ABSTRACT
The area which is delineated by those four linguistic borders does not correspond, however, with the area politically designated the 'Pfalz' (Palatinate). The linguistic area is bigger and includes, for example, an area to the east of the Rhine and also an area to the west of the western political border of the Pfalz (see Map 23). The area known traditionally as the Pfalz is the former Bavarian Kreis Pfalz of 1919 which bordered France in the south and the Rhine to the east. In 1925 the Kreise of Homburg and St Ingbert became part of the Saarland and nowadays the Pfalz is part of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz formed in 1949. Local dialect research, however, has most often taken the political area of 1919 to give the Pfalz its identity and it is to that area which the term 'Pfalz' will refer in this chapter. For a discussion of the apparent paradox that 'das Pfalzische ein Teil des Pfalzischen ist' see Christmann (1930: 97-113).
