Nouns Gender All
nouns in Northern Bavarian have one of three
genders: feminine, masculine and neuter. Many nouns have the same gender as in
Standard German, but there are many exceptions. An example is
Benzin, which is neuter in Standard German, but masculine in Northern Bavarian. Another example is
Butter, which is feminine in Standard German, but it can be all three genders in Northern Bavarian depending on your location and local variation of the dialect.
Case As in Standard German there are four cases in Northern Bavarian:
nominative,
accusative,
genitive and
dative. The genitive case, however, is uncommon and is commonly replaced either with the dative and a
possessive pronoun or with the
preposition von and the dative, e.g. , or ''father's house
. An exception is the genitive instead of the dative after the singular possessive pronouns, e.g. , which is as correct as behind me
. Prepositions take the dative or the accusative, but not the genitive, e.g. (formally ) despite the rain''. The dative ending -m often sounds like the accusative ending -n (see the previous example), so that these two cases are not distinguishable.
Inflection Nouns in Northern Bavarian are
inflected for number, and to a lesser extent, case. Inflecting for number is common across all three genders, and especially
umlaut is productive, in particular in masculine nouns. The most common plural marker in feminine nouns is , while it is with most neuter nouns. Many nouns, across the genders, are the same in the
plural as in the
singular. :
English head, Standard German
Kopf, Northern Bavarian sg. m. > pl. :
English cat, Standard German
Katze, Northern Bavarian sg. f. > pl. :
English house, Standard German
Haus, Northern Bavarian sg. n. > pl. Weak masculine nouns are inflected in the accusative and dative case, most commonly with
suffixation of a nasal consonant, such as or , while the other cases remain uninflected. Many weak feminine nouns have the ending in most cases, though not to be confused with the plural ending. Weak neuter nouns have almost been lost, with only strong remaining, and therefore inflection for case is basically nonexistent. :
English boy, Standard German
Bube, Northern Bavarian m. nom. > m. acc./dat.
Adjectives The
inflection of
adjectives in Northern Bavarian differ depending on whether the adjective is preceded by a
definite article or a
demonstrative, or if it is preceded by an
indefinite article or a
possessive, or if it is used as a
predicate, of which the latter is only present in some varieties. Adjectives without any
determiner rarely occur. Below can the inflectional paradigms be seen, with the adjective serving as an example. This is also the form used in all situations, when the adjective is used as a predicate, and therefore no paradigm is needed. Compare Northern Bavarian with the Standard German
alt, in
English old. The predicate form of an adjective differ from the other forms, not only because it is the basic form, but also because it has a long vowel, unlike the other forms, as in above. Other examples include and , which become and , respectively. Compare with the Standard German
gross and
breit, in
English big and
broad. Comparative adjectives are formed by suffixing , and superlative adjectives are formed by suffixing . Vowel changes often take place when the suffixation happens. An example is , which becomes when comparative and when superlative. Compare with the Standard German
hoch,
höher and
höchsten, in English
high,
higher and
highest.
Pronouns The
pronouns of Northern Bavarian differ slightly from variety to variety. Furthermore, there are two pairs of pronouns, one used when in stressed position and the other used when unstressed. There is no gender distinction in the plural. The ending in the stressed first person singular nominative and -accusative and in stressed the second person singular accusative is only present in northern- and western varieties of Northern Bavarian. At the time of a linguistic survey carried out in the late 1980s,
Present tense The personal endings for the
present tense differ slightly from variety to variety, but are largely uniform. The endings in the scheme below are attached to the stem, and not the non-finite form. The stem is found by removing the non-finite ending, if it is or . As can be seen in the scheme above, the first person singular is basically the same as the stem, and the first- and third persons plural are the same as the non-finite form. Furthermore, the third person singular is realized as - when occurring before a fortis obstruent, and that in some southern varieties of Northern Bavarian the first person plural has the ending -, and therefore isn't the non-finite form. The singular imperative is the same as the first person singular, and the plural imperative is the same as the second person plural. Only one exception exists, which is the imperative of , Standard German
sein,
English to be, which is .
Past tense Only one verb with a distinct
simple past tense form remains, , Standard German
sein,
English to be, with the simple past tense form , Standard German
war,
English was. The
past tense of other verbs is formed in the same way as Standard German uses
haben or
sein,
English to have and
to be, respectively, and the
past participle. The past participle in Northern Bavarian is formed by the
prefix -, although not on verbs beginning with a
plosive consonant, where the prefix is left out. Thus we see , Standard German
geschüttet,
English shaken; , Standard German
genommen,
English taken; , Standard German
gebracht,
English brought; and , Standard German
getragen,
English carried. The verbs and , Standard German
haben and
sein,
English to have and
to be, can be seen conjugated in the scheme below in the present, as they are
irregular. They have the past participles, and , respectively. Compare with Standard German
gehaben and
gewesen,
English had and
been. Examples can be seen below: • , Standard German
Ich habe geschüttet,
English I have poured • , Standard German
Er hat gebracht,
English He has brought Subjunctive It is quite straightforward to form the
subjunctive in Northern Bavarian. The subjunctive of verbs is formed with the suffix -, as in > , Standard German
wissen >
wüßte,
English to know >
I would know.
Apophony Both
weak verbs and
strong verbs may undergo
apophony. The strong verbs can be split into two groups: the first group where the vowel in the non-finite form is the same as in the past participle; and the second group where the vowel in the non-finite form is different from the vowel in the past participle. The most common vowel gradations in the second group can be seen below: • > : > , Standard German
schneiden >
geschnitten -
English to cut • > , : > , Standard German
bieten >
geboten -
English to offer • > : > , Standard German
singen >
gesungen -
English to sing • > : > , Standard German
dreschen >
gedroschen -
English to thresh Apophony is not as common with weak verbs as in Standard German. However, the number of weak verbs with
morphophonological variations is high, especially change in
vowel length is common. == Example ==