Rhinelandic Regiolect

The Rhineland regiolect is not easily formalized, as the Rhineland subregions vary and are continuously evolving. Despite being spoken by millions, very little is written down, which hampers scientific treatment. It has long been regarded by the scientific community as "merely colloquial speech" and considered too underrated for serious recognition and study. Only recently has it shifted to the empirical focus of some linguists. Most notably, the Linguistic Department of the Rhineland Landeskunde un Regional Geschichte Institute (Institute for Area Studies and History, formerly Amt für Rheinische Landeskunde (ARL) – Rhineland Regional Knowledge and Documentation Office) contributed to this. work. Scientists in today's Landschaft Berband have been observing, documenting and studying language development in the Rhineland and more recently in the Rhineland for almost 200 years. Over the past decades, they have published several current studies on regiolects, as well as scientific books and papers, general scientific books, articles and essays. Some of their findings are available on the internet. They regularly create surveys based on printed surveys, but these days they can also be retrieved and sent via email. These studies have been supplemented, extended and updated since 2007 using the interactive website Mitmachwörterbuch der rheinischen Umgangssprache (Rhineland colloquial language cooperative dictionary). Colloquial texts and colloquial German literature generally list words and phrases of Rhineland origin and adequately indicate their regional origins. The well-known and extensive multi-volume compendium Rheinisches Wörterbuch, although clearly not intended for this purpose and containing no local references, nevertheless , is usually very useful for finding hints to possible meanings of Rhineland words that cannot be determined from other sources. Many local language words are derived from or are identical to local language words found in Rheinisches Wörterbuch. They usually have identical, related, or very similar meanings.

Two of Rhineland's most important and most striking features are the progressive form and the so-called 'dative possessive', neither of which exists in the standard language. Rhineland uses the verb ``to be'', the preposition ``am'' (= ``at the'', a contraction of dem in standard German), and the infinitive to build the progressive. "Ich bin am Warten" (literally: I am waiting) is the English equivalent of "I am waiting". ``Ik ben aan het wachten'' in Dutch (there is no corresponding abbreviation in Dutch, nor a case system like in German). The possessive dative syntax replaces the standard genitive. The possessor is named in the dative case, followed by the possessive pronoun. "der alten Frau ihr Mann" (literally: to the old lady's husband), the English equivalent of "the old lady's husband". The following example sentence features both the progressive verb structure and the possessive dative. Such sentences are common in Rhinelandian, but are often difficult to understand for German speakers unfamiliar with Rhinelandian. Aan de (archaic: den) is the literal Dutch translation of the Rhinelandian dem used in masculine nouns, not Standard German des. For masculine nouns it is van de (archaic: des). There are different usages of some prepositions, inflections, or grammatical cases. The regiolect may use another auxiliary verb to construct the past tense. Most commonly, ``vergessen'' (``forget'') and ``anfangen'' (``begin'') take the auxiliary ``sein'' (``to be'') instead of ``haben'' (``to have'') . This is especially true in Lower Franconia, where the writing looks more Dutch than German. Another phenomenon common to Dutch is the separation of ``da + preposition'' (dafür; damit = for that; with that). Standard German never splits this construct, but Rhinelandian and Dutch most commonly do. In this case, the Rhinelandian ``da'' can be placed anywhere in the sentence, and the preposition must follow (or near) the end of the sentence. Individual expressions reflect dialect usage, which may lead to similarities with Dutch. Person names and denominators of roles and social status are most often placed before the grammatical article. References to women, especially young women, can be diminished when the grammatical gender becomes neuter (which is by no means derogatory). Using articles with personal names is erroneous in standard German, but is normal not only in Rhinelandian, but also in most dialects of south-central Germany, Austrian and Swiss, and colloquial German. People talk about themselves in the third person. Even in specific contexts and articles. This can also be done in English, but not in correct standard German. For example, if a mother says to her child:

