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62-552: Standard German has been heavily based on Upper Saxon, especially in its lexicon and grammar. This is due to it being used as the basis for early developments in the standardization of German during the early 1500s, including the translation of the Bible by Martin Luther . Upper Saxon evolved as a new variety in the course of the medieval German Ostsiedlung (eastern colonisation) from about 1100 onwards. Settlers descending from

124-426: A One Standard German Axiom is a defining feature of Germanistik. Outside of Switzerland, Austria and South Tyrol, local dialects tend to be used mainly in informal situations or at home and in dialect literature, but more recently, a resurgence of German dialects has appeared in mass media. In German, Standard German is generally called Hochdeutsch , reflecting the fact that its phonetics are largely those of

186-661: A focal point of artists and scientists, the language of the Upper Saxon elite (but not of its ordinary people) was considered the exemplary variant of German during that period. The literary theorist Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700–1766), who spent most of his adult life in Leipzig, considered Saxony's upper-class speech as the guiding form of standard German. When Johann Christoph Adelung published his High German dictionary ( Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart ), he made clear that "High German" to him meant

248-546: A hyphen after their stems. Words that are written with capital letters in Standard German are nouns. English has taken many loanwords from German, often without any change of spelling (aside from frequently eliminating umlauts and not capitalizing nouns ): The Duden is the de facto official dictionary of the Standard High German language, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880. The Duden

310-526: A recommended standard is published by the Council for German Orthography which represents the governments of all majority and minority German-speaking countries and dependencies. Adherence is obligatory for government institutions, including schools. Regarding the pronunciation, although there is no official standards body, there is a long-standing de facto standard pronunciation ( Bühnendeutsch ), most commonly used in formal speech and teaching materials. It

372-412: A traditional dialect of a specific region but as a written language developed over a process of several hundred years in which writers tried to write in a way that was understood in the largest area. Martin Luther's translation of the Bible in 1522 (New Testament, Old Testament 1534) was an important development towards an early standardization of written German. Luther based his translation largely on

434-484: Is a subject of numerous stereotypical jokes. The mildly derogatory verb sächseln means to speak with a Saxon accent . Like many other German languages, Upper Saxon features the unrounding of vowel sounds descended from Middle High German (/ø/, /øː/, /y/, /yː/, and /yə̯/ to /e/, /eː/, /i/, and /iː/). This results in words such as bäse for Standard German böse (wicked) and Biehne for Standard German Bühne (stage). In common with other East Central German varieties

496-452: Is generally used in radio and television as well as in German learning materials for non-natives and at least aspirationally by language teachers. The accent is documented in reference works such as Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch (German Pronunciation Dictionary) by Eva-Maria Krech et al., Duden 6 Das Aussprachewörterbuch (Duden volume 6, The Pronunciation Dictionary) by Max Mangold and

558-546: Is often defined as being a region within the federal states of Saxony , Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt , or a smaller part of this region, such as the metropolitan area of Leipzig and Halle plus the surrounding counties. The name dates from the German Empire , when the region was approximately in the centre of the country. Since the German Empire's eastern territories became part of Poland and Russia in

620-635: Is often referred to as East Germany . For decades until Chancellor Willy Brandt started his Ostpolitik in 1969, official West German usage spoke of "Central Germany" to denote the German Democratic Republic . The term was used by both the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party of Germany , and by a large number of West German residents who had been expelled from

682-509: Is preserved in dialect literature and scholarly descriptions. It can thus be argued that it is the spread of Standard German as a language taught at school that defines the German Sprachraum , which was thus a political decision, rather than a direct consequence of dialect geography . That allowed areas with dialects with very little mutual intelligibility to participate in the same cultural sphere. Some linguists claim today that

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744-602: Is pronounced [oˤ] (or similarly, depending on the subdialect), which speakers of other German dialects tend to hear as [oː] ; e.g. [ˈheːo̯ˤ] 'higher' (Standard [ˈhøːɐ̯] höher ) is misheard as if written hä(h)er . The Upper Saxon varieties outside the Ore Mountains can be easily recognized by the supposed "softening" ( lenition ) of the voiceless stop consonants /p/, /t/ and /k/ . Speakers of other dialects hear these as if they were "b", "d" and "g" respectively. In reality, these are merely non-aspirated versions of

