Franconian or Frankish is a collective term traditionally used by linguists to refer to many West Germanic languages, some of which are spoken in what formed the historical core area of Francia during the Early Middle Ages. Linguistically, there are no typological features that are typical for all the various dialects conventionally grouped as Franconian. As such, it forms a residual category within the larger historical West Germanic dialect continuum rather than a homogeneous group of closely related dialects. For most of the varieties grouped under the term "Franconian", the diachronical connection to the Frankish language, which was spoken by the Franks, is unclear.[1]
Both the term Franconian and its further delineations are restricted in their use to linguists and are not used as an endonym by any speakers of the Franconian group; except for East Franconian German, which is called Fränkisch by its speakers, though this is caused by the dialect being spoken in the region of Franconia.
The term Frankish or Franconian (High German: Fränkisch) as a modern linguistic category was coined by the German linguist Wilhelm Braune (1850–1926) who used it as a term to designate historical West Germanic texts which he could not readily classify as belonging to either Saxon, Alemannic or Bavarian.[1] He divided it into Low, Middle and High Franconian (Nieder-, Mittel- and Oberfränkisch).[3][1]
The practice of alluding to tribal names from the Migration Period when naming dialect groups during the early stages of Germanic Philology was not restricted to Germany: 19th-century Dutch linguists also conventionally divided the Germanic varieties spoken in the Netherlands and Belgium into Frisian, Saxon, and Frankish varieties. In both cases, linguistic borders of historical ancestor dialects were, at the time, thought to closely mirror the supposed tribal duchies of the Frankish Empire at the start of the Early Middle Ages.
Earlier use of "Franconian/Frankish" as a linguistic category can be found.[4] For example, Dutch linguist Jan van Vliet (1622–1666) used Francica or Francks. According to van Vliet, Francks descended from oud Teuts (ancient Germanic).[5] Similarly, the scholar Franciscus Junius was said to have collected fragments of vetere Francica ad illustrandam linguam patriam (in Old Frankish, for the elucidation of the mother tongue) in 1694.[6]
Definition
The term "Franconian" refers to a collection of dialects, and not to a language.[7] As a residual category, Franconian is defined by what it is not, rather than what it is in and of itself.[1] While a descriptive definition of Franconian as a whole does not exist, its internal subdivisions can be defined and contrasted, both with one another and other large dialect groupings.
The East Franconian dialects are transitional dialects between Central- and Upper German.
The East Franconian dialect branch is one of the most spoken dialect branches in Germany. These dialects are mainly spoken in the region of Franconia. Franconia consists of the Bavarian districts of Upper-, Middle-, and Lower Franconia, the region of South Thuringia (Thuringia), and the eastern parts of the region of Heilbronn-Franken (Tauber Franconia and Hohenlohe) in Baden-Württemberg. The easternmost Franconian-speaking areas are the Saxon parts of Vogtland, in whose central parts East Franconian (Core Vogtlandian), and in whose eastern parts transitional dialects (North Vogtlandian and Southeast Vogtlandian) are spoken. The East Franconian dialects are the only Franconian dialects that are referred to as "Franconian" by their speakers. Only the speakers in Saxon Vogtland refer to their dialects as "Vogtlandian" rather than "Franconian". The largest cities in the East Franconian dialect area are Nuremberg and Würzburg.
South Franconian is mainly spoken in northern Baden-Württemberg in Germany, but also in the northeasternmost part of the region of Alsace in France. While these dialects are considered as dialects of German in Baden-Württemberg, they are considered as dialects of Alsatian in Alsace (the other Alsatian dialects are either Alemannic or Rhine Franconian). The South Franconian dialects are colloquially referred to by their speakers as "Badian" in the Badian parts, and as "Unterländisch" (the Unterland being the region around Heilbronn) or "Swabian" (because of strong influences from the capital Stuttgart, where Swabian dialects are spoken) in the Württembergian parts of Baden-Württemberg. The largest cities in the South Franconian dialect area are Karlsruhe and Heilbronn.
