The difference between High German and High German

Yes, in fact the strongest Bavarian dialect is High German. Linguistically speaking, that is.

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[justarandomgothamite]

That, of course, does not mean Low German isn't _treated_ as an inferior language.

[Macintoshiba]

As a kid, I called it "super german", because no matter where in Germany you are, you speak it, and you will be understood

[gaedingar]

Funny enough, the city of Hannover and the region around it is aoften told to be the region that speaks the "purest" Standard German and has nearly no local dialect. Hannover is the capital of lower Saxony and is located around 100km north of the Benrath line, in the low German area.

[TheKingpingsxD]

Hi im German, we learn in school that high- german just means speaking without Dialekt, and im living in central to southern germany and we speak High-german in most parts of germany.
Thats why most people even here in Germany think that high german is the spoken Standard. We simply learn it this way.

well ... High German is spoken mostly in the area in this video called "Low German" ... if this video was correct, the heavy dialects lika Bavarian, Swabian "Badisch", "Fränkisch" etc would be High German, but they are the farthest away from High German. Hochdeutsch = High German is closest to what they speak around Hannover, so north of this Benrath Line

[popelite]

I live in Switzerland, and here we don't call it "high german" but rather "written German", since we still write in standard German while we speak our incomprehensible dialect

[teicheselchloropusasinus]

As a bavarian living in swabia I wonder where standard german should be based on high german. Buf than I remember what Plattdeutsch sounds like.

[dasreicht]

It's extra confusing given that most low German dialects have been replaced with "high German", but some high German dialects are still common and are referred to as dialects

[tobischendel]

It’s basically the other way around. In Northgermany they typically speaking „Standard German“ where in the South parts even the Germans don’t understand Germans because of there Dialect

[yt]

when a german smokes a joint, he's also a high german

[speed]

I was taught "a language is a dialect with an army attached".
Don't remember who said it, but I tend to agree.

[justarandomgothamite]

Honestly I am just impressed Rewboss is willing to poke the wasps nests that is mentioning Low German on the internet at all.

[vinnie]

love how the line jumps up to include Berlin as a part of the high german dialects

[achimaufachse]

I am from east germany in the thuringian forest... the dialects are so highly variable from valley to valley that my grandma and my wifes grandma could not communicate on our Wedding. Both grandmas Villages are only seperated by 22km but they are speaking so different, its wild.

[graymalkin]

The issue here is that even in German, "Hochdeutsch" is a misleading term since it describes two things. 1) The regional German spoken in the mountain area (as opposed to Plattdeutsch or Niederdeutsch) as well as 2) "Standard German". As far as I know "Standard German" is basically Hannoveranian German but Hannover is pretty far up north and not a great representation of "Southern German dialects". The "dialects" spoken in Bavaria and Suabia etc. are more related to the German spoken in Switzerland and Austria. They are "Allemanian German" and so far removed from Standard German that I (from Hesse) have trouble understanding my husband (from the Black Forest) if he starts talking with his Suabian friends. It doesn't work the other way around since my dialect is a bit closer to "Standard German" and they easily get what we're saying.

[John_Weiss]

This is why I always say, "Standard German, " and not, "High German, " when talking in English. I'm an Ami who majored in German(istik), so I've known that the „Hoch“ in „Hochdeutsch“ refers to _altitude_ and not status.

[ppdbw]

I live in the center of Westphalia. My great-grandfather would speak the local variety of Low German all the time, but understand High German as well *). My grandfather would understand and speak both equally well, depending on the situation. My father spoke High German all the time, but would understand Low German as well. I have a hard time to do so, not to mention speaking it. Much more than the southern dialects, Low German was considered an "inferior" language for some reason.
*) he also spoke Masematte a certain occasions, which is an argot type of language spoken around Münster, and also influenced the language of folk dealing with livestock (cattle) in this region.

[minski]

"Berlin? Wait, what about Berlin? Do we... Nah. Or... wait... Yeah, let's... "
Whoever drew the Benrath line...

[swagy]

In German I would say “Hochdeutsch”, but in English I’d always say “Standard German”.

[lenaball]

I did not know that!! Thank you for the very informative video!