806-511: Is similar to the formal German spoken in and around Hanover . Adherence to those standards by private individuals and companies, including the print and audio-visual media, is voluntary. Austrian German has had standard pronunciation exceptions since 1904 ( Luick's österreichische Bühnenaussprache). In Switzerland, no such official pronunciation codex exists, yet most Standard Swiss German speakers are markedly different sounding from Hanover-type phonetic targets. Standard German originated not as

868-655: Is the Austrian counterpart to the German Duden and contains a number of terms unique to Austrian German or more frequently used or differently pronounced there. A considerable amount of this "Austrian" vocabulary is also common in Southern Germany , especially Bavaria , and some of it is used in Switzerland as well. Since the 39th edition in 2001 the orthography of the ÖWB has been adjusted to

930-463: Is the umbrella term for the standardized varieties of the German language , which are used in formal contexts and for communication between different dialect areas. German is a pluricentric Dachsprache with currently three codified (or standardised) specific national varieties: German Standard German , Austrian Standard German and Swiss Standard German . Regarding the spelling and punctuation,

992-907: Is the weakening of consonants, resulting in words such as Kardoffeln for Standard German "Kartoffeln" (potatoes) and Babba for Standard German Papa (dad). Additionally, /ë/ is reduced to /a/, resulting in Standard German Schwester (sister) becoming Schwaster in Upper Saxon. The most notable distinguishing feature of the dialect is that the letters o and u are pronounced as centralized vowels ( [ɞ] and [ɵ] , respectively, when short; [ɵː] and [ʉː] , respectively, when long). Speakers of other German dialects that do not have these sounds tend to perceive these sounds as being ö [øː] and ü [yː] respectively. For example, they hear [ˈɵːma] 'grandma' as if written Öma (Standard Oma [ˈoːma] ). Front rounded vowels are pronounced as non-rounded ( ö = [eː] , ü = [iː] ). Final -er

1054-441: Is updated regularly, with new editions appearing every four or five years. As of August 2017 , it was in its 27th edition and in 12 volumes, each covering different aspects such as loanwords , etymology , pronunciation , synonyms , and so forth. The first of these volumes, Die deutsche Rechtschreibung (German Orthography), has long been the prescriptive source for the spelling of Standard High German. The Duden had become

1116-537: The Duden , in 1880. The first spelling codification by the Second Orthographic Conference of 1901 , based on Duden's work, came into effect in 1902. In 1944 there was a failed attempt at another reform; this was delayed on the order of Hitler and not taken up again after the end of World War II . In the following decades German spelling was essentially decided de facto by the editors of

1178-723: The Evangelical Church in Central Germany and some sports competitions, such as the Mitteldeutsche Meisterschaften (Central German Championships). The Central German Metropolitan Region comprises a regional development zone in the European METREX network (see below). Although most methods for determining the geographical center of Germany result in a point in "Central Germany" (for example Niederdorla in western Thuringia),

1240-472: The German spelling reform of 1996 . The dictionary is also officially used in the Italian province of South Tyrol . It is currently available in 44th edition, from 2022, and includes an online version with limited access. Several organisations promote the use and learning of the Standard German language. The government-backed Goethe-Institut , (named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ) aims to enhance

1302-608: The High German spoken in the southern uplands and the Alps (including Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein and parts of northern Italy as well as southern Germany ). The corresponding term Low German reflects the fact that these dialects belong to the lowlands stretching towards the North Sea . The widespread but mistaken impression that Hochdeutsch is so-called because it is perceived to be "good German" has led to use of

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1364-662: The Leipzig-Dresden railway was opened, the first long-distance railway in Germany. Saxony became an early home of the German labour movement and social democracy ( General German Workers' Association ). Karl Marx received his PhD degree from Jena University as the intellectual environment here was more liberal and open than in the Prussia-controlled Rhineland or even Berlin where his ideas had been refused. Germany's first democratic constitution,

1426-485: The Prussian capital of Berlin , rated the "unpleasant singsong" and "highly peculiar confusion of b and p, of d and t"—even among upper-class speakers—"very crude". According to linguist Beat Siebenhaar , Upper Saxon — defined as a cohesive linguistic system with its own, clear rules for pronunciation , word formation and syntax — became largely extinct during the second half of the 19th to early 20th century. This

