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In an 1897 German cookbook (Koch-Buch für die Deutschen in Amerika) I found this story torn out of what may have been a compilation of short stories. The story isn’t dated, but it was included with other recipes clipped from newspapers.

The text of the story looks like German, but I could find only a few of the words in my 1934 (Fraktur) Cassell’s. I only read the first and second paragraphs of the story, and could only understand the gist of what I had read – something about selling, or not selling, a sow -- and it goes on from there.

I’m including here an extract of the first line of the first paragraph of the story, and the last line of that paragraph as an example to study.

(story title) “Die Metzelsuppe”.

[first paragraph of story begins with:] S’ Kürbsamärtes Hansjörg von Sürflingen hat auch wieder ein Säulein im Stall von beiläufig dritthalb Centner im G’wicht ...

[first paragraph ends with] ... man könnte es auch Hausbefehl heitzen, mit wenigen Worten: dui Sau mutz in der Famile bleiba, es ist a guate Art, dia fritzt ner umsust, dia geit Schmalz, so a Sau verkauft mer net.

[ende]

As a result of my failure, my guess is that the story is written in some dialect of German. And if this is so, what dialect might it be, and where would it commonly be heard? (The story’s text is in Fraktur font, which I’ve ‘romanized’ for this query)

unor
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К. Келлогг Смиф
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    The -a word endings are present in various Upper German dialects, but guate for gute is distinctively Bavarian. Guade and replacing t with d generally would qualify it for Saxon. – Janka Jul 20 '17 at 05:00
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    This is definitely Swabian (although I could not locate it by the village), not Bavarian. By the way, -ingen locations are another indicator for Swabia, as -ing would be for Bavaria. – Christian Geiselmann Jul 20 '17 at 09:11
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    In case you need a translation: "Die Sau muss in der Familie bleiben, das ist eine gute Art, die frißt nicht nutzlos, die gibt Schmalz. So eine Sau verkauft man nicht." – Christian Geiselmann Jul 20 '17 at 09:23
  • Well a part of Swabia is in Bavaria actually, so it might still be from Bavaria (maybe from around Neu-Ulm). The dialect however is indeed Swabian. – Adwaenyth Jul 20 '17 at 10:18
  • (So you have the guate too? Oh well, yes, when I hear MP Kretschmann speaking in my mind, you are right.) – Janka Jul 20 '17 at 10:33
  • @Janka (as well as Christian Geiselmann and Adwaenyth): Thank you all for your comments -- they have been most helpful and useful !! – К. Келлогг Смиф Jul 20 '17 at 13:56
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    Just a side-note: it looks like in your "romanization" you mistook the letter 'ß' with 'tz'. So it is heißen, muß and frißt. – Matthias Jul 20 '17 at 20:38
  • @Matthias: I made the same mistake you've made, and made it early on (TZ vs. SS)when I first started reading J. Nefflen's story. Like you, I thought the spelling was wrong, until I realized that the text was written in a dialect and not in standard German. – К. Келлогг Смиф Jul 20 '17 at 23:57
  • I don't think it is a question of dialect. At least in the facsimile that Stephie linked to in her answer it is the ligature 'ß' that we see, not 'tz'. Compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_ligature#German_.C3.9F and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraktur_(Schrift)#/media/File:Lesehilfe_Fraktur.svg – Matthias Jul 21 '17 at 09:43
  • @Mathias: Thank you for your comment. However, when I compare the two ligatures on the printouts of the Fraktur font I have on my computer, the difference between the two ligatures is quite apparent. Stephie's answer is undisputedly a correct one. And I was wrong in my comment above directed to you; 'ß' is "esszett" (SZ), not 'SS'. – К. Келлогг Смиф Jul 21 '17 at 14:22
  • @К.КеллоггСмиф, I feel that the last edit makes the title misrepresent your question. If you feel the same, I would encourage you to revert or improve. – Carsten S Jul 25 '17 at 20:44
  • @Carlsten S: Your commen – К. Келлогг Смиф Jul 26 '17 at 12:21
  • @Carlsten S: Please explain what you mean by your comment. Your comment is much too brief for me to understand what you are complaining about. – К. Келлогг Смиф Jul 26 '17 at 12:23

1 Answers1

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This sounds clearly Swabian - a few indicators are

  • Metzelsupp (used in Southern German dialects),
  • S' Kürbsamärtes Hansjörg (common way of naming, i.e. genitive of family name followed by first name plus a frequent Swabian version of the first name)
  • dui (demonstrative pronoun, clearly Swabian, see the comedy duo "Dui on de Sell")
  • dia geit /[.../] mer net. (Swabian versions of "die gibt ... man nicht".)
  • ...

