Hessian language

Hessian (German: "Hessisch") is the name of a group of dialects of German. Hessian dialects are spoken in the state (German: Bundesland) of Hesse, which is located in central Germany. Usually German speakers don't have problems understanding the so called Standard Hessian or "Frankfurterisch" which is spoken in the area around Frankfurt, however, Hessian dialects vary to a great extent from area to area or village to village, most of them being unintelligible to those who only know Standard German or even another Hessian dialect.

This is mostly owing to slightly different grammar, pronunciation and especially vocabulary and idioms. As an example, the Standard German word for "blanket" is "Decke" which is "Degg" in some Hessian dialects, while it is "Kolder" in others. The pronunciation of Degg and Kolder even varies from village to village sometimes.

Example for a typical Standard Hessian phrase:
*"Ei, guude wie?" (Hessian)
**"Hallo, wie geht es dir?" (German)
**"Hello, how are you?" (English)

Hessian Dialects (according to a 2006 lecture by Wolfang Näser) can be divided into four main dialects, namely that of Northern Hesse (around the city of Kassel), Central Hesse (including the Marburg and Gießen area), Eastern Hesse (around Fulda) and Southern Hesse (around Darmstadt which is south of Frankfurt). To understand this division one must consider the history of Hesse and the fact that this state is the result of an administrative reform. [Näser, Wolfang: The German Dialects, a practical approach - [http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~naeser/sendai-engl.htm http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~naeser/sendai-engl.htm] ]

Southern Hessian Dialect

In Southern Hessian one can easily observe a number of common changes to Hochdeutsch, which characterize the dialect. The extend to which this happens might differ significantly within the geographic area.

Changes to Consonants

Consonants are often softened, as outlined by Carsten Keil in his document "A Quick Guide to the Language of Frankfurt" [Keil, Carsten: A Quick Guide to the Language of Frankfurt - [http://www.frankfurt.de/fm/870/guide_frankforderisch.pdf http://www.frankfurt.de/fm/870/guide_frankforderisch.pdf] ] .

This softening of consonants can be observed easily for the letters t and p as well as for the sound ch, which turn to d, b and sch respectively.

Changes to Vowels

Changes to vowels are more subtle and more complex. Vowels such as au may change to a stretched aa, as observed in the German word "auch" (as well), which shifts to "aach" in this dialect.

Changes to the Endings of Words

The Southern Hessian dialect will frequently omit the word ending. For example -e will frequently dropped completely as in "ich kenne" vs. "isch kenn" (I know (somebody)).

References