The following example shows how regiolect relates to both standard German and the actual dialect (in this case Kölsch), and how it turns out to be somewhere between the two. This example shows that the regiolect is based on Standard German. So we use ers'ma ("first") from standard "erst mal" (dialects: eesch ens) and schonn ("already") from standard "schon" (dialects: att or allt). Masu. . For words common to both languages, the vowel and consonant natures are usually standard (trinken instead of drink, immer instead of emmer), as well as morphological rules. However, the influence of strong dialects is also evident. The t/d at the end of words is often dropped after another consonant (jetz, un). Vowels tend to be short (schonn, wider). Some structural words are in dialect form (mer = "wir"; et = "es, das"). Also, words with an initial vowel are linked to it rather than separated from the previous word by a glottal closure, as in English. (In this example, this is marked with an underscore.) Regiolect also uses diminutives more frequently (kefchen instead of ``cafe'') and borrows many syntactic constructions from the dialect that are not known in the standard. mer trinken uns (en Käffchen), literally 'we drink (coffee) ourselves', meaning 'to drink something in peace and joy'. Another good example is the word "afternoon". Regiolect uses a dialect-like form, but standardizes vowels and consonants. The Rhineland dialect – Rhineland – Standard German continuum is comparable (but not exactly equal) to the Scots – (colloquial) Scottish English – British Standard English continuum in the Scottish Lowlands. The first end of the continuum consists of traditional regional languages ​​that are closely related to standards, but have developed independently over the centuries. In both cases it is alive but lost in everyday communication, especially among young people. The other end of this continuum is the supra-regional standard language used, for example, on national television. Between the two languages, we find a new common voice that is standards-based but with a strong foundation from traditional languages.

The Rhineland regiolect has several regional and subregional characteristics. A great many closely match common dialect groups found in local languages. for example: As usual, the northern lowlands of Franconia have their own way of building small buildings. The central part of the Rhineland between the Benrath Line and the St. Goar Line is usually in an intermediate position. In this example, Nanbu uses its own vocalism that already incorporates some of the Palatinate German vocalism further south.

Like other technical and regional terms, Rhinelandian has influenced Standard German vocabulary. Here are some recently added examples: Knöllchen − (parking or similar) ticket poppen - to fuck Instead of German, Sie sind sich nicht eins - they disagree - : Sie sind nicht einig miteinander. Compare Zij zijn het niet eens in Dutch. Kungeln, Krüngel and the Rhineland Solution, all three were narrowly understood as corruption in office, nepotism. Schiss haben - to be afraid or anxious. feel threatened. to be sad about something (This expression is also widely used in Low German.) The above grammatical deviation of am-Progressive also finds its way into colloquial speech in other parts of the German-speaking world. Experts say it appears to be "a broad range of near-standard language usage."

Dr. Georg Cornelissen: Rhine German. who is talking to whom and why Greven Verlag, Cologne, 2005, ISBN 3-7743-0367-3 Peter Hohnen: Capps, Kunis, Krüngel. Regional Dictionary of the Rhineland. Greven, Cologne, 2003, ISBN 3-7743-0337-1 Dr. Georg Cornelissen (2008), My Grandmother Still Speaks Pratt - Where's the Rhineland Dialect? (German), Cologne: Greven Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7743-0417-8 Peter Honnen (2008), "Anything Cocolore?" - Rhineland Words and Tales of Words (German), Cologne: Greven Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7743-0418-5 Dr. Georg Cornelissen (2007), "The Lower Rhine and Its German - Most People Speak et (in German)", Cologne: Greven Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7743-0394-2 Klaus J. Zeller: Rhine in German. Origin and meaning of the Rhine language. 72 pages. Bruckmann, Munich, 1974, ISBN 3-7654-1611-8

Rhinelandian interactive dictionary (English) Rhineland audio sample (German) from the Linguistic Department of the Rhineland Institute for Area Studies and Regional History Regiolect of the Rhineland (English) Rhineland Regional Communication (German) Rhinelandian Expressions (German) The Linguistics Department of the Rhineland Institute for Area Studies and Regional History has some audio samples of the Rhineland language. Adenauer German (Excerpt from the official statement of the German government by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer) Cologne actress Sammy Orfgen talks (Reference: Sammy Orfgen, Cologne) Standard German from Bonn with a Rhineland accent (Bonn) Regiolect in Rheinhausen (from Duisburg-Rheinhausen on the left bank of the Rhine) Regiolect and standard German from Stotzheim in the Eifel (see: Stotzheim)