I am certainly no expert on German or dialects, but to answer the specific question about the Glarus dialect, this is my experience. In 1991 I went to Glarus with a wonderful group from New Glarus, Wisconsin, U.S. Many of the people from New Glarus had grown up speaking the Glarus dialect of Swiss German in their public schools and at home in New Glarus. They had always been close to their relatives in Glarus Switzerland and the governments of Glarus and New Glarus had remained in touch and friendly since the emigration from Glarus in 1845 or so. Both groups, the Swiss and the Wisconsonites, said that they understood each other perfectly, and that the Glarner dialect had survived in Wisconsin in an archaic form. In fact, the Swiss remarked that the New Glarus people spoke the Swiss-German of their forefathers, and brought their children to hear the "old" way of speaking from their U.S. cousins. I asked several knowledgeable officials in Glarus about the dialect and they said it wasn't much like German in other areas of Switzerland or Germany because Glarus is a fairly remote valley and the language had developed for centuries without a lot of outside influence. It has blended more in modern times, with highways and trains and freedom of travel, but it still (in 1991) was a very distinct dialect. One person told me that Glarus was an area sort of like the hillbilly area of the US (which I'm from -- Arkansas!) and had a very different (and not admired) dialect. I hope there is someone more knowledgeable about Glarus on the list who will respond ---- Dana Durst Lawrence wolf.seelentag@swissonline.ch wrote: >>Von: Posnsrch@aol.com [mailto:Posnsrch@aol.com] >>Gesendet: Dienstag, 27. Dezember 2005 19:27 >> >>In a message dated 12/27/2005 11:30:46 A.M. Central Standard >>Time, wolf.seelentag@swissonline.ch writes: >> >> >>>I can recommend LEO - the dictionary: >>>http://dict.leo.org/?lang=de&lp=ende >>> >>> >>Thank you Wolf, for the site to learn umlaut pronunciations. >>I knew that there was no Swiss German per se. I did not know >>that there were dialects called Basel German, Burn German, etc. >> >>Do you know if the Glarus, CH grandparent would have spoken >>High German? >> >> > >Definitely not ;-). See also below. > > > >>Was it taught at their schools, as High German was taught in >>the Empire of Germany? >> >> > >I really don't want to get into a discussion on German dialects here - >for two reasons: >- it would blow up the list on a topic for which the list is not meant; >- I cannot make any profound statements, as I have never studied German >dialects, I have just lived in different German and English speaking >parts of Europe (plus shorter stays in the US). > >You mention the German Empire - this would limit the discussion to >fairly recent (for a genealogist) times - as the German Empire was >founded in 1871 (if we forget the "good old times" well before the times >most of us deal with in their genealogy). > >Now - what is "High German"? It is basically a written(!) language - and >people around Hannover feel that they have the most accurate >pronounciation of High German - people in other parts of Germany will >dispute that ;-). All we can say for sure is, that there are quite >different pronounciations of this written language - which should really >be distinguished from dialects. > >We have "Low German" as a group of dialects, spoken in the Northern >("lower" = close to sea level) parts of Germany. As the opposite I have >heard "High German" being used for what people in Southern ("higher" = >up the mountains, or at least hills) parts of Germany speak - which has >no connection whatsoever to how the written language "High German" is >pronounced anywhere. > >Now - where do we draw the line between different pronounciations and >different dialects? Use English for comparison - listen to someone from >the Midlands in the UK, someone from Australia, from Pakistan - and >compare it to what your compatriots in Boston or in Dallas are speaking: >are these different pronounciations? or different dialects? or even >different languages? To deal with this seriously, you have to deal with >it in a scientific way - but whatever you call it, this is not my >science ;-). My science is physics, and most of my spare time is spent >on genealogy ;-). > >Best regards - Wolf >__________________ >Wolf Seelentag, Ph.D. >Reherstr. 19 >CH - 9016 St.Gallen >+41 (0) 71 - 288 51 21 >wolf.seelentag@swissonline.ch > > >==== SWITZERLAND Mailing List ==== >Going on vacation? Gone longer than 4 days? Go to >http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/CHE/SWITZERLAND.html >to unsubscribe > > >