Swabian (Schwäbisch) is one of the Alemannic dialects of High German, spoken in the region Swabia. Swabia covers much of Germany's southwestern Land (state) of Baden-Württemberg (including the capital Stuttgart and in the rural area known as the Swabian Jura) and in the southwest of the Land Bavaria. Alemannic (Alemannisch) belongs to the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. ... Subdivisions Central German Upper German High German (in German, Hochdeutsch) is any of several German dialects spoken in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Luxembourg (as well as in neighbouring portions of Belgium, France (Alsace), Italy, Poland, and Romania (Transylvania) and in some areas of former colonial settlement, for example in... Swabia (German Schwabenland) is a historic region in Germany and a language area. ... With an area of 35,742 km² and 10. ... Stuttgart is a city located in southern Germany, it is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg, and has a population of approximately 600,000 as of June 2004. ... A view on the Swabian Alb with its typical hills and a juniper meadow The Albtrauf which forms the western border of the Swabian Alb The Swabian Alb (German: Schwäbische Alb) is a middle mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ... With an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ...

The dialect ranges from a 'standard' Swabian, spoken in Stuttgart, to slightly differing and 'thicker' forms found in smaller towns in the countryside. Older people can often tell the exact village a person comes from merely by hearing his or her accent. Stuttgart is a city located in southern Germany, it is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg, and has a population of approximately 600,000 as of June 2004. ...

True Swabian, with its nasal intonations and grammatical adjustments to common words, is known for being difficult for speakers of Standard German to understand. As well, Swabian contains vocabulary that differs altogether from Standard German (eg. 'jam' in Standard German is Marmelade while in Swabian it becomes G'saelz). 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. ...

Characteristics

Schaffe, schaffe, Häusle baue.

Die schwäbischen Dialekte unterscheiden sich z.T. erheblich. Besonders charakteristisch ist die Unterscheidung nach den Formen des Partizips Perfekt von "sein" in gwä (gewesen) und gsi (gewesen). Die Gsi-Gruppe ist sprachgeschichtlich näher mit dem Schweizerdeutsch und dem Alemannischen verwandt. Insbesondere in der Gsi-Gruppe sind noch einige wenige Relikte aus der Keltischen Sprache vorhanden (z.B. keja für fallen).

The Swabian dialect differentiate quite substantially. This is characterised by the difference in the formation of the past participle of 'sein' (to be) into gwä and gsi. The Gsi groupe is historically nearer to swiss German and the Alemannichen. In particular, in the gsi group there still exists some relics from the Celtic language. (e.g. keja for fallen {to fall}) The word Celtic can refer to: the European Celtic people, ancient or modern the Celtic languages, spoken by these people and their modern descendents the Celtic (Lusitania), Celts from the Alentejo. ...

Further characteristics (in comparison to Standard German) include:

• the so-called „halbe Diphthongierung“ meaning that double vowels become vocalised as a diphthong.
• a general tendency to nasalize and, specifically,
• the initial "k" is nasalized (e.g. "Kinder" (children) is pronounced "Khinder")
• the ending "-et" for verbs in the 3rd person plural (the last two are both also characteristics of of Low Alemmanic)
• the pronounciation of "s" before consonants as "sch" (e.g. "Fest (party) is pronounced as "Fescht")
• the diminutive ending "-le" (spoken very quickly, e.g. Haus may become Häusle) and "-la" for plurals (e.g. Spätzla)
• simplified conjugation - all personal pronouns end with -et.

Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... In phonetics, a diphthong ( Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds) is a vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ...

Swabian dialect writers

• Sebastian Sailer (1714-1777)
• August Lämmle
• Sebastian Blau

External links

• The Swabian-English dictionary (http://www.schwaebisch-englisch.de/)