Alsace and Its Language
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Social and Solidarity Economy: Challenges and Opportunities for Today’S Entrepreneurs
Social and Solidarity Economy: Challenges and Opportunities for Today’s Entrepreneurs UNITEE Strasbourg, 21st March 2014 The European-Turkish Business Confederation (UNITEE) represents, at the European level, entrepreneurs and business professionals with a migrant background (New Europeans). Their dual cultural background and their entrepreneurial spirit present a central asset which can facilitate Europe’s economic growth. FEDIF Grand Est is the Federation of French-Turkish Entrepreneurs of the French Great East region. It represents trade and industry entrepreneurs of the East of France. The first objective of FEDIF Grand Est is to contribute to the economic development of the region by promoting entrepreneurship and supporting the regional enterprises. CONFERENCE REPORT On Friday, 21st March 2014, UNITEE and FEDIF Grand Est organised the panel discussion “Social and Solidarity Economy: Challenges and Opportunities for Today’s Entrepreneurs” in UNITEE’s Strasbourg Office. Catherine Trautmann, MEP, and Pierre Roth, Managing Director of the Regional Chamber of the Social and Solidarity Economy of Alsace, were invited to this event to discuss the topic of social and solidarity economy (SSE), a major issue in the context of economic crisis. SPEAKERS Moderator: Mme Camille Serres, Project Manager Catherine Trautmann, MEP, Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament Pierre Roth, Managing Director of the Regional Chamber of the Social and Solidarity Economy of Alsace (CRESS Alsace) 2 CONFERENCE REPORT Aburahman Atli, Secretary General of FEDIF Grand Est and head of UNITEE’s Strasbourg Office, opened the conference with a welcome speech in which he underlined the challenges and opportunities of this new form of economy in our worrying economic climate. -
Texas Alsatian
2017 Texas Alsatian Karen A. Roesch, Ph.D. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Indianapolis, Indiana, USA IUPUI ScholarWorks This is the author’s manuscript: This is a draft of a chapter that has been accepted for publication by Oxford University Press in the forthcoming book Varieties of German Worldwide edited by Hans Boas, Anna Deumert, Mark L. Louden, & Péter Maitz (with Hyoun-A Joo, B. Richard Page, Lara Schwarz, & Nora Hellmold Vosburg) due for publication in 2016. https://scholarworks.iupui.edu Texas Alsatian, Medina County, Texas 1 Introduction: Historical background The Alsatian dialect was transported to Texas in the early 1800s, when entrepreneur Henri Castro recruited colonists from the French Alsace to comply with the Republic of Texas’ stipulations for populating one of his land grants located just west of San Antonio. Castro’s colonization efforts succeeded in bringing 2,134 German-speaking colonists from 1843 – 1847 (Jordan 2004: 45-7; Weaver 1985:109) to his land grants in Texas, which resulted in the establishment of four colonies: Castroville (1844); Quihi (1845); Vandenburg (1846); D’Hanis (1847). Castroville was the first and most successful settlement and serves as the focus of this chapter, as it constitutes the largest concentration of Alsatian speakers. This chapter provides both a descriptive account of the ancestral language, Alsatian, and more specifically as spoken today, as well as a discussion of sociolinguistic and linguistic processes (e.g., use, shift, variation, regularization, etc.) observed and documented since 2007. The casual observer might conclude that the colonists Castro brought to Texas were not German-speaking at all, but French. -
German Dialects in Kansas and Missouri Scholarworks User Guide August, 2020
German Dialects in Kansas and Missouri ScholarWorks User Guide August, 2020 Table of Contents INTERVIEW METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................. 1 THE RECORDINGS ................................................................................................................................................. 2 THE SPEAKERS ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 KANSAS ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 MISSOURI .................................................................................................................................................................... 4 THE QUESTIONNAIRES ......................................................................................................................................... 5 WENKER SENTENCES ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 KU QUESTIONNAIRE ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 REFERENCE MAPS FOR LOCATING POTENTIAL SPEAKERS ..................................................................................... -
Hunsrik-Xraywe.!A!New!Way!In!Lexicography!Of!The!German! Language!Island!In!Southern!Brazil!
