Why did somebody tell me that German spoken in Southern Germany was not really Deutche, but Bayern?

Answer 1

Technically they are right, but not entirley.

Go back into the history of the tribes moving into pre Roman Europe, and the Germanic languages departed from the other Indo-European languages by a shift in sounds called the First Germanic Sound Shift

The language we now call German departed from the other Germanic languages (mainly English, Dutch, Scandinavian and the now extinct Gothic) by a shift in sounds called the Second Germanic Sound Shift.

The Second Sound Shift divides Germany into a smaller Northern part (without the sound shift) and a larger central and Southern part (with the sound shift). The border between the two regions approximates a line passing through Cologne (Köln) and Berlin, but there is a more or less fuzzy region of more than a hundred kilometres width south of that line where the language underwent the Seconds Sound Shift only partially. In Western Germany, for instance, the non-initial t (e.g. dat and wat instead of das and was) reaches much farther south than most of the other non-shifted sounds. There are several central German dialects that have neither initial p nor pf, but f instead. The other countries where German is spoken are all south of this line.

Since the part of Germany where there was no Second Sound Shift are the North German Lowlands, their language is called Low German as distinct from High German. Because High German has been the official language even there for quite some time, and because Low German is too different from High German to mix easily with it, this region has become, in fact, bilingual. We even find a two-layered dialect situation: in addition to Low German, the real vernacular of the region, new High German dialects are developing there, in particular in the larger cities. Examples are Berlinisch (Berlin), Missingsch (Hamburg, Kiel, ...), Ruhrpott-Deutsch (Bochum, Dortmund, ...).

Dutch and its Belgian variety Flemish are official languages in the Netherlands and in Belgium; they are closely related to the Low German languages of Germany's North. Afrikaans which developed out of the Dutch spoken by Dutch settlers, is an official language in South Africa.

Of the languages related to High German, that is, languages that have undergone the Second Sound Shift at least partially, there is only one besides German which has such a status: Luxemburgish (Lëtzebuergesch) is an official language in Luxemburg along with both French and German.

Yiddish, which developed out of Middle High German dialects and is now spoken by several million Jews throughout the world, belongs in the High German language family, too, and has its own interesting history. It is not an official language in any country.

The name "German" (deutsch) denotes at the same time a language and a country. These two notions do not coincide, which leads to some inconsistencies. The Low German areas are said to speak a variety of German because they belong to Germany, and because they have adopted High German as their standard language gradually since the 15th century.

The border between France and Germany was more or less the border between the Romance-speaking West and the Germanic-speaking East. Prior to the division of the Frankish empire, the language name "Frankish" meant the local language as distinct from Latin, and quite different languages may have passed under that name. As a result, until today both a Romance language, French, and a couple of High German dialects, Franconian (Fränkisch), carry a name derived from "Frankish". The word was no longer unique, and another word had to be found for the vernacular of the Germanic East. The new word for the purpose was diutisc with the meaning "belonging to the people". It derives from a Germanic root meaning "people". Interestingly, the oldest preserved mention of diutisc occurs in Latin texts of the 9th century where it appears as a Germanic loanword theodiscus borrowed into Latin; it denoted the local vernacular as distinct from Latin. In some instances it appears even as a Latin translation for Germanic frencisg then still having its original meaning. At the end of the 11th century, the word diutisc is applied for the first time to both the language and the country and slowly gets more and more into use.

Bayerish was the old Middle High German dielect of the Kingdom of Bavaria, and by the time of Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian (reigned 1314-1347), most imperial documents were written in German, in particular when they pertained to affairs in Southern Germany, and documents he issued as duke of Bavaria were nearly exclusively written in German. His successor, Karl IV (reigned 1347-1378), had his chancery at Prague, which had a still greater influence on the common judicial language. At that time, this common language was not the language of the ordinary people but the jargon of imperial adminstrators and lawyers.

This changed significantly with Johannes Gutenberg's (~1400-1468) invention of printing with movable type and with Martin Luther's (1483-1546) translation of the Bible. For the first time, there was a German text of common interest to spread rapidly all over Germany, thus communicating not only the contents but also a specific variety of the German language.

Bayerish is a dielect, but it is Deutch, where as the Low German of Saxony and the Baltic stats is closer to English and Dutch. In the days of the Hanse, Low German gained much importance in the area of the Baltic sea and in the coastal regions of Germany, but with the decline of the Hanse at the end of the 15th century, High German became increasingly important in the big cities in Germany's North, a tendency which was intensified by Luther's High German Bible in the 16th century.

In contrast to this development, the Netherlands, whose language is not much different from Low German, have not belonged to Germany for quite some time and their culture was more oriented to the cities at the sea, where a literature in their own language had developed since the 13th century; they had thus no reason to follow a High German standard. Consequently, the language of the Netherlands is not regarded as a variety of German. It was formerly, however, called diets from the same root as deutsch, hence the English word Dutch.

They speak Deutch in Munich, but some want to be politically seperate from the rest of the country, so refer to thier local dielect as Bayerish, however, it is a far cry from the old spoken dilect prior to 1100, and only a regional variation.

Bap, on the other hand, is the rare regional language of the Hassen region, and is pre Frankish, thus not Deutch at all!

Answer 2

German has many dialects - Bayrisch, Sächsisch, Gölsch; Schwäbisch & Plattdütsch are I think the 5 most significant (from Germany itself) in terms of being widely spoken and being very different from the Hochdeutsch that is supposed (by some) to be the official language for all. I don't see why each land in the federation can't speak its own dialect - they are good, funny & traditional.

Answer 3

He/She probably wanted to say that the differences between High German and bavarian dialect german are bigger than between any other dialect in germany and High German, which is true.
Germans from outside bavaria can generally understand all dialects except bavarian with ease.Plus, bavarians are said to be rather not so fond of being german, they see themselves as a special sort.

Answer 4

Many Germans speak English. Yes German children are taught English in school along with other languages like Spanish and French.

Answer 5

To confuse you? To show off? Bayern is spoken in Bavaria, Southeastern Germany (around Munich). In Southwestern Germany, it's Swabish (around Stuttgart).

But in my experience, Germans speak pretty much standard German, at least compared to the Swiss people I have to deal with!

Answer 6

'Proper' German is known as 'Hochdeutsch' ('High German'), which is roughly equivalent to the Queen's English. However, throughout Germany people speak a range of dialects, e.g. in Cologne the local dialect is known as 'Koelsch', in Bavaria (the English name for Bayern) they speak 'Bayerisch'. Most people speak Hochdeutsch as well, though.

Answer 7

Haven't been to Germany in about forty years. Sounds wrong to me. According to the high command(forty years ago) there were only two German dialects high and low.

Answer 8

because at one time, germany was a group of regions, one being bavaria (bayern). about all it is is a dialect of german.

Answer 9

There's High German, and Low German. Ask a German. ( It's " Deutsche ", by the way. )

Answer 10

It's still German (Deutsch), just a different dialect.