A language in general changes over the course of time, words (Die Wörter) and letters ( Die Buchstaben) that were ones used are becoming of less usage, either in school, meetings and daily lifestyles.
A classic example is the old German fraktur script, the name “Fraktur “ actually deriving from the Latin name: Broken script.
As Martin Luther translated the bible in 1534 it also marks the new era of the usage in written German, or more specifically: High –German, which is what we use today in German language, however there is also the low-German or more simply put: Plattdeutsch.
During the 8th Century Ad, there was a sound ( Der Ton) shift in German dialects.
This sound shift affected the southern areas of Germany, which are more elevated and often referred to as the High –German, though the Low-German language having been relatively untouched stayed in the lowlands of Northern Germany.
This dialect of Low -German can also be extended (Das erweitern) in a linguistic sense to Dutch, Flemish, Frisian and English.
The Berliner dialect is a version of the niederdeutsch, where for instance the Berliner dialect never participated in the sound shift that evolved during the 16th century. Originally this dialect started in the upper class and slowly shifted into the lower class during the 19th century.
The dialect in Berlin owes many trademarks to the Prussian empire and French speaking Huguenots whom sought refuge there while being persecuted.
The most common word you will hear in the Berliner dialect is: “kieken” or sometimes pronounced as “gücken” which basically means, “ look” in English.
Berliners also have the habit of pronouncing the “ch” as a “ck” i.e “ Lock” rather than “Loch” for “hole “in English.
In particular they say “Ik” for “ich” in English it means “I” to name a few.
Berliners are proud of their dialect actually and have even given it a name: die Berliner Schnauze. The Berliner Schnauze is a mixture of humor, creative expression, and aggressiveness, sometimes offensive to some outsiders and possibly even misunderstood. Berliners have mastered their Schnauze and passed on its unique, comical characteristics from generation to generation.
In a sense, you can compare the ‘Berliner Schnauze” to the NYC slang and rudeness, yet with much deeper historical roots, diplomacy and meaning.
Though what I did find interesting, its often said, East Berliners tend to use the ‘Berliner Schnauze” more then the West-Berliners. With the research, I could not find as to why this is, even though both Berlin sides have had a similar history before WWII. Has this something to do with outside influence after all?
Today German Language is on a course of change, we are all aware of that.
For instance, in the area of scholarship and science where German has probably faded the most, most German scientific and academic journals, formerly all ones in German or mostly in German, are now English only. Most international academic or scientific conferences held in Germany are either dominated by English or exclusively in English.
Will the German Language prevail? How much will it change over the centuries to come? What will it sound like? And how many English words will be interlined within the German Language? I think, no one will know…yet, the German Language is unique ( einmalig )in its own way, with genders, dialects and influences that make the language interesting in itself and worth learning.
Die Wörter- the words
Die Buchstaben- the Letters
Erweitern- extended
einmalig- Unique
Snout,Slang,dialect- Schnauze
6 Comments
I enjoyed this post. I lived in Bremerhaven when I was about 6 or 7, and I remember learning “ik” instead of “ich”. But whenever I mentioned that to German instructors and even some native born Germans, they looked at me like I was crazy. I had always heard about the differing dialects in Germany, and it really struck me when I asked a German friend to call to Germany to order a map of the area my husband’s family came from. She told me she would try, but that she may not be able to understand them if they used the Swabish dialect. I think she told me she was from Bavaria. At that point, I thought I would never be able to learn German if there was that much difference from region to region.
Hi Sandra. Great post! For nouns included in the vocabulary list, can you include die Artikel in the future? For example (der, die, das) Schnautze? Thanks. I love this blog.
@ Alison: It is ‘die Schnauze’
And it is not used as the term for the berlin dialect, which is just called ‘berlinerisch’, but stands for the dark humor and cheekiness of the berlin people…
Btw Sandra, it is not ‘gücken’ with ‘ü’ but just ‘gucken’.
And nobody says Lock instead of Loch. That ch –>ck is really only for ‘ich’ the case. It is more often the other way round, that Berliners use ‘ch’ instead of ‘ck’ or especially ‘g’.
That is ‘witzich’ instead of witzig (funny).
‘Der Wech (instead of Weg) ist lang.’ The way is long. Or even more correct ‘Der Wech IS lang’, because the t of ‘ist’ is cutted in berlinerisch. So it is the same is as in english.
And often the ‘g’ at the beginning of a word is replaced by ‘j’. ‘Ich gehe’ (I go) turns to ‘Ick jehe’
Greetings from Brandenburg (sourrounding Bundesland of Berlin), very nice blog!!!
Nice post. I actually thought the Berliner Schnauze referred only to the grumpiness of the locals and not to Berlinerisch itself. Krass!
a introduction in “Berliner Schnauze”;o)
http://blog.inberlin.de/2011/02/berliner-schnauze/
an introduction in “Berliner Schnauze”:
http://blog.inberlin.de/2011/02/berliner-schnauze/
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