Low Alemannic German

Low Alemannic German (German: Niederalemannisch) is a branch of Alemannic German, which is part of Upper German. Its varieties are only partly intelligible to non-Alemannic speakers.

Subdivisions

Lake Constance Alemannic (de)
- Northern Vorarlberg (de)
- Allgäu dialect (de)
- Baar dialect
- Southern Württemberg
Upper Rhenish Alemannic (de)
- Basel German
- Baden dialects north of Markgräflerland
- Alsatian, spoken in Alsace, in some villages of the Phalsbourg county in Lorraine and by some Amish in Indiana
- Low Alemannic dialects in the Black Forest^[2]
- Colonia Tovar dialect, Venezuela

Features

The feature that distinguishes Low Alemannic from High Alemannic is the retention of Germanic /k/, for instance kalt 'cold' vs. High Alemannic chalt.

The feature that distinguishes Low Alemannic from Swabian is the retention of the Middle High German monophthongs, for instance Huus 'house' vs. Swabian Hous or Ziit 'time' vs. Swabian Zejt.

Orthography

(All of the below is specific to the dialects spoken near Freiburg im Breisgau)

Vowels:

Consonants:

Are as in Standard German, with the following notes:

kh is an aspirated [kʰ]
ng is a velar nasal [ŋ]
ngg is a velar nasal followed by a velar plosive [ŋɡ]
ph is an aspirated [pʰ]
th is an aspirated [tʰ]

Articles

Definite Article

Indefinite Article

Substantives

Plurals

Class I: Plural = Singular (e.g. Ääber → Ääber)
Class II: Plural = Singular + Umlaut (e.g. Baum → Baim; Vader → Väder)
Class IIIa: Plural = Singular + -e (e.g. Man → Mane; Ags → Agse)
Class IIIb: Plural = Singular + -̈e (e.g. Frosch → Fresche)
Class IVa: Plural = Singular + -er (e.g. Lyyb → Lyyber; Schùg → Schùger)
Class IVb: Plural = Singular + -̈er (e.g. Wald → Wälder; Blad → Bleder)
Class V: No Plural (e.g. Chees; Zemänd)
Class VI: No Singular (Plural Only) (e.g. Bilger; Fèèrine)

Diminutives

Standard ending is -li (e.g. Aimer → Aimerli)
If the word ends in -l, then the ending is -eli (e.g. Dääl → Dääleli)
If the word ends in -el, then the ending is -i (e.g. Degel → Degeli)
If the word ends in -e, remove the -e and add -li (e.g. Bèère → Bèèrli)
The rules for this can be quite complex and depend on the region. Sometimes diminutives require umlaut, other times not.

Adjectives

Weak Declension

Strong Declension

Comparative

Standard ending -er (e.g. fèin → fèiner)

Superlative

Standard ending -(e)schd (e.g. fèin → fèinschd)

Irregular

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Verbs

1. Infinitive

Infinitive ends in -e

Some monosyllabic verbs do not have this ending (e.g. chùù, döe, goo, gschää, haa, loo, nee, sää, schdoo, schlaa, syy, zie, etc.)

2. Participle

2.1 Prefix

The prefix for g- or ge-
Before b, d, g, bf, dsch, and z is merged into the word and not visible (e.g. broochd, glaubd, etc.)

2.2 Suffix

Strong Verbs end in -e (e.g. gäse, glofe)
Weak Verbs end in -d or -ed (e.g. bùzd, gchaufd)

2.3 Types

2.3.1 Infinitive and Present Sg y/èi/ai - Participle i
2.3.1.1 y > i (e.g. abwyyse > abgwiise)
2.3.1.2 èi > i (e.g. verzèie > verziie)
2.3.1.3 ai > i (e.g. schaide > gschiide)
2.3.2 Infinitive and Present Sg ie/u/au/èi/i - Participle o/öu/öe
2.3.2.1 ie > o (e.g. biede > bode)
2.3.2.2 u > o (e.g. sufe > gsofe)
2.3.2.3 au > o (e.g. laufe > glofe)
2.3.2.4 èi > öu (e.g. rèie > gröue)
2.3.2.5 ie > öe (e.g. riefe > gröefe)
2.3.2.5 i > o (e.g. wiige > gwooge)
2.3.3 Infinitive and Present Sg i - Participle ù
2.3.3.1 i > u (e.g. binde > bùnde)
2.3.4 Infinitive ä/e - Present i - Participle o/u
2.3.4.1 ä - i - o (e.g. bräche > broche)
2.3.4.2 ä - i - u (e.g. hälfe > ghùlfe)
2.3.4.3 e/è - i - o (e.g. verdèèrbe > verdoorbe)
2.3.4.4 e - i - ù (e.g. schmelze > gschmùlze)
2.3.5 Infinitive ä/i - Present i - Participle ä
2.3.5.1 ä - i - ä (e.g. äse > gäse)
2.3.5.2 i - i - ä (e.g. bide > bäde)
2.3.6 Infinitive Vowel is the same as the Participle
2.3.5.1 (e.g. bache > bache; fale > gfale)

3. Conjugation
3.1 Present Tense 3.1.1 Regular Verb

Numbers

References

^ a b Ethnologue entry: Swabian (swg)
^ Noble, Cecil A. M. (1983). Modern German dialects New York [u.a.], Lang, p. 67/68