1488-533: The Via Regia and the Via Imperii which intersected at Leipzig, which made the region economically important. The region was the starting point of reformation in Germany and the bible translation by Luther was created here. The language used by Luther in his translation serves as a major source for the written modern standard German. Johann Sebastian Bach was born and worked in the region. Furthermore,

1550-664: The Yalta Conference it was suggested as part of the Roosevelt Plan to create a central German state which would have combined roughly the areas formerly covered by the Saxon states of central Germany. After 1945, when Germany lost its eastern territories , most of middle Germany fell into the Soviet Zone of occupation , becoming Germany's new east, which is why the 1949-founded German Democratic Republic (GDR)

1612-537: The stem duchies of Saxony , Franconia , and Bavaria , as well as Thuringia and Flanders , moved into the Margravate of Meissen between the Elbe and Saale rivers, formerly populated by Polabian Slavs . As the colonists belonged to different German tribes speaking different dialects, Upper Saxon became an intermediary, koiné dialect ( Kolonialdialekt or Ausgleichsdialekt ), having less distinct features than

1674-405: The 1980s, German has widely been considered a pluricentric language with the national standard varieties of German Standard German , Austrian Standard German and Swiss Standard German . These varieties of standard German differ above all in vocabulary , pragmatics and pronunciation , but in some instances also in grammar and, in only a handful of cases, in orthography . In formal writing,

1736-694: The Duden dictionaries. After the war, this tradition was followed with two different centers: Mannheim in West Germany and Leipzig in East Germany . By the early 1950s, a few other publishing houses had begun to attack the Duden monopoly in the West by publishing their own dictionaries, which did not always conform to the "official" spellings prescribed by Duden. In response, the Ministers of Culture of

1798-409: The Standard German varieties must not be confused with the variation of the local German dialects . Even though the Standard German varieties are to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. All varieties of Standard German are based on the common tradition of the written German language, whereas the local dialects have their own historical roots that go further back than

1860-476: The Weimar Constitution of 1919, was deliberated and enacted in the city of Weimar. The city had intentionally been chosen as a meeting place at the center ("the heart") of Germany and as a symbol of German culture. Central Germany is home to several UNESCO World Heritage Sites . Present central Germany is part of three German federal states: Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. A large part of

1922-491: The aftermath of World War II , "Central Germany" has been located east of the centre of the country, but the name is still often used in business , media and by the Central German Metropolitan Region . Against this background, the term is not or no longer to be understood as a geographic term. Historically also including most of Hesse , parts of Franconia and the south of Lower Saxony ,

Upper Saxon German - Misplaced Pages Continue

1984-521: The already developed language of the Saxon chancery, which was more widely understood than other dialects and as a Central German dialect, was felt to be "halfway" between the dialects of the north and south. Luther drew principally on Eastern Upper and East Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German . Later in 1748, a grammar manual by Johann Christoph Gottsched , Grundlegung einer deutschen Sprachkunst ,

2046-456: The areas surrounding it (i.e. the areas north of Anhalt ) as they neither belong to the central German dialect group nor do they have a close cultural connection with the more southern parts, they were traditionally connected to Brandenburg and Prussia. Central Germany has played a crucial role in the development of German culture and identity. Already in medieval times, the region laid at the crossroads of two major trade routes in central Europe,

2108-658: The bible of the Standard High German language, being the definitive set of rules regarding grammar, spelling, and usage of Standard High German. The Österreichisches Wörterbuch ("Austrian Dictionary"), abbreviated ÖWB , is the official dictionary of the Standard High German language in the Republic of Austria . It is edited by a group of linguists under the authority of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (German: Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur ). It

2170-451: The difference between British and American English. The pronouncing dictionary of the Duden dictionary group codifies the standard pronunciation for German Standard German and allows for a small number of divergences; for example, the string "äh" has two authorized pronunciations, /ɛː/ and /eː/. Some regions see only the first as correct, and others use only the second; Duden now recognizes both as correct. Standardized High German pronunciation

2232-642: The differences are small; in regards to the spoken language, the different varieties of Standard German are easily recognized by most speakers. These three national standards (German, Austrian and Swiss) have each been adopted by other German-speaking countries and communities as their standard form of German. The German standard is applied in Luxembourg , Belgium , and Namibia while the Swiss standard has been adopted in Liechtenstein . The variation of

