Highest Alemannic German
Highest Alemannic is a branch of
Alemannic dialects and belongs to the
German language, even though mutual intellegibility with
Standard German and other non-Alemannic German dialects is very limited.
Highest Alemannic dialects are spoken in
alpine regions of
Switzerland: In the
Bernese Oberland, in the German-speaking parts of the
Canton of Fribourg, in the
Valais (see
Walliser German) and in the
Walser settlements (mostly in Switzerland but also in
Italy and in
Austria; see
Walser German). In the West, the South and the South-East, they are surrounded by
Romance languages; in the North, by
High Alemannic dialects.
The distinctive feature of the Highest Alemannic dialects is the lack of
hiatus diphthongization, for instance 'to snow', 'to build' vs. High Alemannic , .
Many High Alemannic dialects have different
verbal plural endings for all three persons, for instance
wir singe(n) 'we sing',
ir singet 'you (plural) sing',
si singent 'they sing'.
There are High Alemannic dialects that have preserved the ending -n which has been dropped in most
Upper German dialects.
The Highest Alemannic dialects are considered to be the most conservative dialects of German. The dialect of the
Lötschental, for instance, preserved the three distinct classes of weak verbs (like in
Old High German) until the beginning of the 20th century.
