Rhenish fan
The subdivision of West Central German into a series of dialects, according to the differing extent of the High German consonant shift, is particularly pronounced. It known as the Rhenish fan (German: Rheinischer Fächer, Dutch: Rijnlandse waaier) because on the map of dialect boundaries, the lines form a fan shape.[1] Here, no fewer than eight isoglosses, named after places on the Rhine river, run roughly West to East. They partially merge into a simpler system of boundaries in East Central German. The table on the right lists the isoglosses (bold) and the main resulting dialects (italics), arranged from north to south.
Chart[]
Dialects and isoglosses of the Rhenish fan (Arranged from north to south: dialects in dark fields, isoglosses in light fields)[2] | ||
Isogloss | North | South |
---|---|---|
Low German | ||
wi maakt | wi maken | |
Dutch | ||
Uerdingen line (Uerdingen) | ik | ich |
Limburgish | ||
Benrath line (Boundary: Low German — Central German) |
maken | machen |
Ripuarian Franconian (Cologne, Bonn, Aachen) | ||
Bad Honnef line (State border NRW–RP) (Eifel-Schranke) |
Dorp | Dorf |
West Mosel Franconian (Luxemburgish, Trier) | ||
Linz line (Linz am Rhein) | tussen | zwischen |
Bad Hönningen line | op | auf |
East Mosel Franconian (Koblenz, Saarland) | ||
Boppard line (Boppard) | Korf | Korb |
Sankt Goar line (Sankt Goar) (Hunsrück-Schranke) |
dat | das |
Rhenish Franconian (Pfälzisch, Frankfurt) | ||
Speyer line (River Main line) (Boundary: Central German — Upper German) |
Appel | Apfel |
Upper German |
References[]
- ^ Rheinischer Fächer – Karte des Landschaftsverband Rheinland Archived February 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The table of isoglosses is adapted from Rheinischer Fächer on the German Wikipedia.
Categories:
- History of the German language
- Central German languages