Benrath line

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In German linguistics, the Benrath line (German: Benrather Linie) is the maken-machen isogloss. It is traditionally used to distinguish the High German varieties from the other West Germanic languages. The Line runs from Benrath (part of Düsseldorf) and Aachen to eastern Germany near Frankfurt an der Oder in the area of Berlin and Dessau.

High German subdivides into Upper German (green) and Central German (blue), and is distinguished from Low German (yellow). The main isoglosses, the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked in black.

The High German consonant shift (3rd to 9th centuries AD), in the first three phases of which the Low German dialects did not participate, affected the Southern varieties of the West Germanic dialect continuum; the Low German dialects did not participate in the first three phases (core group) of this shift. The impact of the High German consonant shift increases gradually to the South.

The Benrath line does not mark the northernmost effect of the High German consonant shift, since the Uerdingen line, the ik-ich isogloss, lies slightly further north; and some of the peripheral changes associated with the shift did affect Low German.