Editing Saarland (section)

===Local dialect===

People in the Saarland speak [[Rhine Franconian]] (in the southeast, very similar to that dialect spoken in the western part of the Palatinate) and [[Moselle Franconian]] (in the northwest, very similar to that dialect spoken along the river [[Moselle]] and the cities of [[Trier]] or even in Luxembourg).<ref>Stedje, A. (2007). ''Deutsche Sprache gestern und heute''. Munich, Germany: Wilhelm Fink.</ref>  Outside of the Saarland, specifically the Rhine-Franconian variant spoken in the state capital [[Saarbrücken]] is generally considered to be ''the'' Saarland dialect. The two dialect regions are mainly separated by the {{lang|de|das}} / {{lang|pfl|dat}} isogloss; in the northwestern portion of the state, including cities such as Saarlouis, standard German {{lang|de|das}} is pronounced with a final {{IPA|[t]}} instead of an {{IPA|[s]}}.

In general, both dialects are an integral part of Saarland identity.

Both dialects, particularly in their respective Saarland flavour, share many characteristic features, some of which will be explained below.

Women and girls are often referred to using the neuter pronoun {{lang|de|es}}, with the pronunciation being something like {{lang|pfl|Ähs}}: {{lang|pfl|'''Ähs''' hat mir's gesaat}} ({{'}}'''it''' told me so', instead of {{'}}'''she''' told me so'; vs. High German: {{lang|de|'''Sie''' hat es mir gesagt}}). This stems from the word {{lang|de|Mädchen}} (girl) being neuter ({{lang|de|es}} is correct when referring to words like {{lang|de|Mädchen}} but would not be used by itself in reference to a woman).

The [[Subjunctive mood|subjunctive]] in Rhine Franconian is normally composed with the words {{lang|pfl|dääd}} (High German {{lang|de|täte}} = "would do") or {{lang|de|gänge}} ("would go") as auxiliary verbs: {{lang|pfl|Isch dääd saan, dass...}} ("I would say that...") instead of the High German {{lang|de|Ich würde sagen, dass...}}.

[[Declension]] is rather different:
*The [[genitive]] case does not exist at all and is entirely replaced by constructs with the [[dative case]].
*In most instances, words are not altered when in the dative case. Exceptions are mostly [[pronoun]]s.
*The same holds for the [[accusative]] case. It is accepted practice to use the [[nominative]] case instead of the accusative.

[[Diphthongs]] are less common than in Standard German. This is because the Standard German diphthongs ''ei'' and ''au'' are each the result of a [[Phonemic merger|merger]] of two [[Middle High German]] vowels – however, these mergers did not take place in the Saarland, and only one of the two merged vowels is pronounced as a diphthong.  The [[front rounded vowel]]s ''ö'', ''ü'', and ''eu'' are replaced by ''e'', ''i'', and ''ei'' respectively.

Both the Rhine Franconian and Moselle Franconian dialects (and [[Luxembourgish]]) have merged the [[voiceless palatal fricative|palatal fricative]] sound as in {{lang|de|ich}} with the [[voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant|post-alveolar fricative]] as in {{lang|de|frisch}} 'fresh', causing High German minimal pairs such as {{lang|de|Kirche}} 'church' and {{lang|de|Kirsche}} 'cherry' to be pronounced in the same way.<ref>Steitz, L. (1981). ''Grammatik der Saarbrücker Mundart''. Saarbrücken: Saarbrucker Druckerei und Verlag.</ref>

French has had a considerable influence on the vocabulary, although the pronunciation of imported French words is usually quite different from their originals. Popular examples include {{lang|de|Trottwaa}} (from {{lang|fr|trottoir}}), {{lang|de|Fissääl}} (from {{lang|fr|ficelle}}), and the imperative or greeting {{lang|de|aalleh!}} (from {{lang|fr|allez!}}).

The English sentence "My house is green" is pronounced almost the same in the Rhine Franconian variant: {{lang|pfl|Mei Haus is grien}}.  The main difference lies in the pronunciation of the {{angbr|r}} sound.

Regional beer brewer [[Karlsberg (brewery)|Karlsberg]] has taken advantage of the Saarlandish dialect to create clever advertising for its staple product, UrPils. Examples include a trio of men enjoying a beer, flanked by baby carriages, the slogan reading {{lang|pfl|"Mutter schafft"}} (meaning "Mum's at work" in Saarlandish, but plays on the High German word {{lang|de|Mutterschaft}} 'motherhood'); another depicts a trio of men at a bar, with one realizing his beer has been drunk by one of the others, the slogan reading {{lang|pfl|"Kenner war's"}} (meaning "It was no one" [{{lang|de|Keiner war es}}] in Saarlandish, but playing on the High German word {{lang|de|Kenner}} 'connoisseur', translating to "It was a connoisseur"); a third shows an empty beer crate in outer space, the text reading {{lang|de|"All"}} (meaning "empty" in Saarlandish, but playing on the same High German word meaning "outer space").