^ abcdAlfred Klepsch: Fränkische Dialekte, published on 19th of October 2009; in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (accessed November 21st 2020)
^Harbert, Wayne Eugene (2007). The Germanic Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge / New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 15–17.
^Strong, Herbert Augustus; Meyer, Kuno (1886). Outlines of a History of the German language. London: Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas & Lowrey. p. 68.
^e.g.: Friedrich Adelung: Uebersicht aller bekannten Sprachen und ihrer Dialekte. St. Petersburg, 1820, p. 45 ("Fränkisch" (Bavarian) besides "Gothisch" and "Alemannisch" as "Oberdeutsch") and p. 51 ("Mittel-Deutsch. (Ost-Fränkisch.)" including "Fränkisch" (East Franconian) between "Hessisch" and "Nürnbergisch")
^Breuker, Ph. H. (2007), "On the Course of Franciscus Junius' Germanic Studies, with Special Reference to Frisian", in Bremmer, Rolf H. Jr.; Van der Meer, Geart; Vries, Oebele (eds.), Aspects of Old Frisian Philology, Amsterdam Beiträge zur ãlteren Germanistik Bd. 31/32; Estrikken 69, Amsterdam: Rodopi, p. 44
^Green, D. H.; Siegmund, Frank (2003). The continental Saxons from the migration period to the tenth century: an ethnographic perspective. Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology. Vol. 6. Suffolk: Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Social Stress / Woodbridge. p. 19. There has never been such a thing as one Frankish language. The Franks spoke different languages.
^Sarah Grey Thomason, Terrence Kaufman: Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics, University of California Press, 1991, p. 321.
^Scott Shay: The History of English, Wardja Press, 2008, p. 73.
^Glück, H. (ed.): Metzler Lexikon Sprache, pages 472, 473. Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler, 2000 (entries Niederdeutsch and Niederfränkisch)
^Welschen, Ad : Course Dutch Society and Culture, International School for Humanities and Social Studies ISHSS, Universiteit van Amsterdam 2000-2005.
Bibliography
Dekker, Cornelis (1998). The origins of Old Germanic studies in the Low Countries. Studies in Intellectual History. Vol. 92. Leiden: Brill.
Feulner, Hans-Jürgen; Wunder, Bernhard; Bittruf, Doris; Grebner, Stefan (1997). Wie såchd denn Ihr dezu?: Ein fränkisches Mundart-Wörterbuch für den Landkreis Kronach. Schirmer Druck, Mitwitz. ISBN3-9803467-3-0.
Munske, Horst Haider; Hinderling, Robert (1996). "Linguistic Atlas of Bavaria-Swabia", "Linguistic Atlas of Middle Franconia", "Linguistic Atlas of Lower Franconia", "Linguistic Atlas of North East Bavaria", "Linguistic Atlas of Lower and Upper Bavaria". Bavarian Linguistic Atlas. Heidelberg: University Press. ISBN3-8260-1865-6.
Munske, Horst Haider; Klepsch, Alfred (2004) [2003]. Linguistic Atlas of Middle Franconia. Heidelberg: University Press.
van der Horst, J. M. (2002). Introduction to Old Dutch. University Press, Leuven.
