Wo In North Rhine-Westphalia, the end piece of bread is called “Knust”, where “Knäppchen”, where “Krüstchen”? Where do you say goodbye with “Bye” and where with “Bye”? Ja: Is it “grandma” or “my” now? The most populous federal state is a worthwhile research area for linguists. “There are many different dialects in North Rhine-Westphalia and extremely diverse spoken languages ​​are influenced by them. Even people who have never learned the dialect use dialect words like 'speicher' in the Rhineland or 'balk' in Westphalia for attic,” says Markus Denkler, a linguist at the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL). Together with colleagues from the Rhine counterpart LVR, Denkler investigates the currently little-studied everyday language between the Rhine and the Weser.

If in the past linguists had to laboriously organize, record and evaluate conversations, now they also rely on digital channels. A few years ago, the University of Zurich pioneered with the Gschmöis app to study Swiss German dialects, and the University of Luxembourg with the Schnëssen app to document as many facets of the Luxembourgish language as possible.

“The digital approach convinced us,” says Denkler. The Palava language app of the Rhine-Westphalian joint language researchers is available for free in the usual app stores from June. It has been downloaded over 5000 times so far. Participants in the three-year project can answer changing questions on several channels and also speak terms directly on their smartphones. In a short period of time, a large amount of data was collected and entered into a statistical program.

Here the attic is called “Söller”

Linguists are constantly making corrections to keep Palava users happy. “You have to pay attention to the rules of playfulness and the limits of attention span,” says Denkler. “We've found that almost no one answers all the questions.” Anyone who uses the app also expects minimal fun and personal added value. The question circles are therefore designed to be as playful as possible, mostly you see pictures and objects that need names. In addition, the evaluated results are gradually presented as graphics, comments and spoken language maps. At least two language maps now show that the attic in Kleve, Wesel, Kevelaer, Krefeld and Aachen is not called a storeroom or a beam, but rather a Söller.

Another language map shows that the “Fitz” or “Fietze” for bicycles is common not only in Westphalia, but also on the Lower Rhine and even in Aachen. These two terms exemplify the fact that (some) Rhineland and Westphalia have more in common than many think. The fault landscape between the Rhine and the Weser does not lend itself to the cultivation of the popular “Nordrhein versus Westphalia” perspective.

The great variety of dialects in North Rhine-Westphalia is primarily determined by the so-called Benrath line, an imaginary language border that runs from west to east at approximately the Düsseldorf-Benrath level and roughly separates the Middle German language from the Low German dialects. . “But of course it extends further, like the Lower Rhine and the Middle Rhine and so on,” says Denkler. Westphalia uses a lot of far north German terms. Furthermore, not everything can be precisely divided between Rhineland and Westphalia, as the example of “Fitz” or “Fietze” makes clear.