Interview: Why the Bavarian dialect is more international than written German

Created: 02/21/2022, 07:40

By: Bettina Stuhlweißenburg

Teaches German and English at the Oberland-Realschule Holzkirchen: Elisabeth Schick-Billy.

The 59-year-old encourages dialect speaking.

© Thomas Plettenberg

Dialects used to be frowned upon, but today they are encouraged in schools.

The Holzkirchner secondary school teacher Elisabeth Schick-Billy (59) explains in an interview what makes a mother tongue so valuable.

Holzkirchen

– Dialects and vernaculars bear witness to cultural diversity worldwide.

On the occasion of International Mother Language Day (February 20), we spoke to Elisabeth Schick-Billy about the importance of Bavarian.

The 59-year-old teaches German and English at the Oberland-Realschule in Holzkirchen - and will soon be organizing a poetry slam in Bavarian.

Ms. Schick-Billy, what is more important in a globalized world: having a good command of your mother tongue or a foreign language?

Elisabeth Schick-Billy:

Of course everyone should be able to speak English.

Because it is essential for global understanding.

But first of all you should be confident in your mother tongue.

She is in the foreground.

If dialect is spoken in families, the dialect is the mother tongue.

Why is the mother tongue so important?

Elisabeth Schick-Billy:

Because these are the first sounds that a child hears from its mother or father - even as an unborn child.

Language is not just language.

Language means the culture in which we live and grow up.

Anyone who feels comfortable and confident in their mother tongue knows who they are.

Based on this self-image, one can learn foreign languages ​​and appreciate other ways of thinking.

If we love our mother tongue and everything that goes with it - music, literature, theater - we can also love other languages ​​and open ourselves to other cultures.

And ultimately learn from each other.

In the 1980s and 1990s, speaking Bavarian was frowned upon in secondary schools.

"High German, please!" was the teacher's request.

Does it make sense to drive students out of dialect?

Elisabeth Schick-Billy:

No, on the contrary.

This is extremely unfortunate and harmful.

We rob the children of an important part of their identity.

Unfortunately, this is still done today, so we teachers have to take a good look at ourselves.

Although there are programs from the Ministry of Education that focus on the dialect.

Actually, one should respond to such a request: "I speak High German!" Because Bavarian is High German.

I beg your pardon?

Elisabeth Schick-Billy:

High German was originally a collective term for the dialects of mountainous Central and Southern Germany, including Old Bavaria.

In contrast to Low German, the dialects of northern Germany.

It was not until Martin Luther translated the Bible that the meaning of the term High German changed: it now meant the written language.

And because only the educated could read and afford a Bible, High German was used to differentiate it from the common people, from the dialect speakers.

You have organized poetry slams in Bavarian at the Fools Theater in the past...

Elisabeth Schick-Billy:

Yes, and this year I will organize one again.

Probably in May or June.

The students present the texts they have written themselves.

They usually react very surprised that I explicitly ask them to do it in Bavarian.

But then they feel: I have something that others no longer have.

With the way I speak, I'm on stage.

That gives them a lot of self-confidence.

It is also surprising to be asked to speak Bavarian by the English teacher.

Elisabeth Schick-Billy:

English and Bavarian have many similarities: My aunt, who comes from the Upper Palatinate, often said to me: "Bi staad!", meaning "sei still!" And "sei" means "be" in English.

The word "always" is translated into English as "always", the Bavarians say "oiwei".

That sounds very similar (laughs).

"Feuer" means "celebration" in Bavarian and "fire" in English.

If my students don't know what "Mice" means in English, I ask them: "What are the names of mice in Bavarian?" They are called "Meis" and in English "mice".

There are other great things that the Munich linguist and dialectologist Anthony Rowley, for example, is researching.

Why can't you hear any dialect?

Elisabeth Schick-Billy:

I was born in Nuremberg, my mother comes from Coburg, my father from the Upper Palatinate.

They then settled in Middle Franconia.

My mother always said that Middle Franconian was very foreign to her.

That's probably why I didn't appropriate it.

I think that's a shame.

But there is one exception: If something happens to me, I call out "Almecht!" (laughs).