ALSATIAN LANGUAGE

'Alsatian' (''Elsässerditsch''; ; or ''Elsässerdeutsch'') is a Low Alemannic German dialect spoken in most of Alsace, a region in eastern France which has passed between French and German control many times.
Not readily intelligible to speakers of standard German, it is closely related to other nearby Alemannic dialects, such as Swiss German, Swabian, and Badisch. It is often confused with Lorraine Franconian, a more distantly related Franconian dialect spoken in the far north-east of Alsace and in neighboring Lorraine.
Many speakers of Alsatian write in standard German. Street names in the Alsace may use Alsatian spellings (they were formerly displayed only in French but are now bilingual in some places, especially Strasbourg)

Contents

Comparative vocabulary list

Status of Alsatian in France

References

External links

Comparative vocabulary list

English	Alsatian	High Alemannic	Standard German	Standard French	Swabian (German dialect)
house	Hüüs ([])	Huus	Haus	maison	Hous
loud	lüüt ([])	luut	laut	bruyant	lout
people	Lit ([])	Lüt	Leute	gens	Leid
today	hit ([])	Hüt	heute	aujourd'hui	heid
beautiful	schen ([])	schö	schön	beau	sche
Earth	Ard ([])	Ärd	Erde	terre	Erd
Fog	Nabel ([])	Näbel	Nebel	brouillard	Nebl
water	Wàsser ([])	Wasser	Wasser	eau	Wasser
man	Mànn ([])	Maa	Mann	homme	Mà
eat	assa ([])	ässe	essen	manger	essa
to drink	trenka ([])	trinkche	trinken	boire	trenka
little	klai ([])	chlei	klein	petit, petite	kloi
child	Kind ([])	Chind	Kind	enfant	Kind
day	Däi	Dag	Tag	jour	Dàg
woman	Frài	Frou	Frau	femme	Frau

Status of Alsatian in France

The constitution of the Fifth Republic states that French alone is the official language of the Republic. However Alsatian, along with other regional languages, are recognized by the French government in the official list of languages of France. A 1999 INSEE survey counted 548,000 adult speakers of Alsatian in France, making it the second most-spoken regional language in France (after Occitan). Like all regional languages in France, however, the transmission of Alsatian is on the decline. While 39% of the adult population of Alsace speaks Alsatian, only one in four children speaks it, and only one in ten children uses it regularly.

References

★ [1] François Héran, et al. (2002) "La dynamique des langues en France au fil du XX^e siècle". ''Population et sociétés'' 376, Ined.

★ [2] "L'alsacien, deuxième langue régionale de France" Insee, ''Chiffres pour l'Alsace'' no. 12, December 2002

★ Brunner, Jean-Jacques. ''L'alsacien sans peine''. ASSiMiL, 2001. ISBN 2-7005-0222-1

★ Laugel-Erny, Elsa. ''Cours d'alsacien''. Les Editions du Quai, 1999.

★ Matzen, Raymond, and Léon Daul. ''Wie Geht's ? Le dialecte à la portée de tous'' La Nuée Bleue, 1999. ISBN 2-7165-0464-4

★ Matzen, Raymond, and Léon Daul. ''Wie Steht's ? Lexiques alsacien et français, Variantes dialectales, Grammaire'' La Nuée Bleue, 2000. ISBN 2-7165-0525-X

★ MicrosoftOffice 2007. Alsatian version.

External links

★ Euromosaic - German in France - The status of German Languages in France.

★ Alsatian placenames

★ Wörterbuch der elsässischen Mundarten