Dialect Atlas of Central Western Germany (DMW) - Siegen site

Location Siegen

Dialect Atlas of Central Western Germany (DMW)

The survey region of the Siegen site examines the south-east of the DMW area and includes the districts of Altenkirchen (Westerwald), Hochsauerlandkreis, Koblenz, Märkischer Kreis, Mayen-Koblenz, Neuwied, Oberbergischer Kreis, Olpe, Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis, Rhein-Lahn-Kreis, Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, Siegen-Wittgenstein and Westerwaldkreis as well as the independent cities of Bonn and Leverkusen (see Fig. 1).

*Abbildung 1: Das Siegener Untersuchungsgebiet mit Bezeichnung der Landkreise*

Due to the spatial conditions, we are concerned with both High German and Low German dialects/varieties, as the Benrath Line, the central dialect boundary for the German language area, runs through the upper third of the Siegen study area (cf. Fig. 2). Low German dialects can be found to the north of this line and High German dialects to the south. More precisely, these are Ripuarian in the west, Mosel-Franconian and Rhine-Franconian in the south, Hessian in the east (all High German dialects) and Westphalian in the north (Low German dialect).

*Abbildung 2: Das Siegener Untersuchungsgebiet mit der Benrather Linie*

Other dialect boundaries can also be found in this area, forming the so-called Rhenish fan.

*Abbildung 3: Das Siegener Untersuchungsgebiet mit Bezeichnung der Landkreise und dem Rheinischen Fächer*

Overall, the Siegen study area is characterized by many transitional areas, which makes the investigation of the linguistic conditions particularly exciting. As far as the Rhenish fan is concerned, typical differentiation features are the effects of the Second Sound Shift (approx. 500-800 AD). They are particularly evident in the differences between preserved plosives and shifted fricatives, for example between "old" t and "new" s in dat/das, between "old" p and "new" f in dorp/dorf and between "old" k and "new" ch in maken/machen, ik/ich and sik/sich.

The DMW aims to identify the most standardized language in the individual regions with comprehensive surveys based on a very extensive questionnaire (approx. 800 questions). In addition to determining the phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical characteristics of the varieties, it also examines how dialect speakers perceive their language and, by querying the so-called Wenker sentences
enables a historically oriented analysis.

For the surveys, places/districts with up to 8,000 inhabitants are selected in which other linguistic projects have already been carried out (in particular Wenker's surveys as part of the German Language Atlas). In order to record language change and language use, two people from the oldest generation (aged 70 and over) and one person from the younger generation (aged around 30 to 45) will be interviewed in each place in order to be able to determine cross-generational change.

Detailed information on the project can be found on the project homepage
project homepage. There you will also find the so-called preview maps, on which you can listen to the digitally edited recordings at the respective location at the click of a mouse. The maps are still "growing": as the project is currently in the survey phase, new data is regularly added, gradually completing the map image. It is therefore worth checking back again and again.

Here
you can also find information on participating in the project. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the dialect speakers who took part in the interviews and thus contributed to the success of the DMW. We would also like to thank the people who supported and assisted us in our search for speakers. Without your commitment, the comprehensive surveys would not be possible.

The DMW team Siegen

Emzari Abzhandadze (technology)
Marius Albers (project coordination)
Valeria Bunkov (research assistant)
Marvin Jacobs (WHB)
Ambra Ottersbach (research assistant)
Angelika Papanastasiou (WHB)
Julian Ribant (SHK)
Prof. Dr. Petra M. Vogel (project management)
Pia Winkel (research assistant)
Tina Wurmbach (WHK)

Location Siegen

The DMW team Siegen

Former employees at the Siegen site