Central German

Central German dialects
Geographic distribution:	Western and Central Germany, southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg and northeastern France
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Central German dialects
Subdivisions:	West Central German East Central German
Central German dialects   1: Ripuarian   2: Moselle Franconian   3: Luxembourgish   4: Hessian   5: Palatinate German   6: Lorraine Franconian   7: Thuringian   8: Upper Saxon   9: Erzgebirgisch   10: Lusatian-Silesian   11: Berlin-Brandenburgish

Central German (Mitteldeutsch) is a group of High German dialects spoken from the Rhineland in the west to the former eastern territories of Germany.

Central German divides into two subgroups, West Central German and East Central German.

Central German is distinguished by having experienced only the first and fourth phases of the High German consonant shift. It is spoken in the linguistic transition region separated from Northern Germany (Low German/Low Franconian) by the Benrath line isogloss. It is separated from Southern Germany (Upper German) by the Speyer line.

Central German is spoken in large and influential German cities like the capital Berlin, the former West German capital Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf and the main German financial center Frankfurt.

The area corresponds to the geological region of the hilly Central Uplands that stretches from the North German plain to the South German Scarplands, covering the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Thuringia and Saxony.

Classification

• West Central German (Westmitteldeutsch), part of the Franconian language group
  • Central Franconian (Mittelfränkisch)
    • Ripuarian (Ripuarisch)
    • Moselle Franconian (Moselfränkisch)
    • Luxembourgish (Lëtzebuergesch), also considered a Moselle Franconian variant
    • Lorraine Franconian (Lothringisch), also considered a Moselle Franconian variant or general term for all Franconian dialects spoken in French Lorraine (francique lorrain)
  • Rhine Franconian (Rheinfränkisch)
    • Palatinate German (Pfälzisch)
    • North Hessian (Nordhessisch)
    • East Hessian (Osthessisch)
    • Central Hessian (Mittelhessisch)
• East Central German (Ostmitteldeutsch)
  • Berlin-Brandenburgish
  • Thuringian (Thüringisch)
  • Upper Saxon (Obersächsisch), Erzgebirgisch
  • North Upper Saxon (Nordobersächsisch)
  • Lausitzisch-Neumärkisch,^[1] also Sorbian language area
  • East Central German dialects spoken in the former eastern territories:
    • Silesian (Schlesisch), nearly extinct
    • High Prussian (Hochpreußisch), nearly extinct

See also

• High German
  • Upper German
• Low German

Notes