Wells, Chris (1985). German: A Linguistic History to 1945. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
February 03, 2023
franconian, linguistics, franconian, frankish, collective, term, traditionally, used, linguists, refer, many, west, germanic, languages, some, which, spoken, what, formed, historical, core, area, francia, during, early, middle, ages, linguistically, there, typ. Franconian or Frankish is a collective term traditionally used by linguists to refer to many West Germanic languages some of which are spoken in what formed the historical core area of Francia during the Early Middle Ages Linguistically there are no typological features that are typical for all the various dialects conventionally grouped as Franconian As such it forms a residual category within the larger historical West Germanic dialect continuum rather than a homogeneous group of closely related dialects For most of the varieties grouped under the term Franconian the diachronical connection to the Frankish language which was spoken by the Franks is unclear 1 The Franconian dialects Low Franconian Dutch Limburgish Central Franconian West Central German Ripuarian Moselle Franconian Luxembourgish Moselle Franconian Rhenish Franconian West Central German Hessian Palatine High Franconian between Central and Upper German East Franconian spoken in Franconia South Franconian Franconian is further divided along the lines of the High German consonant shift with Low Franconian including Dutch and Afrikaans not participating whereas the Central Franconian which includes Luxembourgish did to varying degrees 2 Both the term Franconian and its further delineations are restricted in their use to linguists and are not used as an endonym by any speakers of the Franconian group except for East Franconian German which is called Frankisch by its speakers though this is caused by the dialect being spoken in the region of Franconia Contents 1 Terminology 1 1 Definition 2 Divisions of Franconian 2 1 Low Franconian 2 2 Middle or Central Franconian 2 3 Rhine Franconian 2 4 East Franconian 2 5 South Franconian 3 See also 4 References 5 BibliographyTerminology EditThe term Frankish or Franconian High German Frankisch as a modern linguistic category was coined by the German linguist Wilhelm Braune 1850 1926 who used it as a term to designate historical West Germanic texts which he could not readily classify as belonging to either Saxon Alemannic or Bavarian 1 He divided it into Low Middle and High Franconian Nieder Mittel and Oberfrankisch 3 1 The practice of alluding to tribal names from the Migration Period when naming dialect groups during the early stages of Germanic Philology was not restricted to Germany 19th century Dutch linguists also conventionally divided the Germanic varieties spoken in the Netherlands and Belgium into Frisian Saxon and Frankish varieties In both cases linguistic borders of historical ancestor dialects were at the time thought to closely mirror the supposed tribal duchies of the Frankish Empire at the start of the Early Middle Ages Earlier use of Franconian Frankish as a linguistic category can be found 4 For example Dutch linguist Jan van Vliet 1622 1666 used Francica or Francks According to van Vliet Francks descended from oud Teuts ancient Germanic 5 Similarly the scholar Franciscus Junius was said to have collected fragments of vetere Francica ad illustrandam linguam patriam in Old Frankish for the elucidation of the mother tongue in 1694 6 Definition Edit The term Franconian refers to a collection of dialects and not to a language 7 As a residual category Franconian is defined by what it is not rather than what it is in and of itself 1 While a descriptive definition of Franconian as a whole does not exist its internal subdivisions can be defined and contrasted both with one another and other large dialect groupings Divisions of Franconian EditLow Franconian Edit Main article Low Franconian Low Franconian Low Frankish or Netherlandic 8 9 is a linguistic category used to classify many historical and contemporary West Germanic varieties closely related to and including the Dutch language Most dialects and languages included within the category are spoken in the Netherlands northern Belgium Flanders in the Nord department of France in western Germany Lower Rhine as well as in Suriname South Africa and Namibia 10 A transitional zone between Low Franconian and Central Franconian is formed by the so called Meuse Rhenish dialects located in southern Dutch Limburg and the German Lower Rhine 11 Middle or Central Franconian Edit Main article Central Franconian languages The Central Franconian dialects are spoken in the German states of South Western North Rhine Westphalia most of Rhineland Palatinate Saarland the bordering French Moselle department and in Luxembourg as well as by the Transylvanian Saxons in Romania Rhine Franconian Edit Main article Rhine Franconian dialects The Rhine Franconian dialects are spoken in the German states of Rhineland