East Franconian German
East Franconian (German: Ostfränkisch), usually referred to as Franconian (Fränkisch) in German, is a dialect which is spoken in Franconia, the northern part of the federal state of Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Nuremberg, Bamberg, Coburg, Würzburg, Hof, Bayreuth, Meiningen, Bad Mergentheim, and Crailsheim. The major subgroups are Unterostfränkisch (spoken in Lower Franconia and southern Thuringia), Oberostfränkisch (spoken in Upper and Middle Franconia) and Südostfränkisch (spoken in some parts of Middle Franconia and Hohenlohe).
| East Franconian | |
|---|---|
| Ostfränkisch | |
| Native to | Germany (Bavaria, Thuringia, Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse) |
Native speakers | 4,900,000 (2006)[1] |
| Latin (German alphabet) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | vmf |
| Glottolog | main1267 |
 1: East Franconian | |
In the transitional area between Rhine Franconian in the northwest and the Austro-Bavarian dialects in the southeast, East Franconian has elements of Central German and Upper German. The same goes only for South Franconian German in adjacent Baden-Württemberg. East Franconian is one of the German dialects with the highest number of speakers.
The scope of East Franconian is disputed, because it overlaps with neighbouring dialects like Bavarian and Swabian in the south, Rhine Franconian in the west and Upper Saxon in the north.
East Franconian is researched by the "Fränkisches Wörterbuch" project in Fürth, which is run by Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Erlangen-Nuremberg University.
References
- East Franconian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
External links
- Linguistic atlas of Middle Franconia (in German)
- Linguistic atlas of Lower Franconia (in German)
- Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaft (in German)
