Feb. 11. 1854.] 



NOTES AND 'QUERIES. 



133 



to know something about the matter, wishes for 

 German evidence. 



Should your correspondents James S. Harhy 

 and E. C. II. be acquainted (and I doubt not but 

 they are) with the song, in which a German in- 

 quires "What is his native land?" and having 

 called over some of the principalities, as Prussia, 

 Suabia, Bavaria, Pomerania, Westphalia, Swit- 

 zerland, Tyrol, he cries disdainfully, " No ! no ! 

 no ! my fatherland must be greater :" at last, 

 despairing, he asks to name him that land, and 

 is answered, "Wherever the German tongue is 

 heard:" — should Jamjes S. Harry and E. C. H. 

 recollect these words, they will conceive that such 

 a people must have several tribes, and each tribe 

 their peculiar dialect, founded on prescribed rules, 

 and to which individually equal justice is due. 



The dialects of the Deutsche Sprache, the 

 German language, are the Ober Deutsche and 

 Nieder Deutsche, Upper German and Low Ger- 

 man : from the former dialect has, in course of 

 time, proceeded the Hoch Deutsche Sprache, the 

 High German language, now used exclusively as 



the bdbk language by the more educated classes 

 throughout Germany. 



The principal dialects of the Ober Deutsche 

 are the following : 



1. The Allemanic, spoken in Switzerland and 

 the Upper Rhine. 



2. The Suabian, spoken in the countries be- 

 tween the Black Forest and the River Lech. 



3. The Bavarian, spoken in the South of Ba- 

 varia and Austria. 



4. The Franconian, spoken in the North of 

 Bavaria, Hessen, and the Middle Rhine. 



5. The Upper Saxon or Misnian, spoken in the 

 plains of Saxony and Thuringia. 



These dialecxs differ from each other, and parti- 

 cularly from the High German language, with 

 regard to their elements. 



The Ober Deutsche dialects differ from each 

 other by the introduction of peculiar vowels. 



The Nieder Deutsche is distinguished from the 

 Ober Deutsche by the shifting of consonants : 

 ex. gr. : 



I have introduced here, as a dialect of the 

 Nieder Deutsche, the Dutch = Hollandisch, the 

 language spoken by the people of the Neder- 

 landen = N iederlande = Netherlands. 



The Nieder Deutsche dialect is also spoken in 

 Westphalia, and along the river Weser, &c. 



All these dialects have also their own words, or 

 at least their peculiar meanings of words, as well 

 as particular modes of expression, and these are to 

 be considered as provincialisms. 



Professor Goepes de Gruter. 