Palatinate Saarland northern Baden Wurttemberg southern Hesse northern Bavaria in the bordering French Moselle department as well as by the Pennsylvania Germans in North America East Franconian Edit Main article East Franconian German The East Franconian dialects are transitional dialects between Central and Upper German The East Franconian dialect branch is one of the most spoken dialect branches in Germany These dialects are mainly spoken in the region of Franconia Franconia consists of the Bavarian districts of Upper Middle and Lower Franconia the region of South Thuringia Thuringia and the eastern parts of the region of Heilbronn Franken Tauber Franconia and Hohenlohe in Baden Wurttemberg The easternmost Franconian speaking areas are the Saxon parts of Vogtland in whose central parts East Franconian Core Vogtlandian and in whose eastern parts transitional dialects North Vogtlandian and Southeast Vogtlandian are spoken The East Franconian dialects are the only Franconian dialects that are referred to as Franconian by their speakers Only the speakers in Saxon Vogtland refer to their dialects as Vogtlandian rather than Franconian The largest cities in the East Franconian dialect area are Nuremberg and Wurzburg South Franconian Edit Main article South Franconian German South Franconian is mainly spoken in northern Baden Wurttemberg in Germany but also in the northeasternmost part of the region of Alsace in France While these dialects are considered as dialects of German in Baden Wurttemberg they are considered as dialects of Alsatian in Alsace the other Alsatian dialects are either Alemannic or Rhine Franconian The South Franconian dialects are colloquially referred to by their speakers as Badian in the Badian parts and as Unterlandisch the Unterland being the region around Heilbronn or Swabian because of strong influences from the capital Stuttgart where Swabian dialects are spoken in the Wurttembergian parts of Baden Wurttemberg The largest cities in the South Franconian dialect area are Karlsruhe and Heilbronn See also EditOld Frankish Low Franconian languages Low Dietsch dialects East Central GermanReferences Edit a b c d Alfred Klepsch Frankische Dialekte published on 19th of October 2009 in Historisches Lexikon Bayerns accessed November 21st 2020 Harbert Wayne Eugene 2007 The Germanic Languages Cambridge Language Surveys Cambridge New York Cambridge University Press pp 15 17 Strong Herbert Augustus Meyer Kuno 1886 Outlines of a History of the German language London Swan Sonnenschein Le Bas amp Lowrey p 68 e g Friedrich Adelung Uebersicht aller bekannten Sprachen und ihrer Dialekte St Petersburg 1820 p 45 Frankisch Bavarian besides Gothisch and Alemannisch as Oberdeutsch and p 51 Mittel Deutsch Ost Frankisch including Frankisch East Franconian between Hessisch and Nurnbergisch Dekker 1998 pp 245 248 Breuker Ph H 2007 On the Course of Franciscus Junius Germanic Studies with Special Reference to Frisian in Bremmer Rolf H Jr Van der Meer Geart Vries Oebele eds Aspects of Old Frisian Philology Amsterdam Beitrage zur alteren Germanistik Bd 31 32 Estrikken 69 Amsterdam Rodopi p 44 Green D H Siegmund Frank 2003 The continental Saxons from the migration period to the tenth century an ethnographic perspective Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology Vol 6 Suffolk Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Social Stress Woodbridge p 19 There has never been such a thing as one Frankish language The Franks spoke different languages Sarah Grey Thomason Terrence Kaufman Language Contact Creolization and Genetic Linguistics University of California Press 1991 p 321 Scott Shay The History of English Wardja Press 2008 p 73 Gluck H ed Metzler Lexikon Sprache pages 472 473 Stuttgart Weimar Metzler 2000 entries Niederdeutsch and Niederfrankisch Welschen Ad Course Dutch Society and Culture International School for Humanities and Social Studies ISHSS Universiteit van Amsterdam 2000 2005 Bibliography EditDekker Cornelis 1998 The origins of Old Germanic studies in the Low Countries Studies in Intellectual History Vol 92 Leiden Brill Feulner Hans Jurgen Wunder Bernhard Bittruf Doris Grebner Stefan 1997 Wie sachd denn Ihr dezu Ein frankisches Mundart Worterbuch fur den Landkreis Kronach Schirmer Druck Mitwitz ISBN 3 9803467 3 0 Munske Horst Haider Hinderling Robert 1996 Linguistic Atlas of Bavaria Swabia Linguistic Atlas of Middle Franconia Linguistic Atlas of Lower Franconia Linguistic Atlas of North East Bavaria Linguistic Atlas of Lower and Upper Bavaria Bavarian Linguistic Atlas Heidelberg University Press ISBN 3 8260 1865 6 Munske Horst Haider Klepsch Alfred 2004 2003 Linguistic Atlas of Middle Franconia Heidelberg University Press van der Horst J M 2002 Introduction to Old Dutch University Press Leuven Wells Chris 1985 German A Linguistic History to 1945 Oxford Clarendon Press Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Franconian linguistics amp oldid 1062096448, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
