Hamburgisch dialect

Hamburgisch or Hamburger dialect (German: Hamburger Platt) is a group of Northern Low Saxon varieties spoken in Hamburg, Germany. Occasionally, the term Hamburgisch is also used for Hamburg Missingsch, a variety of standard German with Low Saxon substrates. These are urban dialects that have absorbed numerous English and Dutch loanwords, for instance Törn ‘trip’ (< turn) and suutje ‘gently’ (< Dutch zoetjes).

Hamburg is pronounced [ˈhambɔrç] in these dialects, with a "ch" similar to that in the standard German word Milch. Typical of the Hamburg dialects and other Lower Elbe dialects is the pronunciation (and spelling) eu (pronounced oi ) for the diphthong /œɪ/ (written öö, öh or ö), e.g.

in Hamburg	elsewhere	English
keupen [ˈkʰɔɪpm]	köpen [ˈkʰœɪpm]	to buy
scheun [ʃɔɪn]	schöön [ʃœɪn]	beautiful

However, as in most other Low Saxon (Low German) dialects, the long monophthong /øː/ is pronounced [ø] (as in French peu), for instance Kööm ~ Kœm [kʰøːm] ‘caraway’.

The Low Saxon language in Hamburg is divided in several subdialects, e.g.

• Finkwarder Platt
• Olwarder Platt
• Veerlanner Platt (with many sub-sub-dialects)
• Barmbeker Platt

The Hamborger Veermaster is a famous sea shanty sung in the regional dialect.

Literature

• (German) (Low Saxon)

External links

• http://www.plattmaster.de