And finally, note that the story is from the book "Der Vetter aus Schwaben: Schwabenbräuch und Schwabenstreich aus dem Leben gegriffen" by Johannes Nefflen, a Swabian satirical writer who fled from Württemberg and finally emigrated to Maryland.

Stephie
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  • I doubt, that Sürflingen is Sölflingen. According to Beschreibung des Oberamts Ulm the former names of Sölfingen are Seflingen and Sevelingen. – IQV Jul 20 '17 at 06:40
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    According to the foreword ot the book, the stories and the language in it are from the region between Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg. So, it is in deed pure swabian, but from a region northern of Stuttgart. – IQV Jul 20 '17 at 06:45
  • @IQV neat - thanks for the research! I'll just remove the bullet point. Side note: the text has a few variations that are not 100% S/LU area, but that's a minor detail. A dialect is not set in stone and there are often slight variations from one village to the next. – Stephie Jul 20 '17 at 06:48
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    The place is not called Sölflingen but Söflingen. Today it is part of the town of Ulm (about 100,000 inhabitants). I have relatives there. - If Sürflingen from the short story is actually this Söflingen I cannot confirm, but a pronunciation as Sürflenga in the Swabian dialect of the region would be not impossible. At the time (and even today) you can identify the provenience of a person per village (!) by their specific dialect. – Christian Geiselmann Jul 20 '17 at 09:13
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    @ChristianGeiselmann as the town is but a minor indicator and the dialect is very clear, I chose to leave the town out as long as there is a shred of doubt. It's not an essential part of the question. And I very much agree to the "can identify per village" part. – Stephie Jul 20 '17 at 09:22
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    I would also locate the dialect as somewhere around Stuttgart, given that it is more than 150 years old. In some sentences, I seem to hear my grandparents. + "...deswegen bin ich mit der Sprache um Ludwigsburg und Stuttgart herum geblieben und denke [die andren werden's auch verstehen]" – tofro Jul 20 '17 at 12:16
  • @Stephie (and IQV 7, Christian Geiselmann, and tofro as well): Thank you so very much for you most helpful comments. All of the comments to my query have been so helpful that I've not only read the article about Johannes Nefflen in the German Wikipedia (de.wikipedia.org), but also looked for and found that J. Nefflen's book is considered a classic, and is available on the German Amazon (Amazon.de). Although I obviously know very, very, little of the "Swabishe dialect" I went ahead and ordered one of the reprint anyway -- now, can anyone help me find a good Swabishe<-->Deutsch dictionary?? – К. Келлогг Смиф Jul 20 '17 at 14:11
  • @К.КеллоггСмиф I don't think you'll find a good "Swabian<->German dictionary", mainly due to the regional differences, but some questions will likely be a good fit for the site, some others could be discussed in [chat]. With some luck you'll find "Swabian natives" there or at least some from a related background, that can help you. – Stephie Jul 20 '17 at 14:14
  • @К.КеллоггСмиф for a start, you'll find a glossary of the most common words right in the book, assuming that it's mostly identical to the version at google books. – Stephie Jul 20 '17 at 14:17
  • @Christian Geiselmann: A special "thank you" to you also for your help. The reprint of Nefflen's book I ordered from Amazon.de is just a tad pricey for me, but I really do look forward to reading some of Nefflen's satire -- and with keeping a good Swabian<-->German dictionary close to my hand, of course !! Just as an added note, the German Wikipedia's article on J. Nefflen (in de.wikipedia.org) has kind of an error in the way "Cumberland, Allegany county, Maryland" is rendered in the U.S. (initial character in "County" s/b lower case), but I wasn't allowed to correct that 'error'. – К. Келлогг Смиф Jul 20 '17 at 14:24
  • And for everyone who commented on my query, I thought you might all like to know that I quite coincidentally acquired "Koch-Buch für ..." at a well-known Baltimore (Maryland) free book depository (bookthing.org), and also that Nefflen's Cumberland MD, where Nerfflen spent his last years when he came to live with his son there, is a delightful little town surrounded by picturesque mountains. The town was made famous for its role in America's Civil War. An article about it can be found in the German Wikipedia, search term "Cumberland (Maryland)". – К. Келлогг Смиф Jul 20 '17 at 14:41
  • There's a kind of useful online dictionary here: http://www.schwaebisch-schwaetza.de/schwaebisch_woerterbuch.html and there's the small Langenscheidt: https://www.amazon.de/Langenscheidt-Lilliput-Schwäbisch-Schwäbisch-Deutsch-Deutsch-Schwäbisch/dp/3468200471 – tofro Jul 20 '17 at 17:42