Richard A wrote:By the way, the expression of the result reminded me I meant to ask you. Is there a significant difference between the Franconian dialect and Bavarian? I remember you telling me that the Franconians see themselves as part of Bavaria politically but not otherwise; would an outsider notice a difference between the speech of a Bamberger and, say, a Münchener or even a Rosenheimer?
The short answer is, they are quite different. I managed a good oral understanding of Franconian during my 9 years there, but I would have had to start from scratch had I folled through with my plan to establish myself near Ingolstadt - only about 115 km to the South of Nuremberg, but firmly a part of Upper Bavaria. There is a relatively sharp language boundary between Franconia and Bavaria, and when you cross it, a lot of things change.
The long answer is, they are very much related. If Upper and Lower Bavarian are brothers, and Bavarian and Austrian are cousins, Franconian is like a cousin once removed. And that is quite apart from the fact that locals can make out differences in dialect in people from the neighbouring village behind the hill. While Bavarian has lots of hard consonants and brilliant, searing vowels, Franconian is a l lot softer and more subdued. K becomes g, P becomes B, the R at the end of syllables is swallowed A becomes , O and/or U become ou, and there is a form of L i haven't ever heard anywhere, where the tongue actually sticks out between the lips (on the side, not in the middle, as a Franconian once taught me). So really, big differences. I was shocked how little I was getting from the nurses in Kösching when I started working there after nine years of getting into (Middle) Franconian. I fled fromn there to Aachen after five months, so I never had the chance.
To make my point, here are two billiant examples. Gerhard Polt is a satirist from Munich, and he loves to go after the conservatism and intolerance of his fellow Bavarian - all, of course, in the thickest, most bad-tempered Upper Bavarian you are likely to hear anywhere (he can do all manners of Bavaria-related dialects, including South Tyrolian, but I've heard him speak Franconian - go figure). Here is a particularly brilliant piece by im about tolerance. I can ROFL on this stuff no end.
Watch on youtube.comThe contrast is here in this performance by the Franconian comedian Bembers. The comedy is a lot more hardcore, and you might not get everything (or, well, anything), but you can certainly make out the "prelabial" L, the particular way of rolling the R, and the different habitus of the Franconian.
Watch on youtube.com
