French of Alsace

The French of Alsace is a form of French regional whose turnings are influenced by the language Alsacien.

Alsatian diction

The Alsatian Accent is characterized by a marked stressing of the first syllable, instead of the last syllable in standard French language. One also observes a very closed pronunciation of the vowels " o" and " eu" ( young person decides almost like fast ) and a certain denasalization (the sound one tending to approach the sound O ). Lastly, following the example German accent , certain sounds are sometimes slightly deafened when the accent is strong, in particular the sounds J ( CH ) and v ( F ).

In a more marginal way, one also observes a diphthongization of the interjections monosyllabaires; thus one will often intend Alsatian to pronounce “ioh! ”, “ieuh! ” or others “ieh! ”

Particular forms

French of Alsace is marked by the phenomenon of copies S Germanic. Thus one will find for example the expression “raincoat” (Regenmantel) for “impermeable”. In the same way, the sentence “My husband seeks me at 4 a.m.” means “My husband simply comes to seek me at 4 a.m.”. One still observes a use of the Pronom S and Préposition S different from the usual use of the French: thus to make come to it his/her child a mother will say to him “come in mom”. One also hears the formula “I will ask it” for “I will ask him”; in the same way the formulas " They do not come avec" , " it needs aider" , " I wait on the bus" , " me also pas" , " like dit" , " there it est" all are copied on the Germanic Syntaxe. Lastly, under the influence of German “doch”, the word “thus” often gets busy within the meaning of “however” (“You do not know it? I thus said it to you! ”).

Loans with the Alsatian one

Several Alsatian words are used even by the French-speaking people, and sometimes without same being aware of their origin. Without going into the details of the gastronomy (Baeckeoffe, Mannele, Bredele, Berewecke), one can quote the schluck (the mouthful), the schlüch (the sprinkler pipe), the stück (translation of “piece”, an imposing building, a girl gun), the schlass (a knife), the bichele (the manique one), the zehnerclock (the 22 hour old stories sounded with the cathedral every evening), to be frach or more often says fresch (shameless), or schlass (literally soft/ratatiné, used like elsewhere in direction of “tired”, but meaning also “a little drunk”), the fathead (the mosquito or senile being)…

To note, two Interjection S used daily in the language spoken with identical in French or Alsatian, who often divert the other French-speaking people:

“ hopla! ”: word confirming and reinforcing an exclamation, almost equivalent of good! , specific to the Alsatian one.
“ gæll? ”: an interrogation supports, are equivalent of hein? , present also in the dialects of Germany of the South.

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