German dialects
German dialect is dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant shift, and the dialect continua that connect German to some neighboring languages, e.g. the Dutch and Luxembourgish languages.
Dialects
In relation to varieties of standard German
In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of Standard German.
The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different Germanic tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only Standard German, since they often differ from Standard German in lexicon, phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for example, in the view of Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics.
The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric language standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany.
