High Alemannic German

Encyclopedia : H : HI : HIG : High Alemannic German

High Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and belongs to the German language, even though they are only partly intelligible to German speakers.

The High Alemannic dialects are spoken in Liechtenstein and in most of German-speaking Switzerland (for instance Bernese German or Zürich German) except for the Highest Alemannic dialects in the South and for the Low Alemannic Basel German dialect in the North West. They are also spoken in Southern Baden-Württemberg in Germany and in Vorarlberg in Austria. Therefore, High Alemannic must not be confused with Swiss German, which refers to all German dialects of Switzerland because of the special diglossic situation of German-speaking Switzerland.

Features

The distinctive feature of the High Alemannic dialects is the completion of the High German consonant shift, for instance chalt [xalt] 'cold' vs. Low Alemannic and standard German 'kalt' [kʰalt].

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