Bairisch and Alemannisch

In July, as we drove across Bavaria en route to Baden-Wuerttemberg, Stefan kept saying things like, "over this next hill, the dialect changes," and "in that town over there, they speak a different version of Bairisch." I'm assuming the very specific, very local differences in the language reflect a historical tendency for people to stay put: that is, it's not uncommon for Germans to remain in the vicinity where they grew up.

Local language differences are also abundant in Alemannisch, a dialect spoken in Baden-Wuerttemberg, among other places. The Badische Zeitung has had a bunch of articles on Alemannisch lately, coinciding with the recent publication of Rudolf Post's Alemannisches Woerterbuch fuer Baden (The Alemannisch Dictionary for Baden). As one article pointed out, the ever-popular root vegetable known in high German as a Kartoffel (potato) might in Alemannisch be called a Herdepfel, Erdaepfel, Herdaepfl, Herdoepfel, Grumbeer, or Grumbiir, depending on where you are. While the etymological connection between -offel (Kartoffel) and -epfel (Erdapfel) is nifty, even niftier is the conceptual connection between an Earth-apple (like the French potato, "pomme de terre") and a Ground-pear (Grumbiir).

I certainly hear a difference between Bairisch and Alemannisch. Mainly what I hear is that Bairisch involves a lot of long, drawn out vowels and diphthongs--as in "Booooaaaarisch," which is how Bavarians around Steinebach pronounce "Bairisch"--while Alemannisch is wispier and more sprightly with its consonants.

I can do decent conversational approximations of Bairisch. I know how to boss people around and to curse, as in "Gehma! Packmas! Horst mi! So a Kaas!" ("Let's go! Let's get packing! Listen to me! What a cheese!"). I can also end a telephone conversation with my mother-in-law: "Also. Also, pfirdi! Pfirdi! Also, pfirdi!" ("OK. OK, so long! So long! OK, so long!"). ("Pfirdi" is supposedly spelled "Pfuad di," but I just don't hear it that way.) For the foreigner who has difficulty remembering the gender of nouns, Bairisch conveniently smushes almost all of its articles into "a/an" or "d'/'s," regardless of gender, as in "a Bisserl" ("a little"), "an Oachkatzlschwoaf in veteriol Oi eidaucht" ("a squirrel's tail dipped in vitriol"), and "d'Frau/da Mann/'s Kind" ("the woman/the man/the child"). Bairisch phrases that get said a lot in our house include "Was is' des Ding da?" ("what's that thang there?") and "scho' schee" ("schon schoen," meaning the equivalent of "real nice" in Southern drawl).

The nuances of Alemannisch are still beyond my grasp, but the diminutives -le/-li are both accessible and charming. Examples are plentiful on trail signs in the woods, identifying places like "Fuchskoepfleweg" ("Wee Fox-Head Way") and "Jaegerhaeusle" ("Hunting House-let"). There's also a well-known hiking route called the "Wii Wegli" ("Wine Way-let") that traverses the wine country of the Markgraeflerland region.

To hear how much Alemannisch pronunciation varies over how little geographical territory, check out this nifty audio website: http://www.alemannisch.de/unser_sprooch/tonprobe/index.html.