic marker for a number of West Germanic languages and dialects spoken in the former core of the Frankish Empire: the Low Countries (The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) and western Germany (around Aachen, Cologne and Trier) . Within this groups there are a number of well known languages and dialects, such as Dutch and Afrikaans but also Pennsylvania German spoken in North America.

Controversy

Linguists doubt whether there really is a Franconian linguistic family as no proof exists that the present Franconian languages and dialects historically developed from a common ancestor language.

Low Frankish dialects and languages (via Old Dutch), for instance, are commonly accepted to be a descendant of Old Frankish, the proposed common ancestor and language of the Franks, while West Central German and the Upper German transition dialects might just have been heavily influenced by it rather than being its direct descendant.

The 3 Groups

Low Frankish

Low Frankish, also called Low Franconian, consists of Dutch, Afrikaans and their dialects. They are spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, the western tip of Germany, Suriname, the Caribbean as well as in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Modern Low Frankish dialects

With a total of over 40 million speakers this is the most numerous of the 3 groups, as well as most spread globally and the only group that has members which are official, national and standard languages.

Sometimes, Low Franconian is grouped together with Low German. However, since this grouping is not based on common linguistic innovations, but rather on the absence of the High German consonant shift and Anglo-Frisian features, there are linguistic reference books that do not group them together.

• Dutch
  • Brabantian
  • Zuid-Gelders (Variant also spoken in Germany)
    • Pella Dutch
  • West Flemish
  • East Flemish
  • Zealandic
  • Hollandic
  • Limburgish (partly)
• Afrikaans

West Central German dialects

The West Central German dialects are spoken in the German states of South-Western North Rhine-Westphalia, Western Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, in the bordering French département Moselle, in Luxembourg, by the Transylvanian Saxons in Romania, and by the Amish in North America. It is estimated that these dialects have about 1,700,000 native speakers

• Moselle Franconian
  • Luxembourgish
  • Mainfränkisch
• Transylvanian Saxon
• Rhine Franconian
  • Limburgisch (partly)
  • Palatinate German
• Ripuarian Franconian
  • Kölsch
• Pennsylvania German (More commonly known as Pennsylvania Dutch)

Transitional High German dialects

High German dialects are spoken in the transition area between Central and Upper German dialects. An estimated 700,000 people speak these dialects, most of them are located in Eastern France (in northern Alsace, in the region of Strasbourg) and South-West Germany.

• South Franconian
• East Franconian

Bibliography

• Wells, Chris (1985). German. A linguistic history to 1945. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
• van der Horst, J. M. (2002). Introduction to Old Dutch. University Press, Leuven.
• Munske, Horst Haider and Hinderling, Robert (1996). Bavarian Linguistic Atlas (linguistic atlas of Bavaria-Swabia, linguistic atlas of Middle Franconia, linguistic atlas of Lower Franconia, linguistic atlas of North East Bavaria, linguistic atlas of Lower and Upper Bavaria). University Press, Heidelberg. ISBN 3826018656.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Munske, Horst Haider and Klepsch, Alfred (2003, updated in 2004). Linguistic atlas of Middle Franconia. University Press, Heidelberg. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: year (link)

See also

• Franconian
• Frankish language
• East Central German