() was spoken in the orange-coloured area on the map (corresponding to the late 10th century) and many German-speaking colonists in Transylvania subsequently stemmed from the areas of
Luxembourg,
Aachen, and
Trier. In terms of
comparative linguistics, it pertains to the
Moselle Franconian group of
West Central German dialects. In this particular regard, it must be mentioned that it shares a consistent amount of lexical similarities with
Luxembourgish. The dialect was mainly spoken in
Transylvania (contemporary central
Romania), by native speakers of German,
Flemish, and
Walloon origins who were settled in the
Kingdom of Hungary starting in the mid and mid-late 12th century (more specifically from approximately the 1140s/1150s to the 19th century). Over the passing of time, it had been consistently influenced by both
Romanian and
Hungarian given the centuries-long cohabitation of the Saxons with
Romanians and
Hungarians (mostly
Szeklers) in the south, southeast, and northeast of Transylvania. The main areas where Transylvanian Saxon was spoken in Transylvania were southern and northern Transylvania. In the contemporary era, the vast majority of the native speakers have emigrated in several waves, initially to Germany and
Austria, but then subsequently to the US, Canada as well as other Western European countries, managing in the process to preserve (at least temporarily) their specific language there. Lastly, one can perceive the Transylvanian Saxon dialect, bearing in mind its conservative character when compared to other dialects of the German language (due primarily to its geographic isolation from other German idioms) as a type of German spoken in medieval times, or, more specifically as
Old High German or
Middle High German. == Geographic distribution of the dialect in Transylvania ==