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Zipser German (German: Zipserisch or Zipserdeutsch; Hungarian: szepességi szász nyelv or cipszer nyelv; Romanian: dialectul țipțer) is a dialect of the German language which developed in the Upper Zips region (Slovak: Spiš, Hungarian: Szepes) of what is now northeastern Slovakia among people who settled there from present-day central Germany and the northern Lower Rhine river (e.g. contemporary Flanders and Luxembourg) beginning in the 13th century (or during the High Middle Ages as part of the Ostsiedlung).

These German settlers are collectively known as Zipser Germans in Central and Eastern Europe and part of the Carpathian Germans (German: Karpatendeutsche) in their native Slovakia. The Lower Zips was inhabited by other Germans who spoke a different dialect called "Gründlerisch". The Upper Zipser German dialect is also close or related to the Transylvanian Saxon dialect (German: Siebenbürgisch-Sächsisch) of the Transylvanian Saxons (German: Siebenbürger Sachsen).

The Zipser German dialect has been spoken for centuries in present-day Slovakia and Romania. In Romania, the dialect has been spoken in the historical regions of Bukovina and Maramureș, northern Transylvania. Nowadays there are a few Zipser German-speaking communities in southern Bukovina (more specifically Suceava County) as well as Maramureș County. In addition, there are several differences between the forms of the Zipser German dialect which had developed on the territory of present-day Romania and the main Zipser German dialect from Zips, Slovakia. In Maramureș, the main community of Zipser Germans (and, by extension, Zipser German speakers) still lives in Vișeu de Sus (German: Oberwischau) and Baia Mare (German: Frauenbach or Groß-Neustadt). Smaller communities of Zipser Germans are also found in the mountainous Banat or Caraș-Severin County. There are also sparse communities of Zipser Germans across Carpathian Ruthenia (i.e. Zakarpattia Oblast), Ukraine.

The Zipser German dialect as spoken in Romania

Beginning in at least the 18th century, many Zipsers migrated to contemporary northern Romania, including to southern Bukovina (present-day Suceava County), then part of the Habsburg-ruled lands and a newly acquired land following the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774), where several other German dialects were also spoken by the local Bukovina German community (such as Swabian, for example).

Throughout the passing of time, the speech of the Zipsers in present-day Romania (such as those who migrated to Maramureș, present-day Maramureș County) was heavily influenced by that of people from Upper Austria (German: Oberösterreich) who settled among them and were ultimately assimilated into the Zipser ethnic community. During and after the Second World War, most Zipsers evacuated or were expelled to Germany, but a community of speakers remains in Hopgarten (Slovak: Chmeľnica); their distinctive dialect is called "Outzäpsersch" (German: "Altzipserisch", literally "Old Zipserish").

Dialectal differences in Bukovina, Romania

The dialect spoken in Bukovina (more specifically in southern Bukovina or Suceava County, northeastern Romania), Gründlerisch in origin, was characterized by the shift of original (Middle High German) /v/ to /b/ and of original /b/ to /p/. The dialect of Hopgarten distinctively shifts Middle High German /l/, in all positions, to 'u'. In southern Bukovina, the Zipser German dialect has been spoken in rural areas such as in the communes of Cârlibaba (German: Mariensee, Ludwigsdorf, or Kirlibaba), Iacobeni (German: Jakobeny), Pojorâta (German: Pozoritta or Poschoritta), or Vama (German: Wama).

References

1. ^ Karl Julius Schröer, Die deutschen Mundarten des ungrischen Berglandes (1864)
2. Oskar Hadbawnik, Die Zipser in der Bukowina (1968) discusses the Zipserfest held in Jakobeny in 1936 to commemorate 150 years since the Zipsers migrated to Jakobeny in 1786.
3. ^ І. Я. Яцюк, Тернопільський національний педагогічний університет ім. Володимира Гнатюка, Наукові записки. Серія "Філологічна", УДК 81’282.4:811.112.2(477): Lexikalische Besonderheiten Deutscher Dialekte in Galizien- und der Bukowina: "Die Siedler in den ursprünglichen Bergwerksgemeinden im Südwesten der Bukowina sprachen Zipserisch und zwar Gründlerisch, wie es in der Unterzips gesprochen wurde. Dabei wurde im Anlaut wie ausgesprochen: Werke – berka, weh – be, Schwester – schbesta. Anlautendes wurde zu : Brot – prot, Brücke – prik."
4. Willi Kosiul, Die Bukowina und ihre Buchenlanddeutschen, 2012, ISBN 3942867095, volume 2
5. Anton-Joseph Ilk, Zipser Volksgut aus dem Wassertal (1990): "Die Tatsache, daß es sich bei den Deutschen in Oberwischau – heute, wie gesagt, allgemein Zipser genannt – um eine Bevölkerungsgruppe handelt, die aus der Verschmelzung verschiedener Einwandererwellen hervorgegangen ist, widerspiegelt sich auch in der Mundart. Beim Wischauer Deutsch, dem 'Zipserischen', handelt es sich eigentlich um einen interessanten Apsekt von Sprachfusion: Der altzipserische Gründler Dialekt wurde in einer Zeitspanne von etwa hundert Jahren durch die Mundart der Oberösterreicher, so sogenannten 'Teitschn', beinahe ganz verdrängt; die Oberösterreicher, hingegen wurden als Volksgruppe von den Zipser Einwanderern – hauptsächlich durch Heirat – 'assimiliert'. Ihre Mundart setzte sich jedoch durch und entwickelte sich schließlich zum Idiom der Wischaudeutschen, der 'Zipser Sachsen'."
   "The fact that the Germans in Oberwischau – today, as noted, generally called Zipsers – are a group of people who developed out of an amalgamation of different waves of immigrants, is reflected also in their dialect. With Wischauer German, 'Zipser', one is dealing with an interesting aspect of language fusion: the Old Zipser Gründler dialect was over the course of a hundred years almost completely replaced by the dialect of the Upper Austrians, the so-called 'Germans'; the Upper Austrians however were 'assimilated' by the Zipser migrants, primarily through marriage. Their dialect established itself however, and developed ultimately to the idiom of the Wischau Germans, the 'Zipser Saxons'."
6. Flucht und Vertreibung: 50 Jahre danach (Johannes-Künzig-Institut für Ostdeutsche Volkskunde, 1996): Herr F. aus Oberwischau im Sathmarer Gebiet, wo das ursprüngliche Altzipserische zur Jahrhundertwende durch eine bairische Mundart der Einwanderer aus Böhmen, Gmunden und Bad Ischl umgeformt worden war, ...
7. Somewhat confusingly, literature on the language also uses "Altzipserisch" in two other ways: to refer to the dialect of the Upper Zips as contrasted with "Gründlerisch", and to refer to the original Central German (Gründlerisch) dialect of the speakers who migrated to Romania, as contrasted with the Upper-Austrian-influenced dialect they now speak. For example, Claus Stephani in Zipser Mära und Kasska (1989) writes that the later settlers "sprachen Oberösterreichisch, die anderen eine Gründler Mundart: Altzipserisch" (spoke Upper Austrian, the others a Gründler dialect: Old Zipserish).
8. Oskar Hadbawnik, Die Zipser in der Bukowina (1968): "Prof. Lang führt dazu aus: «Die Zipser sprechen noch gründlerisch, die Mundart der unteren Zips. Statt w sagen sie b und statt b sagen sie p. «Berka» heißt Werke, «Basa» heißt Wasser und «Perg» heißt Berg.»”

• West Germanic languages
• Languages of Slovakia
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• German dialects
• Carpathian German people