2294-495: The eastern provinces, who held a wide range of political views. After the 1990 German reunification , activists (e.g. Aktion Mitteldeutschland e.V. ) claimed that the larger Leipzig – Halle area would benefit from asserting an economic identity, separate from the other more rural new states of former East Germany . The use of the term "Central Germany" was meant to underline its location in Central Europe and to recall

2356-468: The federal states in West Germany officially declared the Duden spellings to be binding as of November 1955 ("Duden-Monopol" or "Dudenmonopol", "Duden-Privileg" or "Dudenprivileg"). The orthography reform of 1996 was based on an international agreement signed by the governments of the German -speaking countries Germany , Austria , Liechtenstein and Switzerland ; but acceptance of the reform

2418-541: The geographical definition, the Electorate of Hesse. They, thus, were dynastically in one or the other way linked to the Electorate of Saxony, at that time a major power in the German Empire. Starting from the 19th century, Prussia successively gained control over the northern parts of Central Germany. Until World War II , this area was seen as the middle of Germany due to it lying approximately midway between Aachen and Königsberg . The Middle German Chemical Triangle

2480-480: The globe. Its Standard German language services are spoken slowly and thus tailored for learners. Deutsche Welle also provides an e-learning website for learning Standard German. Central Germany (cultural area) Central Germany ( German : Mitteldeutschland [ˈmɪtl̩ˌdɔʏtʃlant] ) is an economic and cultural region in Germany . Its exact borders depend on context, but it

2542-449: The industrial glory of the area in former times. Mainly it is used in business and the media . In 1991, the states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia founded the public regional broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (Middle German Broadcasting), a member of the ARD network. Private companies located in the area of Leipzig, Halle and Dessau often use the term "Central Germany", as do

Upper Saxon German - Misplaced Pages Continue

2604-683: The knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German-related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example, the Goethe-Institut teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle provides radio and television broadcasts in Standard German and 30 other languages across

2666-443: The letter ß because it contains a long vowel, even though that letter occurs at the end of a syllable. The logic of this change is that an 'ß' is a single letter whereas 'ss' are two letters, so the same distinction applies as (for example) between the words den and denn . This is a selection of cognates in both English and Standard German. Instead of the usual infinitive ending -en , Standard German verbs are indicated by

2728-592: The older, more original dialects. In the Middle Ages , a variety of Upper Saxon called Meißner Kanzleisächsisch developed as the " chancery language" of Saxony. This was the official, literary language of the Margravate of Meissen (respectively the Electorate of Saxony after 1423), replacing Latin as the language of administrators during the period of Renaissance humanism (15th to 16th century). It

2790-568: The parlance of educated Upper Saxons. He claimed that the Upper Saxon variety was to the German language what Attic was to Greek and Tuscan to Italian . One motive of the parents of German national poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe (a native of Frankfurt ) to send him to study in Leipzig was to adopt a more sophisticated language. With Saxony's loss of political power after the Seven Years' War (1756–63), its dialect lost prestige as well. In 1783, philosopher Johann Erich Biester , residing in

2852-400: The reform, some newspapers, such as Die Zeit , Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung , created their own in-house orthographies. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major revision of the spelling reform was installed in 2006 because there were disagreements regarding capitalization and splitting of German words. Also revised were

2914-555: The region is described as an area south of the linguistic Benrath line where Central German dialects were spoken. It ranked for centuries as one of the most advanced areas in Germany, a centre of both the Protestant Reformation and the 19th-century Industrial Revolution . Large parts of the area were once governed by one of the branches of the House of Wettin , with the exception of Anhalt and Reuss and, depending on

2976-444: The region played an important role during the period of enlightenment. It is the place where Goethe and Schiller spent their most productive years (see: Weimar Classicism ). The first European porcelain was invented at Meissen by Johann Friedrich Böttger . The area has also been one of the regions with the earliest development of industrialisation in Germany and looks back to a long tradition of industry culture. Already in 1839,

3038-520: The rest of Northern Germany. Standard High German is written in the Latin alphabet . In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with an umlaut mark , namely ä , ö and ü , as well as the Eszett or scharfes s (sharp s): ß . In Switzerland and Liechtenstein, ss is used instead of ß . A first step to standardisation, although non-prescriptive, of Early New High German

3100-452: The rules governing punctuation marks. The most noticeable change was probably in the use of the letter ß , called scharfes s ( Sharp S ) or Eszett (pronounced ess-tsett , coming from ſz). Traditionally, this letter was used in three situations: Examples are Füße , paßt , and daß . Currently, only the first rule is in effect, making the reformed spellings Füße , passt , and dass . The word Fuß 'foot' has

