Low Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and belongs to the German language, even though they are only partly intelligible to German speakers. Alemannic (Alemannisch) belongs to the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. ... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ...

The Low Alemannic dialects are spoken in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, in the Alsace in France (see Alsatian language) and in Basel in Switzerland (see Basel German). With an area of 35,742 km² and 10. ... Capital Strasbourg Area 8,280 km² Regional President Adrien Zeller Population  - 2004 estimate  - 1999 census  - Density 1,793,000 1,734,145 209/km² Arrondissements 13 Cantons 75 Communes 903 Départements Bas-Rhin Haut-Rhin Alsace (French: Alsace; Alsatian/German: Elsaß) is a région and also a province of France. ... Alsatian (French Alsacien, German Elsässisch) is a German Alemannic dialect spoken in Alsace, a region now in eastern France, and historically passing between French and German control many times. ... Basel (English traditionally: Basle [ba:l], German: Basel [ba:z@l], French Bâle [ba:l], Italian Basilea [bazilE:a]) is Switzerlands third most populous city (188,000 inhabitants in the canton of Basel-City as of 2004; the 690,000 inhabitants in the conurbation stretching across the immediate... Basel German or Baseldytsch (also Baseldütsch, Baseldeutsch) is the dialect of the city of Basel, Switzerland. ...

Features

The feature that distinguishes Low Alemannic from High Alemannic is the retention of Germanic /k/, for instance kalt 'cold' vs. High Alemannic chalt. High Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and belongs to the German language, even though they are only partly intelligible to German speakers. ...

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. Swabian (Schwäbisch) is one of the Alemannic dialects of High German, spoken in the region Swabia. ... Middle High German is an ancestor of the modern German language, and was spoken from 1050 to about 1500. ... A monophthong (in Greek μονόφθογγος = single note) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation; compare diphthong. ...

External links

• Alemannic encyclopedia -German- (http://www.deheim.de/alemannisch.htm)