ABSTRACT
The North Bavarian dialect is generally delimited by the isogloss of a phonetic feature known as the ‘reversed diphthongs’ (gestürzte Diph- thonge): MHG ie, wo (which generally became NHG [i:], [u:]) are represented by the reversed diphthongs [ei, ou] as in [breif], NHG Brief ‘letter’, [ghou], NHG Kuh ‘cow’ (Gütter 1971: Map 7; Harnisch 1983: 1). North Bavarian dialects, thus defined, are spoken in the following areas (see Map 38): the whole of the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz) apart from the city of Regensburg, a Central Bavarian enclave; around Wunsiedel and Selb in Upper Franconia (Oberfranken); in other regions of Upper and Lower Franconia bordering on the Upper Palatinate, especially around Treucht- lingen; in the Nuremberg region (see below); on the fringes of Upper and Lower Bavaria; in the Bavarian Forest north of Deggendorf, around Kelheim and Eichstätt, and north of Ingolstadt; in a small corner of the GDR around Bad Brambach; by the few remaining German speakers in Czechoslovakia in a broad band between Aš/Asch and Železnà Ruda/ Eisenstein, and in the linguistic enclave of Iglau/Ihlava in Bohemia.
