High German Languages - Family Tree

Family Tree

Note that divisions between subfamilies within Germanic are rarely precisely defined, as most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not. In particular, there has never been an original "Proto-High German". For this and other reasons, the idea of representing the relationships between West Germanic language forms in a tree diagram at all is controversial among linguists. What follows should be used with care in the light of this caveat.

  • Central German (German: Mitteldeutsch)
    • East Central German
      • Standard German
      • Lausitzisch-Neumärkisch
      • Upper Saxon
      • North Upper Saxon
      • Thuringian Dialect
      • Silesian German (mostly in Lower Silesia, in Poland)
      • High Prussian
    • Transylvanian Saxon (in Transylvania)
    • West Central German
      • Central Franconian
        • Ripuarian
        • Moselle Franconian, including the Luxembourgish language
      • Rhine Franconian
        • Lorraine Franconian (France)
        • Pfälzisch language
        • Hunsrückisch
          • Riograndenser Hunsrückisch (in Southern Brazil)
      • Central Hessian (Hessian)
      • East Hessian (Hessian)
      • North Hessian (Hessian)
  • Transitional areas between Central German and Upper German
    • High Franconian
      • East Franconian German
      • South Franconian German
  • Pennsylvania German (in the United States and Canada)
  • Upper German (German: Oberdeutsch)
    • Alemannic
      • Swabian
      • Low Alemannic (including one Swiss German dialect: Basel German)
      • Alsatian language (but often also classified as within Low Alemannic)
      • Central Alemannic
      • High Alemannic (including many Swiss German dialects)
      • Highest Alemannic (including Swiss German dialects)
    • Austro-Bavarian (On the use of dialects and Standard German in Austria, see Austrian language)
      • Northern Austro-Bavarian (spoken in Upper Palatinate)
      • Central Austro-Bavarian (includes the dialects of Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Vienna — see Viennese language)
      • Southern Austro-Bavarian (includes the dialects of Tirol, Carinthia and Styria)
      • Cimbrian (northeastern Italy)
      • Mócheno (Trentino, in Italy)
      • Hutterite German (in Canada and the United States)
  • Yiddish
    • Western Yiddish (Germany, France)
    • Eastern Yiddish
      • Northeastern Yiddish (Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Russia, northeastern Poland)
      • Central Yiddish (Poland, Galicia)
      • Southeastern Yiddish (Ukraine, Bessarabia, Romania)
  • Texas German, a dialect spoken by descendants of immigrants who settled in the Texas Hill Country region in the mid-19th century.

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Famous quotes containing the words family and/or tree:

    “It is as when a migrating army of mice girdles a forest of pines. The chopper fells trees from the same motive that the mouse gnaws them,—to get his living. You tell me that he has a more interesting family than the mouse. That is as it happens.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
    nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
    scornful.
    But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he
    meditate day and night.
    And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that
    bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither;
    and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
    —Bible: Hebrew Psalm I (l. I, 1–3)