Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1970

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Merrill, Peter C.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to present a structural sketch of the phonological, morphological, and syntactic features of the Darmstadt dialect (Darmstadter Mundart), a folk dialect spoken in and around the city of Darmstadt, West-Central Germany. The study is based primarily on Ernst Elias Niebergall's Datterich, a dialect comedy published in 1841, but the works of Hans Herter and Robert Schneider are also taken into consideration. Although these works were composed more than a century ago, they are still a valid source for a present-day study, since the inventory and pronunciation of dialect words has not changed appreciably from Niebergall's time to the present. The chapter dealing with the phonology of the dialect takes inventory of only the consonant and vowel phonemes, since a discussion of suprasegmental phonemes would go beyond the scope of this paper. Parts of the chapter on morphology and all of the chapter dealing with the syntax are handled on a contrastive basis; i.e., dialect features are compared to their Standard New High German counterparts. The introductory chapter of this structural sketch includes a brief summary of geographical and politico-historical facts relating to the Darmstadt dialect. There is also a brief section on Niebergall's life and literary accomplishments, with special emphasis on his Datterich.

Extent

58 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1970.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FADT13443

Format

pdf

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