Kölsch language
Encyclopedia
Kölsch is a very closely related small set of dialect
s, or variants, of the Ripuarian Central German
group of languages. Kölsch is spoken in and partially around Cologne
in the area covered by the Archdiocese and former Electorate of Cologne reaching from Neuss
in the north to just south of Bonn
, west to Düren
and east to Olpe
in the North-West of Germany
. Kölsch is one of the very few city dialects in Germany, besides for example the one in Berlin
("Berliner Schnauze"). Kölsch is one of the few dialects of German where the eszett
can appear in double form; for example, in the word ėßß ("is").
Almost all speakers are also fluent in standard or 'high' German
.
It is widely understood in a region inhabited by some 10 million people (a conservative estimate).
, Netherlands
, and German Rhineland
are incorrectly referred to as Kölsch, as well as the so called rheinisch
tongue. In fact, the rheinisch regiolect
has very little in common with Kölsch, being a variety of standard German
, to which it is so close that local speakers of lesser education usually cannot even tell the difference.
or rheinisch dialects - as opposed to the regiolect), which belong to the West Franconian family, itself a variant of West Middle German. It is closely related to the lower Rhineland (niederrheinisch) and Moselle Franconian
(moselfränkisch) dialects and combines some features of them, as well employing a variety of words being hardly in use elsewhere. Common with the Limburgish language group and other Ripuarian languages, it has a distinct intonation, referred to as the 'singing' rheinisch tone. In fact, there are several, rather often used words only distinguishable by slight intonation differences, very noticeable ones to locals, though.
Also Kölsch conveys different meaning by different intonation inside sentences; for example each of: He meant what he said, He was only consoling (someone), He knew what he was saying, He did not mean what he said, He was lying/pretending, He said exactly that, It is most questionable that he said something like that, He did say that, It was him who said that (and no one else), He has expressed that precisely so, He would have said that so (but was involuntarily kept from), He said that so orally (but did not write it, sign it, etc.), and six different questions, can be meant by: Dat hätt dä esu jesaat.
. It particularly thrived in contact with French
during the occupation of Cologne under Napoleon Bonaparte from 1794–1815 and thus contains many words from and expressions pertaining to French
. There are also phonological
similarities in that it is regarded a very nasal dialect by some, and it exhibits consonant liaison
.
and scholars like Adam Wrede whose publications include a dictionary, a grammar and a variety of phrase books. While Kölsch is not commonly taught in schools (although there are often extracurricular offerings) and a lot of young people do not have a proper command of it, many theaters exist that perform exclusively in Kölsch, most notably the Volkstheater Millowitsch
, named after the late Willy Millowitsch
(1909–1999) and the famous puppet theater, Hänneschentheater. There has also recently been an increase in literature written in this dialect and both traditional music and rock in Kölsch are very popular in Cologne, especially around Carnival
, including bands such as Brings
, , Bläck Fööss
, Höhner
and others. The Kölsch rock group BAP
is even among the most successful rock bands in Germany. Another noticeable phenomenon is the watered-down usage of the dialect by German TV personalities, like comedian Gabi Köster.
.
in Colognian, by Jean Jenniches (1894–1979)
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s, or variants, of the Ripuarian Central German
Central German
Central German is a group of High German dialects spoken from the Rhineland in the west to the former eastern territories of Germany.-History:...
group of languages. Kölsch is spoken in and partially around Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
in the area covered by the Archdiocese and former Electorate of Cologne reaching from Neuss
Neuss
Neuss is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district and owes its prosperity to its location at the crossing of historic and modern trade routes. It is primarily known...
in the north to just south of Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, west to Düren
Düren
Düren is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, capital of Düren district. It is located between Aachen and Cologne on the river Rur.-Roman era:Celts inhabited Düren's area before the Romans. They called their small settlement Durum . After the Celts other Germanic tribes settled this area...
and east to Olpe
Olpe, Germany
Olpe is situated in the foothills of the Ebbegebirge in North Rhine-Westphalia, roughly 60 km east of Cologne and 20 km northwest of Siegen. It is part of the Regierungsbezirk of Arnsberg and is the seat of the district of Olpe.- Location :...
in the North-West of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Kölsch is one of the very few city dialects in Germany, besides for example the one in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
("Berliner Schnauze"). Kölsch is one of the few dialects of German where the eszett
ß
In the German alphabet, ß is a letter that originated as a ligature of ss or sz. Like double "s", it is pronounced as an , but in standard spelling, it is only used after long vowels and diphthongs, while ss is used after short vowels...
can appear in double form; for example, in the word ėßß ("is").
Speakers
In Cologne, it is actively spoken by about 250,000 people, roughly one quarter of the population.Almost all speakers are also fluent in standard or 'high' German
Standard German
Standard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
.
It is widely understood in a region inhabited by some 10 million people (a conservative estimate).
Area
There are local (decreasingly divergent) variants of Kölsch in the Quarters, most notably those only recently incorporated into the city, and the Hinterland. Sometimes, also the far more than 100 clearly distinct Ripuarian languages of BelgiumBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, and German Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
are incorrectly referred to as Kölsch, as well as the so called rheinisch
Rhinelandic
Rhinelandic is a term occasionally used for linguistic varieties of a region on both sides of the Middle and Lower Rhine river in Central West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It has at least two distinct meanings which often can only be determined from the fine grain context in...
tongue. In fact, the rheinisch regiolect
Dialectology
Dialectology is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features...
has very little in common with Kölsch, being a variety of standard German
Standard German
Standard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
, to which it is so close that local speakers of lesser education usually cannot even tell the difference.
