East Franconian German

East Franconian (German: Ostfränkisch), usually referred to as Franconian (Fränkisch) in German, is a dialect which is spoken in Franconia, the northern part of the federal state of Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Nuremberg, Bamberg, Coburg, Würzburg, Hof, Bayreuth, Meiningen, Bad Mergentheim, and Crailsheim. The major subgroups are Unterostfränkisch (spoken in Lower Franconia and southern Thuringia), Oberostfränkisch (spoken in Upper and Middle Franconia) and Südostfränkisch (spoken in some parts of Middle Franconia and Hohenlohe).

In the transitional area between Rhine Franconian in the northwest and the Austro-Bavarian dialects in the southeast, East Franconian has elements of Central German and Upper German. The same goes only for South Franconian German in adjacent Baden-Württemberg. East Franconian is one of the German dialects with the highest number of speakers.

East Franconian is researched by Mundartforschungsstelle der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Fürth.

Franconian languages

Franconian (German: Fränkisch; Dutch: Frankisch) is a term for a number of West Germanic languages and dialects possibly derived from the languages and dialects originally spoken by the Franks from their ethnogenesis in the 3rd century AD. The languages that evolved in the northern and eastern lands of Francia included Low Franconian, of which present-day Dutch is the primary member, the West Central German Rhine Franconian and Central Franconian dialects (including Luxembourgish), as well as transitional High Franconian German dialects.

Linguists have different views about whether there really is a Franconian language group and whether these languages and dialects have really descended from a single proto-language like Old Franconian or Istvaeonic.

Three groups

Low Franconian

Low Franconian, also called Low Frankish, consists of Dutch, Afrikaans, Limburgish, and their dialects, some of which are sometimes seen as regional languages. They are spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, South Africa, Namibia, the western tip of Germany (in the West German Lower Rhine region, former Duchy of Cleves), Suriname, the Caribbean as well as in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.