RE: VMs: f66r, der muszdel

[elvogt@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Zitat von Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

> ... But where does 
> one dialect end and another begin? Perhaps the boundaries may have been 
> largely based on physical geography (with mountains or hills as borders?) 
> or topological geography (road systems?) - these days, I guess cars tend to 
> insulate us from the former. :-o

AFAIK, you pick certain "key" attributes of language, specific forms of words 
and grammar constructs, and categorize your dialects by these features. Eg, the 
High German "gesehen" (as in "I have seen") would become "gsä'a" in my native 
dialect (swabian), while the bavarians (where I live now) pronounce it "gseng".

There are surprisingly sharp geographical boundaries between these constructs 
sometimes, and of course natural "borders" (like ridges, rivers etc.) help 
preserving them. A notorious example is the city of Augsburg in the South, 
where the border between swabian and bavarian runs along the river Lech -- 
right through the town. (Yes, they do have bridges.)

Based on these features you can draw dialect maps -- of course, it's a bit more 
difficult if all you've got is written records of diffuse origin.

Cheers,

   Elmar


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