Language family
Kölsch is one of the variants of the Ripuarian dialects (also known as the RhinelandicRhinelandic
Rhinelandic is a term occasionally used for linguistic varieties of a region on both sides of the Middle and Lower Rhine river in Central West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It has at least two distinct meanings which often can only be determined from the fine grain context in...
or rheinisch dialects - as opposed to the regiolect), which belong to the West Franconian family, itself a variant of West Middle German. It is closely related to the lower Rhineland (niederrheinisch) and Moselle Franconian
Moselle Franconian
Moselle Franconian is a group of West Central German dialects, part of the Central Franconian language area.It is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the course of the Moselle River, from the Siegerland in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia throughout western Rhineland-Palatinate and...
(moselfränkisch) dialects and combines some features of them, as well employing a variety of words being hardly in use elsewhere. Common with the Limburgish language group and other Ripuarian languages, it has a distinct intonation, referred to as the 'singing' rheinisch tone. In fact, there are several, rather often used words only distinguishable by slight intonation differences, very noticeable ones to locals, though.
Also Kölsch conveys different meaning by different intonation inside sentences; for example each of: He meant what he said, He was only consoling (someone), He knew what he was saying, He did not mean what he said, He was lying/pretending, He said exactly that, It is most questionable that he said something like that, He did say that, It was him who said that (and no one else), He has expressed that precisely so, He would have said that so (but was involuntarily kept from), He said that so orally (but did not write it, sign it, etc.), and six different questions, can be meant by: Dat hätt dä esu jesaat.
Modern form
In its modern form it is of comparatively recent origin. It developed from Historic ColognianHistoric Colognian
Historic Colognian or Old Colognian is the spoken and written language that was used in the time from the 12th century to the 18th century in the city of Cologne in the German Empire, before the current modern Colognian idiom developed. The German name for it is . It has been thoroughly researched...
. It particularly thrived in contact with French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
during the occupation of Cologne under Napoleon Bonaparte from 1794–1815 and thus contains many words from and expressions pertaining to French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. There are also phonological
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
similarities in that it is regarded a very nasal dialect by some, and it exhibits consonant liaison
Sandhi
Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries . Examples include the fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of sounds due to neighboring sounds or due to the grammatical function of adjacent words...
.
Contrastive linguistics
In comparison to most other German dialects, Kölsch is unusually well documented through the work of the Akademie för uns Kölsche SprochAkademie för uns Kölsche Sproch
The Akademie för uns Kölsche Sproch was established in 1983 by the Stadtsparkasse Köln . As part of the bank's foundation for culture, this academy campaigns for the preservation and promotion of the Kölsch dialect as a language...
and scholars like Adam Wrede whose publications include a dictionary, a grammar and a variety of phrase books. While Kölsch is not commonly taught in schools (although there are often extracurricular offerings) and a lot of young people do not have a proper command of it, many theaters exist that perform exclusively in Kölsch, most notably the Volkstheater Millowitsch
Volkstheater Millowitsch
The Volkstheater Millowitsch, also known as the Millowitsch-Theater, is a medium-sized theatre in Cologne, Germany where popular, low-brow comedies are enacted.- History :...
, named after the late Willy Millowitsch
Willy Millowitsch
Willy Millowitsch was a German stage and TV actor and the director of the Volkstheater Millowitsch in Cologne.-Early life:...
(1909–1999) and the famous puppet theater, Hänneschentheater. There has also recently been an increase in literature written in this dialect and both traditional music and rock in Kölsch are very popular in Cologne, especially around Carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
, including bands such as Brings
Brings
Brings is a band from Cologne, Germany which performs most songs in the local dialect of Cologne, Kölsch. Founded in 1991, the group became known to a wider public after the release of the song "Superjeilezick" in 2001, and has since specialized on songs played especially during the Carnival time...
, , Bläck Fööss
Bläck Fööss
The Bläck Fööss are a music group from Cologne, Germany, started in 1970.- Name of the band :The band's name in Kölsch, a local dialect of Ripuarian, in which the group predominantly sings, means barefoot.It is pronounced ....
, Höhner
Höhner
De Höhner is a band from Cologne, Germany. They sing in the local dialect of Cologne, Kölsch.The group was founded in 1972 by Peter Werner and Janus Fröhlich...
and others. The Kölsch rock group BAP
BAP (German band)
Bap is a German rock group. With ten albums reaching the number one in the German record charts, Bap is one of the most successful rock acts in their home country....
is even among the most successful rock bands in Germany. Another noticeable phenomenon is the watered-down usage of the dialect by German TV personalities, like comedian Gabi Köster.
Etymology
In Kölsch, kölsch was originally and still is an adjective meaning 'of or pertaining to Cologne' and was nominalized to refer to the dialect or to the local beerKölsch (beer)
Kölsch, also written Koelsch, is a local beer specialty brewed in Cologne, Germany. It is a clear beer with a bright straw-yellow hue, and it has a prominent, but not extreme, hoppiness. It is less bitter than the standard German pale lager. Furthermore, Kölsch is warm fermented at a temperature...
.
The Lord's Prayer in Kölsch
This is a relatively recent, and modern, version of the Lord's PrayerLord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
in Colognian, by Jean Jenniches (1894–1979)
External links
- 'Hover & Hear' Kölsch pronunciations, and compare with equivalents in English and other Germanic languages.