Glottocode: swab1242, ISO639-3: swg

The Sathmar Swabian, “Schwǫbisch” as it is called locally, is a German dialect which kept numerous old linguistic particularities, typical for the language spoken in the 18th century in Upper Swabia, its place of origin. This variety is spoken by a German ethnic group, the Sathmar or Satu Mare Swabians (Germ. Sathmarer Schwaben), which emigrated in several waves during 1712-1815 from Upper Swabia, to the region of Sathmar (Romanian Satu Mare, formerly also Sătmar), nowadays part of Romania. Due to the process of magyarisation and assimilation, as well as the emigration, the Sathmar Swabian dialect is highly endangered nowadays. It is considered that the dialect is spoken by less than 200 people which are mostly very old. