Alsatian German and the Little Prince in Alsace
16 October 2024
Languages are still the most important means of communication, orally, in writing, and through words and gestures. Multilingual and multicultural Switzerland has known this for centuries. However, neighbouring regions also have a fascinating linguistic history and development.
It applies to Savoy in France, South Tyrol (Adige), the Aosta Valley, Piedmont and Lombardy in Italy, Tyrol and Vorarlberg in Austria, the Lake Constance region, Baden, Franche-Comté and Alsace.
Alsace
Originally German-speaking, Alsace gradually became bilingual after its annexation to France in the 17th century. From 1945, the region increasingly developed into a purely French-speaking region.
Until World War II, residents of Baden, Basel, and Alsace, for example, could communicate well with each other in the Alemannic dialect. After 1945, however, these regions went their way linguistically.
Image: Ecomusée d’Alsace
For some years now, Elsässerditsch (German spoken in Alsace) has been revived. Place names are (again) bilingual (in Alsatian German and French) and the media and culture pay more attention to the linguistic identity of the region.
The centuries-old Alemannic and Francish languages in Alsace are thus not completely lost. Because of the centuries-long connection with the north-western German-speaking cantons (Solothurn, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft, and Aargau) and with the French-speaking Swiss Jura for French, the development of the Alsatian dialect and French is briefly discussed using Information from the Ecomusée d’Alsace in Ungersheim.
Elsässerditsch, French and Alsatian-Yiddish
The museum tries to raise awareness of the dialects and presents a bilingual model of name-giving for the municipalities in Alsace.
Five Germanic dialects.
Hochalemannisch in southern Alsace (Sundgau), Niederalemannisch in the north, Niederalemannisch in the south, Pfälzer Rheinfränkisch (francique rhénan palatin) in northern Alsace and Lothringisches Rheinfränkisch (francique rhénan lorrainor Lothringer Platt) in the Krummen Elsass (l’Alsace Bossue) near Lorraine.
The two Roman dialects are spoken in northern and southern Alsace. In addition, Yiddish existed.
The Germanic and Roman dialects derive from dialects underlying High German and modern French. Germanic dialects in Alsace are found in neighbouring areas of Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
Two Roman dialects
Le Roman-Lorraine occurs in four Vosges valleys in Alsace: Bruche, Lièpvrette, Giessen, and Weiss. They are called ‘Welche’ in Alsace (Welsche in Swiss German!). These dialects are derived from Latin.
The Roman dialect in Upper-Alsace (le roman du Haut-Rhin), Franche-Comté, and the Swiss Jura developed around the 7th century. Words of Celtic and Alemannic origin were also adopted here.
These Roman-Lorraine dialects in Alsace belong to the Oïl languages, which include all Roman languages north of the Loire and from which modern French emerged. In areas close to the Frankish and Alemannic language border, many Germanic expressions appeared in these Roman dialects.
Today, modern French is standard almost everywhere, both in France and French-speaking Switzerland. Patois has practically disappeared or no longer plays a role, except in a few regions such as Valais.
Conclusion
Today it is hard to imagine that until 1945 Alsatians could communicate in dialect with inhabitants of Basel and Baden without any problems! The Sprachpanorama in Laufenburg also offers detailed and interesting insights into this perspective, Alemannic dialects, and the history of the German language.
The Ecomusée d’Alsace places its language model in the perspective of Alsace in past centuries, a Ballenberg Museum in Alsace.
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) also watches from a small distance at the Parc du Petit Prince, a theme park set around the world of Le Petit Prince (1944) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944).
The author would have been proud of the ‘D’r Klein Prinz’ edition of his world-famous story in the Alsatian dialect.
The DreylandDichterweg/ Poetry Trail along the Rhine features 24 Alemannic poets from Alsace, Baden, and Basel. The route runs from Basel to Huningue and Weil am Rhein.
(Source and further information: Ecomusée d’Alsace in Ungersheim)
Impressions of the Ecomusée d’Alsace