Dialectologia.!Special-issue,-IV-(2013),!147+180.!! ISSN:!2013+2247! Received!4!June!2013.! Accepted!30!August!2013.! ! ! ! ! HUNSRIK-XRAYWE.!A!NEW!WAY!IN!LEXICOGRAPHY!OF!THE!GERMAN! LANGUAGE!ISLAND!IN!SOUTHERN!BRAZIL! Mateusz$MASELKO$ Austrian$Academy$of$Sciences,$Institute$of$Corpus$Linguistics$and$Text$Technology$ (ICLTT),$Research$Group$DINAMLEX$(Vienna,$Austria)$ [email protected]$ $ $ Abstract$$ Written$approaches$for$orally$traded$dialects$can$always$be$seen$controversial.$One$could$say$ that$there$are$as$many$forms$of$writing$a$dialect$as$there$are$speakers$of$that$dialect.$This$is$not$only$ true$ for$ the$ different$ dialectal$ varieties$ of$ German$ that$ exist$ in$ Europe,$ but$ also$ in$ dialect$ language$ islands$ on$ other$ continents$ such$ as$ the$ Riograndese$ Hunsrik$ in$ Brazil.$ For$ the$ standardization$ of$ a$ language$ variety$ there$ must$ be$ some$ determined,$ general$ norms$ regarding$ orthography$ and$ graphemics.!Equipe!Hunsrik$works$on$the$standardization,$expansion,$and$dissemination$of$the$German$ dialect$ variety$ spoken$ in$ Rio$ Grande$ do$ Sul$ (South$ Brazil).$ The$ main$ concerns$ of$ the$ project$ are$ the$ insertion$of$Riograndese$Hunsrik$as$official$community$language$of$Rio$Grande$do$Sul$that$is$also$taught$ at$school.$Therefore,$the$project$team$from$Santa$Maria$do$Herval$developed$a$writing$approach$that$is$ based$on$the$Portuguese$grapheme$inventory.$It$is$used$in$the$picture$dictionary! Meine!ëyerste!100! Hunsrik! wërter$ (2010).$ This$ article$ discusses$ the$ picture$ dictionary$ -
Blue Header Photo Company Newsletter
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Pronunciation Dictionaries for the Alsatian Dialects to Analyze Spelling and Phonetic Variation
Pronunciation Dictionaries for the Alsatian Dialects to Analyze Spelling and Phonetic Variation Lucie Steiblé, Delphine Bernhard LiLPa, Université de Strasbourg, France [email protected], [email protected] Abstract This article presents new pronunciation dictionaries for the under-resourced Alsatian dialects, spoken in north-eastern France. These dictionaries are compared with existing phonetic transcriptions of Alsatian, German and French in order to analyze the relationship between speech and writing. The Alsatian dialects do not have a standardized spelling system, despite a literary history that goes back to the beginning of the 19th century. As a consequence, writers often use their own spelling systems, more or less based on German and often with some specifically French characters. But none of these systems can be seen as fully canonical. In this paper, we present the findings of an analysis of the spelling systems used in four different Alsatian datasets, including three newly transcribed lexicons, and describe how they differ by taking the phonetic transcriptions into account. We also detail experiments with a grapheme-to-phoneme (G2P) system trained on manually transcribed data and show that the combination of both spelling and phonetic variation presents specific challenges. Keywords: Alsatian, transcription, spelling variation 1. Introduction • We train and evaluate a G2P system based on the man- The Alsatian dialects, which belong to the High German di- ual transcriptions. alects, are still spoken by approximately 500,000 speakers in Alsace, a region in north-eastern France (INSEE et al., 2. Related Work 1999). Being non-dominant varieties, in a French-speaking Spelling variation is an issue for many different applica- country, they are mostly considered as oral languages, and tions which have to process texts lacking spelling con- have no standardized spelling system. -
Les Naissances Illégitimes En Alsace
les familles d’aujourd’hui Séminaire de Genève (17-20 septembre 1984) ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONALE DES DÉMOGRAPHES DE LANGUE FRANÇAISE A I D E L F AIAIDELF. 1986. Les familles d’aujourd’hui - Actes du colloque de Genève, septembre 1984, Association internationale des démographes de langue française, ISBN : 2-7332-7009-5, 600 pages. LES NAISSANCES ILLEGITIMES EN ALSAC E Marie-Noëlle DENIS (Centre National del a Recherch e Scientifique, Strasbourg, France) INTRODUCTION L'évolution des naissances illégitimes constitue, en soit ete n liaison avec les progrè s del a contraception etd ed e l'avortement, unbo n indice des comportement s deno s sociétés vis-à-vis del a famille tradition nelle et cett e remise en caus e du mariag e révèle, àl a fois , des modifica tions du système économique etde s bouleversement s de mentalités . L'Alsace présente àce s deux points devu eu n gran d intérêt, puis qu'il s'agit d'une région industrialisée dèsl e milie u du XIXèm e siècle, où trois religions officielles, solidement implantées, ont défend u la famill e comme cellule de bas e de notr e société. I -L E CONSTA T DES FAIT S Si l'on observe , e n effet , l'évolution des naissance s illégitimes e n Alsace depuis le milie u du XVIIIème siècle, on constate tout d'abord que celle-ci est soumis e à deu x types de variation s : 1)de s variation s de faibl e amplitude etd e longu e durée, 2) des variations beaucoup plus importantes, mais très limitées dans le temps. -
