Today, I want to look into a German dialect mostly spoken in the state of Baden-Württemberg, totally not because I too happen to own a translation of The Little Prince in this dialect, but because I came across a bizarre idiomatic expression in that particular dialect. That idiom is Muggeseggele or Muggaseggele.

From this article from the Stuttgarter Nachrichten news bulletin, this idiom comes from the Swabian German dialect group, and it has been voted as the ‘most beautiful’ Swabian word for the year 2009. It translates literally to the gonads of a housefly, from the constituent words Mugge / Mugga (housefly) and Seggele (gonads). As weird as it sounds, however, the meaning points towards a more innocent direction — that it is the smallest unit of measurement in Swabian German, although other Swabian speakers seem to disagree today. Some have suggested Muggaseggelebreggele or Muggaseggeleshärlehoar, which points towards even smaller parts of a housefly’s gonads, but I think we should move on from this literally minute debate.

Swabian German is primarily spoken in the southwestern regions of Germany, such as in the state of Baden-Württemberg, and in the Swabian region of Bavaria. While being a group of smaller regional dialects itself, it belongs to a larger family of dialects called Alemannic German, which includes some German variants we have covered before such as Zürich German and Bernese German. Swabian German is classified as its own language under ISO 639-3 and Glottolog though, with swg and swab1242 allocated to Swabian German respectively. However, it is more accurate to describe Alemannic German as a dialect continuum, with dozens to hundreds of different dialects that generally becomes more similar to Standard German the further north one goes. Nevertheless, Swabian German still looks and sounds way different from what we are normally accustomed to when we learn German, and we will look into just some of the most striking differences.

Swabian German has several sound change patterns that could be picked out. For instance, the ending -en in the infinitives of verbs in Standard German are generally -a in Swabian German, the -en ending for verbs agreeing with the first person plural pronoun ‘we’ is replaced by -ad, and the ch you would find in words like ich are dropped. This means that the word ich or ‘I’ is typically pronounced i. The ‘sh’ sound, or [ʃ], is pronounced in more situations in Swabian German, such as before ‘t’ and ‘p’ in words like Fest or ‘party’, which is pronounced something closer to Feschd. The central ‘t’ sound is usually omitted, leading to the the pronunciation of Stuttgart as something closer to Stuagart. And for some reason, there does not seem to be any distinction between the [s] and [z] sounds in Swabian German, and some speakers may even carry this characteristic on when speaking Standard German.

Differences in vowel sounds are also quite interesting as well. For the most part, the long vowels we see in Standard German have become diphthongs in the various dialects of Swabian German, which kind of reminds me of the Skåne Swedish vowels in contrast to Standard Swedish. The only long vowel that does not seem to be affected is the long ‘a’, or [a:], which is pronounced closer to [ɔː] in Swabian German. For [e:], this would be diphthongised to [ɛa̯] in Swabian German, written as äa. For [i:], it would be [ia̯], written as ia. For [o:], it would be [aʊ̯], written as au. For [u:], this would be [ua̯], written as ua, and for [y:] written as ü, it would be [ia̯]. This results in some wild false friends between written Swabian German and Standard German words, such as schau, which translates to ‘already’ in Swabian German and ‘show’ in Standard German.

There are several striking differences between the grammars of Swabian German and Standard German. The first is the use of -le (plural -la) as a diminutive suffix in Swabian German, in contrast to the -chen or -lein suffixes in Standard German. While the Standard German suffixes do not change between singular and plural forms, in Swabian German, it does. Furthermore, it seems that the diminutive is more prevalent in Swabian German usage, which sort of reminds me of the use of the diminutive in Australian English. I am unsure if a meaningful comparison of the prevalence of diminutive usage could be conducted between Swabian German and Australian English though.

Another difference is the lack of the genitive case in Swabian German, at least according to Vogt’s account of the dialect group. To express possessor-possession relationships, instead of adapting constructions found in Standard German, such as the genitive article like des, Swabian German uses two alternatives. For animate objects like humans and animals, the dative construction is used instead, such as “Maem Vaddr sae Hemed“, which translates directly to Meinem Vater sein Hemd, or ‘my father’s shirt’. And for inanimate objects, the particle vo and its derivatives are used, as in “D Rädor vo maem Audo“, or ‘the wheels of my car’. This feature is not unique amongst Swabian German though, as a similar lack or fusion of the genitive case with the dative has been observed in dialects in Switzerland, for example.

There are some differences in what the participle of the verb to be is in the various Swabian German dialects, as well as the wider family of Alemannic dialects. Within Baden-Württemberg alone, we can see up to a dozen or so different forms of the the participle, although they can be broadly classified into two categories — the gwäa, and the gsii.

Swabian German has its own set of words not quite found in other dialect groups nor Standard German, such as the word Grombir. Literally translating to the phrase “ground pear”, this is the Swabian German word for “potato”. It sort of applies a similar morphology to some other dialects, albeit with a different fruit. For example, some German dialects use the word Erdapfel, or “earth apple” instead. Some familial terms apply to more specific Swabian German-speaking regions, while some words are primarily used by older speakers.

Together, the Swabian dialects have formed the pride of Baden-Württemberg, with the state slogan of 1999 to 2021 alluding to these dialects. This was called “Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch.”, or “We can do everything. Except Standard High German.” While it was generally well-recognised by Germans in various states, it has prompted some criticism surrounding the prejudices and stereotypes of its residents, and the attitude towards Swabian German speakers. Despite what the slogan says, its residents and Swabian German speakers can speak Standard German. Nevertheless, in 2021, the state slogan was changed to “The Länd“.

Today, Swabian German cannot really be heard in many districts of Stuttgart, the state capital of Baden-Württemberg, but you may find it still spoken in other parts of the state and its neighbouring regions. You would have more luck in the rural regions as well. Additionally, like many other German dialects, Swabian German is not taught in schools, but younger generations could still learn the dialect from their parents or elders, and by extension, usage could occur in household or conversational settings. The state also promotes the use of Swabian German and other Alemannic dialects, and has linked institutional and cultural resources for those interested in the dialects. With increasing digital support for major German dialects, it does seem that Swabian German would be extensively documented, preserved, and promoted amongst local communities.

Further Reading

Friedrich E. Vogt, Schwäbisch in Laut und Schrift, 2. Aufl. 1979, S. 92f.

Overview of the status and resources for the German dialects spoken in Baden-Württemberg (in German):
https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.de/de/unser-land/traditionen/mundarten.

Further resources in Swabian German, in German:

https://www.schwaebisch-schwaetza.de/schwaebisch_schreiben.php.