SWABIAN DIALECT AND ENGLISH: AN ATTEMPT AT COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/2410-0927-2025-23-8Keywords:
history of German, history of English, Swabian dialect, diphthongization, Angles, Suebi, Germanic studiesAbstract
The article examines structural and historical parallels between English and the Swabian dialect, which belongs to the Alemannic branch of German dialects. Its aim is to identify phonetic, lexical, morphological, syntactic, and sociolinguistic factors that may explain the perceived closeness between Swabian and English. The study applies an interdisciplinary approach combining historical-linguistic, comparative, sociolinguistic, and ethnomusicological analysis. It investigates phonetic, lexical, morphological, and syntactic correspondences between the Swabian dialect and English, as well as social and cultural factors that contributed to the preservation of archaic features (distance from the influence of official written language, strong oral tradition, and musical culture). The article analyzes the parallel diphthongization of long vowels in the twelfth to sixteenth centuries in Swabian speech and the Great Vowel Shift in English in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. For the first time, the structural and historical proximity of the Swabian dialect to English is comprehensively demonstrated, supported by both linguistic and sociocultural evidence. Parallel processes of diphthongization, erosion of inflection, and shared syntactic tendencies are identified, pointing to a common Proto-Germanic origin. Particular attention is given to the likely contacts between the Angles (ancestors of the English) and the Suebi (ancestors of the Swabians) in Jutland at the beginning of the Common Era, and a hypothesis is proposed concerning the southward migration of a group of Angles in alliance with the Suebi. The concept of an Ingvaeonic–Suebi super-area is introduced as an explanation for the preservation of archaic features in both traditions. The findings confirm a greater affinity between the Swabian dialect and English than between English and other Upper German dialects, which is explained by historical contacts, the conservation of early Germanic features, inter-dialectal interactions, and high social mobility of the medieval population. The study opens new perspectives for comparative Germanic linguistics and interdisciplinary research involving archaeological and genetic evidence.
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