Yiddish and Relation to the German Dialects Bryan Witmore University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 6-30-2016 Yiddish and Relation To The German Dialects Bryan Witmore University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the German Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Witmore, B.(2016). Yiddish and Relation To The German Dialects. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/ etd/3522 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. YIDDISH AND ITS RELATION TO THE GERMAN DIALECTS by Bryan Witmore Bachelor of Arts University of South Carolina, 2006 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts in German College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2016 Accepted by: Kurt Goblirsch, Director of Thesis Lara Ducate, Reader Lacy Ford, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Bryan Witmore, 2016 All Rights Reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis project was made possible in large part by the German program at the University of South Carolina. The technical assistance that propelled this project was contributed by the staff at the Ted Mimms Foreign Language Learning Center. My family was decisive in keeping me physically functional and emotionally buoyant through the writing process. Many thanks to you all. iii ABSTRACT In an attempt to balance the complex, multi-component nature of Yiddish with its more homogenous speech community – Ashekenazic Jews –Yiddishists have proposed definitions for the Yiddish language that cannot be considered linguistic in nature. -
INTELLIGIBILITY of STANDARD GERMAN and LOW GERMAN to SPEAKERS of DUTCH Charlotte Gooskens1, Sebastian Kürschner2, Renée Van Be
INTELLIGIBILITY OF STANDARD GERMAN AND LOW GERMAN TO SPEAKERS OF DUTCH Charlotte Gooskens 1, Sebastian Kürschner 2, Renée van Bezooijen 1 1University of Groningen, The Netherlands 2 University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Abstract This paper reports on the intelligibility of spoken Low German and Standard German for speakers of Dutch. Two aspects are considered. First, the relative potential for intelligibility of the Low German variety of Bremen and the High German variety of Modern Standard German for speakers of Dutch is tested. Second, the question is raised whether Low German is understood more easily by subjects from the Dutch-German border area than subjects from other areas of the Netherlands. This is investigated empirically. The results show that in general Dutch people are better at understanding Standard German than the Low German variety, but that subjects from the border area are better at understanding Low German than subjects from other parts of the country. A larger amount of previous experience with the German standard variety than with Low German dialects could explain the first result, while proximity on the sound level could explain the second result. Key words Intelligibility, German, Low German, Dutch, Levenshtein distance, language contact 1. Introduction Dutch and German originate from the same branch of West Germanic. In the Middle Ages these neighbouring languages constituted a common dialect continuum. Only when linguistic standardisation came about in connection with nation building did the two languages evolve into separate social units. A High German variety spread out over the German language area and constitutes what is regarded as Modern Standard German today. -
ALSACE-LORRAINE and Its Recovery
1870 & 1914 THE ANNEXATION OP ALSACE-LORRAINE and its Recovery WI.1M AN ADDRESS BY MARSHAL JOFFRE THE ANNEXATION OF ALSACE-LORRAINE and its Recovery 1870 & 1914 THE ANNEXATION OF ALSACE=LORRA1NE and its Recovery WITH AN ADDRESS BY MARSHAL JOFFRE PARIS IMPRIMERIE JEAN CUSSAC 40 — RUE DE REUILLY — 40 I9I8 ADDRESS in*" MARSHAL JOFFRE AT THANN « WE HAVE COME BACK FOR GOOD AND ALL : HENCEFORWARD YOU ARE AND EVER WILL BE FRENCH. TOGETHER WITH THOSE LIBERTIES FOR WHICH HER NAME HAS STOOD THROUGHOUT THE AGES, FRANCE BRINGS YOU THE ASSURANCE THAT YOUR OWN LIBERTIES WILL BE RESPECTED : YOUR ALSATIAN LIBER- TIES, TRADITIONS AND WAYS OF LIVING. AS HER REPRESENTATIVE I BRING YOU FRANCE'S MATERNAL EMBRACE. » INTRODUCTION The expression Alsace-Lorraine