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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