Highest Alemannic German

Infobox Language
name=Highest Alemannic German
region=the Alps
speakers=about 500,000
familycolor=Indo-European
fam2=Germanic
fam3=West Germanic
fam4=High German
fam5=Upper German
fam6=Alemannic German
iso1=-
iso2=gsw
lc1=gsw
ld1=Swiss German
lc2=wae
ld2=Walser German


notice=nonotice

Highest Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and belongs to the German language, even though mutual intelligibility with Standard German and other non-Alemannic German dialects is very limited.

Highest Alemannic dialects are spoken in alpine regions of Switzerland: In the Bernese Oberland, in the German-speaking parts of the Canton of Fribourg, in the Valais (see Walliser German), in the german speaking parts of Grisons, and in the Walser settlements (mostly in Switzerland but also in Italy and in Austria; see Walser German). In the West, the South and the South-East, they are surrounded by Romance languages; in the North, by High Alemannic dialects.

Features

The distinctive feature of the Highest Alemannic dialects is the lack of hiatus diphthongization, for instance IPA| [ˈʃniː.ə(n)] 'to snow', IPA| [ˈb̥uː.ə(n)] 'to build' vs. High Alemannic IPA| [ˈʃnei̯jə] , IPA| [ˈb̥ou̯wə] .

Many High Alemannic dialects have different verbal plural endings for all three persons, for instance "wir singe(n)" 'we sing', "ir singet" 'you (plural) sing', "si singent" 'they sing'. Almost all other German dialects use the same ending for the first and third persons in the plural.

There are High Alemannic dialects that have preserved the ending -n which has been dropped in most Upper German dialects.

The Highest Alemannic dialects are considered to be the most conservative dialects of German. The dialect of the Lötschental, for instance, preserved the three distinct classes of weak verbs (like in Old High German) until the beginning of the 20th century.

External links

* [http://innenuusa.blogspot.com/ innenüüsa] (Haslital Swiss German poetry)