Central Franconian
Middle Franconian (Mittelfränkisch)
Geographic
distribution		North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Liège, Limburg
Linguistic classificationIndo-European
Glottologmidd1319
Central Franconian among the Franconian languages.
  Ripuarian
  Moselle Franconian
  Luxemburgish

Central or Middle Franconian (German: mittelfränkische Dialekte, mittelfränkische Mundarten, mittelfränkische Mundart, Mittelfränkisch) refers to the following continuum of West Central German dialects:

Luxembourgish is often included within Moselle Franconian, but sometimes regarded as a separate group. The German-speaking Community of Belgium comprises both Ripuarian and Moselle Franconian dialects. The Central Franconian dialects are part of the Rhinelandic continuum stretching from the Low Franconian language area in the northwest to the Rhine Franconian dialects in the southeast. Along with Limburgish, Central Franconian has a simple tone system called pitch accent.[1]

The Central Franconian language area is not to be confused with the Bavarian administrative district of Middle Franconia, where East Franconian dialects are spoken.

The Central Franconian dialects are of particular interest to linguists because of the tonal distinctions made between different words, for example (Ripuarian) zɛɪ (tonal accent 1) "sieve" vs. zɛɪ (tonal accent 2) "she". See Pitch-accent languages#Franconian dialects.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Russ, Charles (2013). The Dialects of Modern German: A Linguistic Survey. Routledge. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-136-08668-7. Retrieved 17 Feb 2018.
  2. ↑ de Vaan, M. "Towards an Explanation of the Franconian Tone Accents", (Leiden University Repository), p. 2.


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