Bernese German is the dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 of High Alemannic German

High Alemannic German

High Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic German and is often considered to be part of the German language, even though it is only partly intelligible to non-Alemannic speakers....

 spoken in the Swiss plateau

Swiss plateau

The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau constitutes one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland alongside the Jura mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface...

 (Mittelland) part of the canton of Bern and in some neighbouring regions.

Varieties

There is a lot of regional variation within Bernese German dialects. However, with the increasing importance of the big agglomeration of Bern, the variety of Bern is spreading out, levelling the old village dialects.

Until the second half of the 20th century, there was a considerable range of sociolect

Sociolect

In sociolinguistics, a sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc....

s in the city of Bern where four different groups could be distinguished:

• The patrician Bernese German of the high society. It has neither l-vocalisation nor nd-velarisation, it does not employ the alveolar trill
  Alveolar trill
  The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r. It is commonly called the rolled R, rolling R, or trilled R...
  
   but the French
  French language
  French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
  
   uvular trill
  Uvular trill
  The uvular trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a small capital R...
  
  , and it has more French loanword
  Loanword
  A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
  
  s than the other varieties.

• The variety of the native city population.

• The varieties of the countryside people who moved into the city.

• The variety of the – generally poor – people living in the part of the old town called Matte, known as Mattenenglisch
  Mattenenglisch
  Mattenenglisch, in Bernese German Dialect Mattenänglisch, is a name for the varieties traditionally spoken in the Matte, the old working class neighbourhood of the Swiss City of Berne. It is used in two different senses: Either for the traditional sociolect of that neighbourhood or for a special...
  
   (Matte-English), even though it has little relation with English, but has a number of loans from Jenisch
  Yeniche (people)
  The Yeniche, or Jenische, are the third-largest population of nomadic people in Europe, living mostly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and parts of France...
  
  , Rotwelsch
  Rotwelsch
  Rotwelsch or Gaunersprache is a secret language, a cant or thieves' argot, spoken by covert groups primarily in southern Germany and Switzerland.-Origin and development:...
  
   and Yiddish. In addition to it, there was also a special kind of Pig Latin
  Pig Latin
  Pig Latin is a language game of alterations played in English. To form the Pig Latin form of an English word the first consonant is moved to the end of the word and an ay is affixed . The object is to conceal the meaning of the words from others not familiar with the rules...
  
   which is the proper Mattenenglisch according to some people.

Phonology

Bernese German is distinguished from other Swiss German

Swiss German

Swiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg...

 dialects by the following characteristics:

• The shortening of many high vowel
  Vowel
  In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
  
  s, e.g. Zit, Lüt, lut instead of Ziit, Lüüt, luut (Standard German Zeit, Leute, laut; 'time', 'people', 'loud').

• The vocalisation
  Speech production
  Speech production is the process by which spoken words are selected to be produced, have their phonetics formulated and then finally are articulated by the motor system in the vocal apparatus...
  
   of l, e.g. Hauue, Esu instead of Halle, Esel ('hall', 'donkey'). This has led to a huge repertoire of diphthong
  Diphthong
  A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
  
  s and triphthong
  Triphthong
  In phonetics, a triphthong is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel quality to another that passes over a third...
  
  s.

• The change of nd to ng, e.g. angers instead of anders ('different'). The many words ending with -ng created the joke that Bernese sounds almost like Chinese: "Schang chum hey d'Ching wei Hung" ("Schang (Jean) come home, the kids want honey(bread)")

• Words such as Fleisch ‘flesh’ and Oug ’eye’ are pronounced with the diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/, and not /aɪ/ and /aʊ/.

Pragmatics

As in other Western Swiss German dialects and as in French, the polite form of address is the second person plural and not the third person plural as in German.

Vocabulary

A lot of the vocabulary known as typical to Bernese German comes from the Mattenenglisch

Mattenenglisch

Mattenenglisch, in Bernese German Dialect Mattenänglisch, is a name for the varieties traditionally spoken in the Matte, the old working class neighbourhood of the Swiss City of Berne. It is used in two different senses: Either for the traditional sociolect of that neighbourhood or for a special...

, e.g. Gieu 'boy', Modi 'girl'. The best known shibboleth

Shibboleth

A shibboleth is a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important...

s of Bernese German may be the words äuä

Äuä

-Modal particle:Within a declarative sentence, this word can be used as a German modal particle, connoting that the speaker is only assuming what he is telling, but still quite certain about it...

'no way' or 'probably', (j)ieu 'yes', geng (or ging, gäng) 'always'. Bernese typically say mängisch for the German manchmal (sometimes). An often used word at the end of a sentence is a question tag, "gäu" (2nd person singular) or "gäuet" (2nd person plural, polite form) meaning 'isn't it?', whereas other Swiss German dialects prefer "oder", like 'or what?'.

Bernese German literature

Although Bernese German is mainly a spoken language (for writing, the standard German language is used), there is a relatively extensive literature which goes back to the beginnings of the 20th century.

Bernese German grammar

Grammar

In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...

s and dictionaries

Dictionary

A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...

 also exist.

Bernese German music

Many Bernese German songs have become popular all over the German speaking part of Switzerland, especially those of Mani Matter

Mani Matter

Mani Matter was a popular Swiss singer-songwriter...

. This may have influenced the development of Bernese German rock music, which was the first Swiss German rock music to appear and continues to be one of the most important ones.

Today, notable bands singing in Bernese German include Patent Ochsner

Patent Ochsner

Patent Ochsner is one of Switzerland's best-known rock bands, all of whose studio albums but one have topped the Swiss charts. Hailing from Bern, they perform songs in Swiss German.- Current line-up :* Büne Huber * Monic Mathys...

, Züri West

Züri West

Züri West is one of Switzerland's best-known rock bands. The majority of their lyrics are written in Bernese German.The name is ironic and refers to Bern as merely being a place west of Zürich or as the westside of Zürich....

 and Stiller Has

Stiller Has

Stiller Has are a musical trio founded 1989 in Bern, Switzerland. Considering themselves part of the Kleinkunst, or "small stage art" scene, they have nonetheless become a cult band across the German speaking part of Switzerland....

.

External links

• Baernduetsch Verein – Association for the conservation of Bernese German
• Offizielle Dialekt.ch-Seite zum Bernbiet – Bernese examples in mp3
• berndeutsch.ch Bernese-German dictionary with several thousand words
• my bärndütschi syte – Private homepage with articles, poems and songs in Bernese German