18 Facts About German dialects

German dialects are the various traditional local varieties of the German language.

Traditionally, all of the major dialect groupings of German dialects are typically named after so-called "stem duchies" or "tribal duchies" by early German linguists, among whom the Brothers Grimm were especially influential.

In linguistics of German, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of Standard German.

In regions with German dialects are being in the same dialectal region, pronunciation, syntax and words particular to specific towns even only a few miles apart can create even more variation.

When spoken in their purest form, Low German, most Upper German, High Franconian dialects and even some Central German dialects are unintelligible to those versed only in Standard German.

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However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low German.

Large dialects such as the East Pomeranian dialect, most varieties of Silesian German, Prussian dialects and Bohemian German dialects disappeared by integration of the refugees in their new homeland west.

Low German varieties are considered dialects of the German language by some but a separate language by others .

Early New High German dialects gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature.

Today, Low Saxon dialects are still widespread, especially among the elderly in the Northern parts of Germany, many of them being able to understand and speak the language, but younger people in Northern Germany are at least able to understand these dialects but not to speak them.

The North German dialects Broadcasting offers television programs, such as "Talk op Platt" and radio programs in Low Saxon.

Upper German dialects include Alsatian, Swabian, Low Alemannic, Central Alemannic, High Alemannic, Highest Alemannic, Southern Bavarian, Central Bavarian and Northern Bavarian and are spoken in parts of northeastern France, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy.

High German dialects varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews have several unique features and are usually considered as a separate language.

Dialects of German that are or were spoken primarily in colonies or communities founded by German-speakers resemble the dialects of the regions of the founders.

For example, Pennsylvania German and Volga German resemble dialects of the Baden-Wurttemberg, Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia and Venezuelan Aleman Coloniero is a Low Alemannic variant.

Geographical origin of most or all speakers of Lagunen-Deutsch is Chile, to where the ancestors of the speakers immigrated from German dialects-speaking areas of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The prestige the German dialects language had made it acquire qualities of a superstratum in southern Chile.

German dialects was at one time the lingua franca in many American regions, with high density in the Midwest, but St Louis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York City and a great many others cities had a very high German dialects-speaking population.