Your favorite German dialect

[SKrausser]

A thing that I love in German (as well as in many other languages) is the huge variety of dialects. Although I live abroad for some years now, listening and speaking my own dialect (swabian) always gives me the feeling of “being at home”.

I know that it’s quite hard for German learners to understand dialectal expressions. But it can be funny to learn some of them. Locals will appreciate that.

Here are some beautiful examples of my dialect:
“A alde Kuah vrgissd gärn, daß se au amol a Kalb gwä isch.”
(Meaning: Old people always forget that they also have been young (and made their mistakes)).

“A Geizhals ond a fedde Sau senn erschd noch am Dod zu äbbas Nuddz!”
(Nobody likes miserly people during their lives.)

And my favorite (and the unofficial state slogan of Baden-Württemberg): “Mr kennet älles. Außr Hochdeitsch”

So, what’s your favorite German dialect and why do you love it?

#correctionswelcome (for the English part)

[kgeisl1]

I think they are really cool even if they throw a wrench sozusagen in your Deutschlernen. I was having a conversation (natürlich in einer Kneipe) and an old Franken told me that the dialects are the culture. He also gave me a sample switching from Hochdeutsch and the R is an interesting variation on a letter I’m hoping to some day get right in Hochdeutsch! I can’t really pick a favorite but spending a year in Mannheim I got to hear some Bädisch and Schwäbisch. I always thought it was kind of interesting to hear them because they sounded like something from the Middle Ages from my foreign speaker perspective. This weekend I was with a group of Mainzers and one was from Ludwigshafen. When he switched to how he speaks there I could understand him better than the Mainzers – So I guess I’ve picked up my own locality a bit with the language. Great idea for a post!

[kgeisl1]

Du solltest nicht vergessen, wenn du Fleischkäse willst, ein LKW mit ABS zu bestellen.

@johan

[Nils.Schneider]

LewaKäsWeck mit A Bissle Senf

[SKrausser]

By the way: Do you know why typical swabian Maultaschen are also called “Herrgottsbscheißerle”?

It’s easy: As they contain “hidden” meat, monks also ate them on Fridays (when it was forbidden by the church to eat meat). That’s how they “cheated the Lord” (dr Herrgott bscheißa")

[Toby]

Great topic, I love German dialects!

I was living in Stuegett (Stuttgart) for 7 years, so I got used to being called a “Schwoobesäggl” back home “im Badnerländle”. I worked in Switzerland as well for a while, so I know some “Schwitzerdüütsch”, too.
To make it even more confusing, my Grandfather fled from a village close to “Leipzsch” (Leipzig) before they built the wall, so I have a good ear for the Saxon dialect, which helped quite a bit to understand my partner Anna’s grandparents from the Erzgebirge.

What I love about my kind of badisch (there are vast differences, even from village to village!) is that you can feel the proximity to the french border when talking to my folks. We say e.g. " Känntsch jetzemol endlich 's Drotwar schweife dü füüle Kerli!" = “Could you sweep the sidewalk now you lazy slacker?!” The “Drotwar” comes from “le trottoir” which translates to “sidewalk”.

We also say “Salli!” = Salut! = Hi!, „alla“ = à la prochaine = so long/see you soon, or “Hit bin’i e’weng malaad un’ bliib im Näscht liege” = I feel a bit under the weather today and stay in bed (“malade” is french for “ill”).

I grew up in a region between the Black Forest and the Kaiserstuhl (a wine region close to the French border) and I still love to use the Badisch dialect when meeting up with my old buddies from back home. The words are so imaginative and fun to pronounce!

Some words’ origins are still a mystery to me though. Why is a plastic/paper bag a “guggle”, why is a picky eater “schneigig”, and who was the genius who came up with the word “Simsegrebsler” for a low-grade wine?

[SKrausser]

Die Wörter “Gugg” (schwäbisch) oder “Guggle” (alemannisch) stammen von dem lateinischen cucullus (Kapuze, Tüte) ab. Eine Gugel wird heute nur noch in der schwäbisch-alemannischen Fasnet getragen. Es ist anzunehmen, dass im schwäbischen Dialekt die coque, das Gugel und der cucullus zur Gugg geworden ist.

Quelle: https://german.stackexchange.com/questions/1329/woher-stammt-das-schwäbische-wort-gugg-für-tüte

[SKrausser]

“die Simse” = das Fensterbrett
“krebseln” = kriechen

der Simsegrebsler = schlechter Wein, der nicht im Weinberg wächst, sondern “an der Simse hochkriecht”

Quelle: https://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/inhalt.auf-gut-schwaebisch-woher-stammt-der-begriff-semsagraebsler.52575062-2cdd-4dcd-9575-d7698ee6f87e.html

[Toby]

Thanks @SKrausser! I knew where the Simsegrebsler comes from , but the origin of the Guggle, (or Gugg for you) is super interesting. Obviously, the Roman Empire had a huge influence on Germany, especially the southern parts. It totally makes sense that many Latin words made it into the daily language. It’s very impressive that a word like that survived that long though!

For anybody who’s curious about german dialects (especially badisch / alemanisch), check out Lukas Staier, a.k.a. cossurap on instagram. He gives English translations, too!

https://www.instagram.com/cossurap/

[Noel]

Where I am from people will roughly talk like that:

Samma jonge/alda wasn hia looos?

Joo dat jeht wol ne, daa hamenn ma Zeit. (Ja das geht wohl. Da haben wir Zeit.)

Kannse mi maa den Appelsaft jeben? (Kannst du mir mal bitte den Apfelsaft geben?)

Wo kommse den wech? (Wo kommst du her?)

Joo Jong, was jehtn baa dia heut no so? (Ja Junge, was geht den bei dir heute noch?)

Daa hasse aba lück jehabt ne. (Da hast du aber Glück gehabt.)

Nää jonge/alda laubse dat? (Nein Junge, glaubst du das?)

Ich komm da ausm Nachbadof ne.

Samma waan is eijentlich widaa Schützenfest?

Baa euch hackts jo wol au ne!

Hasse Hungaa? Joo, ich ess mia ‘leich n Brod ne.

The dialect is a sub-dialect of Westfälisch. In more youth slang the word “jonge” is thrown around like crazy. Often the world “alda” can serve as “jonge”. As well as the words “joo” and “ne”. You can end every sentence with “ne”. You will not end questions with ne, except they are rhetorical questions. It is spoken extremely fast so others who are not familiar will most likely not understand.

The old generation in the local villages often speaks Plattdeutsch, or other dialects that are close to extinction. While rare, sentences like: Wo komm je van dan? For Woher kommst du? Are accepted. There is also an influence from Dutch which is offered at the local schools.

Unfortunately, I barely hear this dialect anymore. Only two of my friends can speak it and whenever I talk to them, we only talk dialect. Beautiful dialect. Totally underrated in my opinion. I never met anyone ever speaking it outside of these few villages in the region.

[Toby]

@Noel That sounds very likable! It doesn’t come as a surprise to me, that most people love the dialects of Northern Germany.

Unfortunately, many German dialects, also called “Mundart” ( ) are indeed slowly dying. But the main regional differences will probably stick around a bit longer.

Well, that’s part of playing this game I guess - languages are fluent and evershifting. At least this means that people are speaking to each other and that can’t be so bad, wouldn’t you agree?

Here’s a 3-minute clip for the silent readers about why the country with the most dialect regions world wide is slowly losing its “Mundart”-diversity: why dialects are dying *german