was devis- ed by the Germans to denote that part of our national territory, the annexation of which Germany imposed upon us by the treaty of Frankfort, in 1871. Alsace and Lorraine were the names of two provinces under our monarchy, but provinces — as such — have ceased to exi$t in France since 1790 ; the country is divided into depart- ments — mere administrative subdivisions under the same national laws and ordi- nances — nor has the most prejudiced his- torian ever been able to point to the slight- est dissatisfaction with this arrangement on the part of any district in France, from Dunkirk to Perpignan, or from Brest to INTRODUCTION Strasbourg. France affords a perfect exam- ple of the communion of one and all in deep love and reverence for the mother-country ; and the history of the unfortunate depart- ments subjected to the yoke of Prussian militarism since 1871 is the most eloquent and striking confirmation of the justice of France's demand for reparation of the crime then committed by Germany. -
The German Heritage of Kansas: an Introduction William D
The German Heritage of Kansas: An Introduction William D. Keel University of Kansas As one travels throughout the state of Kansas, one cannot help noticing numerous place names which might lead one to believe that one is, indeed, not in Kansas anymore: Humboldt in Allen County, Bremen in Marshall County, Stuttgart in Phillips County, Marienthal in Wichita County, Windthorst in Ford County, Olmitz in Barton County, Olpe in Lyons County, Bern in Nemaha County, and many others. Whether named for famous German researchers (Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt), German political leaders of the nineteenth century (Ludwig Windthorst), cities and towns in Germany (Bremen, Stuttgart and Olpe), the capital of Switzerland (Bern), a city in the Austrian Empire (Olmütz), or a German colony in the Russian Empire (Marienthal), each of these Kansas communities is a living testament to the massive influx of German-speaking settlers who found new homes in Kansas during the period from the mid-1850s to the 1880s. These place names also reflect the diverse background of those German-speaking settlers: They came to Kansas from throughout the German-speaking area of Central Europe, including Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Alsace, Lorraine, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Galicia, and Bucovina as well as from the states and regions (Bavaria, Prussia, Württemberg, Westphalia, Hannover, Saxony, the Rhineland, etc.) normally associated with Germany itself. Significantly for Kansas, they also came from German colonies in the vast Russian Empire: from those established in the 1760s along the Volga River and from those established beginning in 1789 by Mennonites near the Black Sea. But many settlers of German ancestry did not come to Kansas directly from their European homelands. -
On the Frontier Between Eastern and Western Yiddish: Sources from Burgenland
European Journal of Jewish Studies 11 (2017) 130–147 brill.com/ejjs On the Frontier between Eastern and Western Yiddish: Sources from Burgenland Lea Schäfer* Abstract Burgenland, the smallest state of current Austria, located on the border with Hungary, once had seven vibrant Jewish communities under the protection of the Hungarian Eszterházy family. There is next to nothing known about the Yiddish variety spoken in these communities. This article brings together every single piece of evidence of this language to get an impression of its structure. This article shows that Yiddish from Burgenland can be integrated into the continuum between Eastern and Western Yiddish and is part of a gradual transition zone between these two main varieties. Keywords Yiddish dialectology and phonology – Jews in Austria and Hungary – Eastern and Western Yiddish transition zone Burgenland, the smallest state of Austria today, located on the border with Hungary, once had seven vibrant Jewish communities that stood under the protection of the Hungarian Eszterházy family. There is next to nothing known about the Yiddish variety spoken in these communities. Its geographical posi- tion, however, makes Burgenland interesting for Yiddish dialectology. As Dovid Katz has postulated, it is on the southern end of a transition zone between Eastern and Western Yiddish.1 This article will show that Yiddish * I would like to thank Jeffrey Pheiff, Oliver Schallert and Ricarda Scherschel for checking my English. I also want to thank the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. 1 Dovid Katz, “Zur Dialektologie des Jiddischen,” in Dialektologie: Ein Handbuch zur deutschen und allgemeinen Dialektforschung 1.2., eds.