Hamburgisch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hamburgisch is a group of Northern Low Saxon varieties spoken in Hamburg, Germany.
Occasionally, the term Hamburgisch is also used for Hamburg Missingsch, a variety of standard German with Low Saxon substrates.
These are urban dialects that have absorbed numerous English and Dutch loanwords, for instance Törn ‘trip’ (< turn) and suutje ‘gently’ (< Dutch zoetjes).
Hamburg is pronounced IPA: [ˈhambɔrç] in these dialects, with a "ch" similar to that in the Standard German word Milch.
Typical of the Hamburg dialects and other Lower Elbe dialects is the pronunciation (and spelling) eu (pronounced oi) for the diphthong /œɪ/ (written öö, öh or ö), e.g.
- keupen [ˈkʰɔɪpm] (Hamburg ) = köpen [ˈkʰœɪpm] (elsewhere) = to buy
- scheun [ʃɔɪn] = schöön [ʃœɪn] = beautiful
However, as in most other Low Saxon (Low German) dialects, the long monophthong /øː/ is pronounced [øː] (as in French peu), for instance Kööm ~ Kœm [kʰøːm] ‘caraway’.
The Low Saxon language in Hamburg is divided in several subdialects, e.g.
- Finkwarder Platt
- Olwarder Platt
- Veerlanner Platt (with many sub-sub-dialects)
- Barmbeker Platt
The Hamborger Veermaster is a famous sea shanty sung in the regional dialect.
