Benrath line
In
German linguistics, the
Benrath line (German:
Benrather Linie) is the
maken-machen isogloss. It is traditionally used to distinguish the Northern
Low Saxon-Low Franconian varieties from the
High German varieties in the south. The Line runs from Benrath (part of
Düsseldorf) to
East Germany in the area of
Berlin and
Magdeburg.
|
High German subdivides into Upper German (green) and Central German (blue), and is distinguished from Low Saxon (yellow). The main isoglosses, the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked in black. |
In the course of the
High German consonant shift (3rd to 9th centuries AD), in the first three phases of which the Low Saxon dialects did not participate, the Southern varieties of the
West Germanic dialect continuum were affected. The impact of the High German consonant shift increases gradually to the South. In the northernmost High German varieties, only singly words are affected.
The Benrath line does not mark the northernmost effect of the High German consonant shift, since the
Uerdingen line, the
ik-ich isogloss, expands even further north.
Since the beginning of the 1990s the eastern end of the Benrath line has moved northwards, so the predominant dialect in
Saxony-Anhalt has become an
East Central German Thuringian-
Upper Saxon dialect, heavily influenced by
Standard German. Until the
Second World War, in the North, by far the majority of areas spoke
East Low Saxon dialects.
*
Varieties of German*
Maps of the Benrath line