3162-677: The same /p/, /t/ and /k/ , a widespread feature among Central German dialects, as opposed to strongly aspirated [pʰ] , [tʰ] and [kʰ] in dominant German dialects. In contrast to neighboring Thuringian, Upper Saxon infinitives end in -en as in Standard German rather than -e. The accent varies from place to place depending on the grade of the High German consonant shift : Standard German Standard High German ( SHG ), less precisely Standard German or High German ( German : Standardhochdeutsch , Standarddeutsch , Hochdeutsch or, in Switzerland, Schriftdeutsch ),

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3224-535: The supposedly less judgmental Standarddeutsch ("Standard German"), deutsche Standardsprache ("German standard language"). On the other hand, the "standard" written languages of Switzerland and Austria have each been codified as standards distinct from that used in Germany. For this reason, "Hochdeutsch" or "High German", originally a mere geographic designation, applies unproblematically to Swiss Standard German and Austrian German as well as to German Standard German and may be preferred for that reason. Since

3286-530: The three-state area also comprises Görlitz , the easternmost town in Germany, which lies on the border with Poland . Arguably, this eastern part, although part of the state of Saxony, is not part of the central German cultural region, as historically, the Lusatia region has its own history and traditions (see i.a. the Lusatian League ), being closely linked to Bohemia. The same is true for Magdeburg and

3348-504: The training materials at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (West German Broadcasting) and Deutschlandfunk (Radio Germany). It is an invented accent, rather than one radiating from any particular German-speaking city. It is often said that the people of Hannover speak German with an accent that comes closest to the standard of the Duden dictionaries, but the claim is debatable, particularly since it may apply equally well to

3410-437: The unification of the written language, and in the case of Low German, belong to a different language entirely. In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation. However, there are two (or three) exceptions: While the three principal national varieties are recognized as three distinct standards, the differences are few, perhaps comparable to

3472-545: Was almost entirely a written language. People in Northern Germany who spoke mainly Low Saxon dialects , which were very different from Standard German, learned it more or less as a foreign language. However, the Northern pronunciation (of Standard German) later became considered standard and spread southward. In some regions such as around Hanover , the local dialect has completely died out as spoken language but

3534-567: Was due to the increased adoption of the standard language among the Saxony populace. Since then, (Upper) Saxon merely refers to a colloquial, regional variety of Standard German and not a dialect in the proper sense. Spoken by leading communists from the Central German industrial area such as Walter Ulbricht , the Upper Saxon dialect was commonly perceived as the colloquial speech of East Germany by West German citizens and up to today

3596-572: Was introduced by the Luther Bible of 1534. In consequence, the written language of the chancery of Saxony-Wittenberg rose in importance in the course of the 17th century so much so that it was used in texts such as the 1665 revision of the Zürich Bible . The First Orthographical Conference convened in 1876 by order of the government of Prussia , but failed. Konrad Duden published the first edition of his dictionary, later simply known as

3658-603: Was key in the development of German writing and standardization of the language. Similarly to Luther, Gottsched based his manual on the Central German variant of the Upper Saxon area. Over the course of the mid-18th century and onward, a written standard then began to emerge and be widely accepted in German-speaking areas, thus ending the period of Early New High German . Until about 1800, Standard German

3720-696: Was less influenced by Upper German features than the Habsburg chancery language, and thus intelligible to speakers of both Upper and Low German dialects. In the context of the Bible translation by Martin Luther , it played a large part in the development of the Early New High German language as a standard variety. Due to the influence and prestige of the Electorate of Saxony during the Baroque era (17th to 18th century), and especially its role as

3782-489: Was limited and led to public controversy and considerable dispute. The states ( Bundesländer ) of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria refused to accept it. At one point, the dispute reached the highest court, which quickly dismissed it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule – everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. While, as of 2004 , most German print media followed

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3844-647: Was the central region of the three main German industrial areas between the Ruhr and Upper Silesia . In 1929 the Free State of Prussia and the Holy See agreed in the Prussian Concordat to combine several Catholic dioceses to form the new Middle German Ecclesiastical Province , spreading over eastern Westphalia , northern Hesse, most of Thuringia, today's Saxony-Anhalt and small parts of Saxony. During

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