Chemnitz dialect

Not to be confused with Chemnitz German or a Chemnitz accent, the accent/regional variety of Standard German spoken in Chemnitz.

Chemnitz dialect
Native to	Germany
Region	Chemnitz
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Central German East Central German Upper Saxon German Vorerzgebirgisch Chemnitz dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	None

Chemnitz dialect is the dialect of the city of Chemnitz and an urban variety of Vorerzgebirgisch, a variant of Upper Saxon German.

Phonology

Main article: Chemnitz dialect phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

		Labial	Dental	Postalveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	aspirated				kʰ
	unaspirated	p	t		k
Fricative		f	s	ʃ	χ	h
Approximant		ʋ	l		j
Rhotic					ʁ

• Word-initially, the /t–k/ contrast is neutralized before /l/, which means that e.g. the word Kleid ('dress') can be pronounced as either [tleːt] or [kleːt].
• Stops and fricatives are voiceless, whereas nasals and approximants are voiced.
• /ʁ/ occurs only in onsets, and it has few possible pronunciations, which are in free variation with one another:
  • Voiced uvular approximant [ʁ̞];
  • Voiced [ʁ] or voiceless [ʁ̥] lenis uvular fricative;
  • Voiceless uvular trill [ʀ̥];
  • Unaspirated voiceless uvular stop [q].

Vowels

Monophthongs of the Chemnitz dialect, from Khan & Weise (2013:236–237). Red vowels are pharyngealized.

Diphthongs of the Chemnitz dialect, from Khan & Weise (2013:237).

Monophthong phonemes

	Front		Central		Back
					unrounded	rounded
	short	long	short	long	long	short	long
Close		iː		ʉː			ʊˤː
Close-mid	ɪ	eː	ɵ	ɵː
Mid			ɞ		ʌˤː	oˤ	oˤː
Open-mid	ɛ	ɛː	ʌ	ʌː			ɔˤː
Near-open		aˤː

• Unstressed /ɪ, ɛ, ɵ, ɞ, ʌ/ may all be reduced to [ə].
• The pharyngealized vowels correspond to the sequences of vowel + /r/ in the standard language.
• In cognates of some Standard German words, speakers fluent in Standard German occasionally produce [yː, ʏ, øː, œ], which contrast with /iː, ɪ, eː, ɛ/ as well as /ʉː, ɵ, ɵː, ɞ/, for instance Brüder [ˈpʁyːtoˤ] 'brothers'. In other cases, they are pronounced the same as /iː, ɪ, eː, ɛ/.

Diphthong phonemes

	Ending point
	unrounded	rounded
Mid		ɞʏ̯
Open	ae̯	aɵ̯