Aida - I know exactly what you mean. Though I was born in Leipzig, my mother and her whole family are from near Karlsbad, so I grew up with High German and a fair bit of Bohemian words and phrases thrown in. My brother, who was born in the US, took German in high school and as he had grown up hearing our version of German, he wrote the words he was used to on an exam, and his teacher (a famous bitch among her students) failed him. My mother and I had to go in and explain why he'd put the words he did, prove to her they weren't made up (because you can't take the word of native German speakers, right?), and only then would she give him the score he deserved. We just made sure from then on he was using proper High German vocabulary in class. As a funny aside, I was the substitute teacher for said bitch, and I've never had students so glad to see a substitute in their lives. It was my first day as a sub, and I had my baby brother in my class, so talk about intimidating! I had some wise-guy try to show off by cursing a blue streak at me in German, not bothering to ask if I spoke it, and when he was done, I corrected his grammar and told him next time, he should check to see if the person he's swearing at speaks the language. The whole class was in silent awe the rest of the class. :-D Anna ---- Original Message ----- From: "Aida Kraus" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, January 3, 2010 6:30:51 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central Subject: Re: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Heidl and Prokosch Yes, Susie you are right, but this discussion did not start with dialects of the same language at all, ?but with Czech and German as languages in ethnic areas of basically entirely two different language branches: ?Teutonic and Slavic. ?There are no "like words" in either of these language, but the Bohemians made up words for both of these languages for general understanding, and this funny language was somewhat like "Pidgin English" and was called "Kuchelpemisch"!!! ? because it had started in the kitchens. ?In other words "Kitchen Bohemian" which containe a lot of Viennese Yiddish and French words mixed into it. ? A sink was not a "Sp?le" but a "Lawohr" (lavoir), and when you "schlepped" your things around they were your "Tschotschken" which is a typical conglomeration of Czech, German and Yiddish...... and many many more.... ?? ? ? Yes, the Boehmerwald, where you came from, was a mix of Niederbayrisch and Austrian while our Egerl?nderisch is Bavarian Oberpf?lzisch, a Frankish dialect. ?I am not quite sure where the language actually changed, I think it must have been around Bischofteinitz/Mies or thereabouts. ?The dialects are indeed different, but very understandable. ?And there is yet another dialect to the North of my hometown Karlsbad, and close to the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountain) because there they spoke Erzgebirglerisch which is almost Saxon, but not quite. ?In other words, for American people to understand this we would have ?to explain to them that it was like "as if each county had a different pronunciation for the same word" and some of them were as different as North American Yankee is to a Southern dialect. Some of the words changed entirely with the area in Germany. Like our hard rolls were "Semmeln" while in Germany they were "Br?tchen".... and of course, there are linguistic parodies of misunderstandings galore! ?? ? ? Aida