Vanishing Languages

On the 'language tree' we have High German (old, middle, new) with the 'branches' Franconian, Swabian...

(frngk´n) (KEY) , Ger. Franken, historic region and one of the five basic or stem duchies of medieval Germany, S Germany. The region was included in the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia, becoming in the 9th cent. a duchy and the center of the East Frankish (or East German) kingdom. It stretched from the western bank of the Rhine eastward along both banks of the Main and included the cities of Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Frankfurt, Würzburg, and Fulda. The name of the duchy survives in three administrative districts of Bavaria.
Lower Franconia, Ger. Unterfranken, 3,277 sq mi (8,487 sq km), is a hilly region in NW Bavaria, famous for the forested Spessart hills. It is traversed by the Main River. Agriculture is widely pursued, and industry is centered at Würzburg (the region's capital), Schweinfurt, and Aschaffenburg. Bad Kissingen is a noted resort.
Middle Franconia, Ger. Mittelfranken, 2,941 sq mi (7,617 sq km), in N central Bavaria, is a hilly, fertile region located in the Franconian Jura Mts. It is drained by the Altmühl, Rednitz, and Pegnitz rivers. Ansbach is the capital; Nürnberg, Fürth, and Erlangen are important industrial and cultural centers.
Upper Franconia, Ger. Oberfranken, 2,896 sq mi (7,501 sq km), in NE Bavaria, is a hilly, forested region, drained by the Main and Pegnitz rivers. It includes the Frankenwald and the Fichtelgebirge near the Czech border. Bayreuth, the capital, and Bamberg, Coburg, and Hof are the chief cities and industrial centers.

Schwabia is an old name for the land, people and culture of most southwestern Germany. Schwabia was bordered by the French on the west, the Alps on the south, the Bavarian Highland on the east and Frankish Germans on the north (refer to map.) Schwabia was once under the rule of a variety of medieval kings. The strongest Kingdon emerged as Wurrtenburg, a kingdom
that existed until 1871 when it was incorporated into the United German Reich.
Schwabia or Wurrtemburg is a hilly and forested area with valleys of vineyards, Orchards and wheat fields. The fabled Black Forest boarders its western edge. The Schwabish-Worrtemburgers, are known for their thrift and craftsmanship. It is a heavily populated province with the well-known cities of Stuttgart and Ulm.

Ferhoodled (crazy, mixed up) English is spoken in the Pennsylvania Dutch country, which is often referred to as 'Amish land'. Pennsylvanian Dutch (as the dialect is known) "has nothing to do with Holland, being a corruption of Americanization of Deutch, German" (Hendrickson, p.160). It is an interesting dialect because it goes to extremities trying to fit English words into the word order and syntactical constructions of German. Hendrickson voices the opinion of one local expert: "A combination of broken-English, bad grammar, and grotesque construction accounts for most humor in their speech" (Hendrickson, p.160). http://www.uta.fi/FAST/US1/LP/amk-form.html

There is often considerable difficulty in deciding whether two linguistic varieties are dialects of the same language or two separate but closely related languages; this is especially true of dialects of primitive societies, in which the difference is essentially one of degree. Many decisions regarding dialects versus languages must be arbitrary.

Normally, dialects of the same language are considered to be mutually intelligible, while different languages are not. Intelligibility between dialects is, however, almost never absolutely complete; on the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can still communicate to a certain extent when each uses his own mother tongue. Thus, the criterion of intelligibility is quite relative. In more developed societies, the distinction between dialects and related languages is easier to make because of the existence of standard languages and, in some cases, national consciousness. from: britannica.com

There is often considerable difficulty in deciding whether two linguistic varieties are dialects of the same language or two separate but closely related languages; this is especially true of dialects of primitive societies, in which the difference is essentially one of degree. Many decisions regarding dialects versus languages must be arbitrary.

Normally, dialects of the same language are considered to be mutually intelligible, while different languages are not. Intelligibility between dialects is, however, almost never absolutely complete; on the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can still communicate to a certain extent when each uses his own mother tongue. Thus, the criterion of intelligibility is quite relative. In more developed societies, the distinction between dialects and related languages is easier to make because of the existence of standard languages and, in some cases, national consciousness. from: britannica.com

There is often considerable difficulty in deciding whether two linguistic varieties are dialects of the same language or two separate but closely related languages; this is especially true of dialects of primitive societies, in which the difference is essentially one of degree. Many decisions regarding dialects versus languages must be arbitrary.

Normally, dialects of the same language are considered to be mutually intelligible, while different languages are not. Intelligibility between dialects is, however, almost never absolutely complete; on the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can still communicate to a certain extent when each uses his own mother tongue. Thus, the criterion of intelligibility is quite relative. In more developed societies, the distinction between dialects and related languages is easier to make because of the existence of standard languages and, in some cases, national consciousness. from: britannica.com

I think that, as living creatures, languages born and die.

Political events over the last decade have affected how we look at Serbo-Croat. In particular, the use of the term Serbo-Croat to encompass several dialects - and hence, to act as if we are dealing with several dialects of the same language rather than several different languages - has come under fire by many, mostly those with nationalistic interests. From a linguistic point of view, the two variants (in their standard forms) are mutually intelligible, which is one of the main criteria in determining whether one is dealing with dialects or separate languages. The fact that the western variant is written in a version of the Latin alphbet while the eastern uses a version of the Cyrillic alphabet is of little linguistic - but of occasional political - interest. However, speaking for the consideration of these variants as separate languages would be the fact that there are numerous lexical differences between the variants. For example, while the eastern variant uses names of months that have cognates in most west-european languages, the western variant uses neo-slavic terms created in the 19th century: ... ...
from:Serbo-Croatian

BTW: Germany doesn't exist in it's today's forms until 1871.

Somewhere I read that Ponce de Leon's name was really pronounced Pontha because one of the Castilian kings had a speech impediment. Can't substantiate that, however.