Rahul Sharma (Editor)

East Central German

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Glottolog:
  
None

East Central German

Geographic distribution:
  
Thuringia, Saxony, Berlin, Brandenburg

Linguistic classification:
  
Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Central German East Central German

Subdivisions:
  
Thuringian Upper Saxon Erzgebirgisch Lausitzisch-neumärkisch

East Central German (German: Ostmitteldeutsche Dialekte) is the eastern, non-Franconian sub-group of Central German dialects, themselves part of High German. Present-day Standard German as a High German variant has actually developed from a compromise of East Central (especially Upper Saxon promoted by Johann Christoph Gottsched) and East Franconian German. East Central German dialects are mainly spoken in Central Germany and parts of Brandenburg, and were formerly also spoken in Silesia and Bohemia.

Dialects

East Central German is spoken in large parts of what is today known as the cultural area of Central Germany (Mitteldeutschland). It comprises:

  • Thuringian (Thüringisch)
  • Upper Saxon German (Obersächsisch)
  • Erzgebirgisch
  • Lausitzisch-neumärkisch, as distinct from Low German Brandenburgish (Markish)
  • Südmärkisch
  • Lower and Upper Lusatian (Lausitzisch)

    • and further:

  • Silesian German (Schlesisch) (nearly extinct)
  • High Prussian (Hochpreußisch) (nearly extinct)

    • References

    East Central German Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA