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Brandenburg's dialects in transition: An archive of forgotten words!
The Brandenburg-Berlin Language Archive at the University of Potsdam digitizes dialect materials, documents language change and looks for speakers.
Brandenburg's dialects in transition: An archive of forgotten words!
On May 8, 2025, the significance of the Brandenburg dialect today will be highlighted. The dialect that has been spoken by people in Brandenburg for generations has changed significantly in rural areas. Many words and phrases have been forgotten, which particularly underlines the value of preserving and documenting this form of language. A crucial project dedicated to this challenge is the Brandenburg-Berlin Language Archive (BBSA) at the University of Potsdam.
From 2016 to 2022, a comprehensive digitization project was carried out under the leadership of Ulrike Demske. 22,153 questionnaires were digitized, which were filled out by more than 2,000 dialect speakers between 1950 and 1970. These questionnaires lay in containers and cupboards at the Institute for German Studies for decades until they were rediscovered and processed. One of those interviewed was August Höhne, born in 1889, who exemplifies the linguistic diversity of this region.
The role of the Brandenburg-Berlin language archive
The BBSA aims to document colloquial words, idioms and counting rhymes. The recordings date from the middle of the 20th century and show lexical and syntactic peculiarities of the Brandenburg dialects. These results are accessible to location-based queries in the archive. The archive also contains audio recordings of dialect speakers, which bring the diversity and sound of the old dialects to life.
However, an important aspect of dialect research is the constant change in language. The influence of the standard language and especially Berlinish has led to the leveling of many dialectal forms of expression. The change is also noticeable in the change in pronouns and their meanings. However, the variety of dialects in Brandenburg is still impressive, characterized by Slavic, Low German and French influences.
Current research projects and inquiries
By digitizing the materials, the University of Potsdam has laid the foundation for further research. Researchers and students like Luise Czajkowski continually search for current speakers of the dialects in order to collect new data and document the language's ongoing change. The information resources are crucial for future dialect research and thus encourage a lively social discussion about language and identity.
The use of the online archive is supported by a help page that provides instructions. If there are difficulties, users can contact the archive team via the email address bbsa@uni-potsdam.de to provide suggestions or tips on how to improve usage.
For further information on the topic of dialect research and its tasks, readers are invited to visit the pages of dialektforschung.phil.fau.de to visit.