Westphalian Language Information
Westphalian or Westfalish (Wäästfaalisch) is one of the major dialect groups of West Low German. Its most salient feature is the diphthongization (rising diphthongs). For example, speakers say iEten ([ɪɛtn̩]) instead of Eːten for eat. (There is also a difference in the use of consonants within the Westphalian dialects: North of the Wiehengebirge, people tend to speak unvoiced consonants, south of the Wiehengebirge they speak voiced consonants, e.g. Foite <-> Foide.) The Westphalian dialect region includes the north-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, i.e. the former Prussian province of Westphalia, without Siegerland and Wittgenstein, but including the southern part of former government district Weser-Ems (e.g. the region around Osnabrück and the landscape of Emsland).
Varieties and similarities
Among the Westphalian language there are different subgroups of dialects:
- Münster Low German in the Münsterland
- East Westphalian in East Westphalia (including the dialect of Osnabrück)
- Sauerland Low German
and others.
It has many lexical similarities and other proximities with Eastphalian, extending to the East and a bit to the North of the area where Westphalian is spoken.
Today
In fact, that what is considered the true dialect of Westphalia is currently spoken by mostly elderly people. The larger part of the population of the area speaks Standard German with a Westphalian accent. This accent, however, is not as remarkable as for instance Bavarian, due to the fact that Westphalia is closer to the region of Hanover, which speech variety is commonly considered the 'best' Standard German.
One of the reasons for the diminishing use of Westphalian is the rigorous enforcement of Standard High German in Low German dialect speaking areas during the 18th century. The original Westpfalian and other Low German dialects were considered equally unintelligible as English, Dutch or Norwegian by High German speakers. The region around Hannover was forced to adopt text book High German as it is written, without any accent.
Nevertheless, the Westphalian-coloured High German includes some words that originate from the traditional dialect, which are not intelligible for High German speakers. Examples would be Pölter [pœltɐ] (for Pajamas) or Plörre [plœʁə] (for a dirty liquid) or Mötke [mœtkə](for mud or dirt).
References
- ^ a b c d Ethnologue entry
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