| Palatine German | |
|---|---|
| Pfälzisch[1] | |
| Spoken in | Germany[1] |
| Native speakers | unknown[1] (date missing) |
| Language family |
Indo-European
|
| Writing system | Latin (German alphabet)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | pfl |
Palatine German (Pfälzisch/Pälzisch or Pfaelzisch/Paelzisch) is a West Franconian dialect of German which is spoken in the Rhine Valley roughly in an area between the cities of Zweibrücken, Kaiserslautern, Alzey, Worms, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Speyer, Landau, Wörth am Rhein and the border to the Alsace region in France but also beyond. Pennsylvania German, or Pennsylvania Dutch is descended primarily from the Palatine German dialects spoken by Germans who immigrated to North America from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries and who chose to maintain their native language. Danube Swabians in Croatia and Serbia also use many elements of it. Normally, one distinguishes the Pfälzisch spoken in the western part of the Palatinate (Westpfälzisch) and the Pfälzisch spoken in the eastern part of the Palatinate (Vorderpfälzisch). Some examples of the differences between High German and Pfaelzisch are:
| Vorderpfälzisch | Westpfälzisch | High German | English equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mais | Mais | Mäuse | mice |
| Lais | Lais | Läuse | lice |
| Grumbeer | Grumbeer | Kartoffel | potato |
| Schnoog(e) | Stechmigg | Mücke | mosquito |
| Bääm | Bääm | Bäume | trees |
| Schdää | Schdää | Stein | stone |
| soi | sei | sein | his (possessive) |
| unser | unser | unsere | ours |
| net/nit | net | nicht | not |
| dowedder | degeche | dagegen | against |
| Fusch | Fisch | Fisch | fish |
| ebbes | ebbes | etwas | something |
| Ärwett | Arwett | Arbeit | work |
| Dor | Dor | Tor | gate |
| Abbel | Abbel | Apfel | apple |
| hawwe | hänn | haben | have |
A few examples of sentence pronunciation in Vorderpfälzisch would be:
Isch habb's'm schunn verzehlt, awwer där hot mer's nit geglawt.
In Westpfälzisch:
Ich häbb's'm schunn verzehlt, awwer er hat mer's net geglaabt.
In standard German, the sentence would read as such:
Ich hab's ihm schon erzählt, aber er hat's mir nicht geglaubt.
The English translation would be,
I have already told [it] him, but he didn't believe me.
Hasch a(ch) Hunger? (Westpfälzisch)
Hoschd aa Hunger? (Vorderpfälzisch)
In standard German, the sentence would read as such:
Hast du auch Hunger?
The English translation would be,
Are you hungry, too?
Palatine speakers tend to swallow some of the other letters that standard German speakers enunciate. It's important to point out that pronunciation and grammar vary from region to region (even from town to town). Palatine Germans often can tell the part of Palatinate or even the village where other speakers are from. Something all Palatine dialects have in common is that the genitive isn't used, same as the German imperfect except for words such as soi (to be) and wolle (to want).
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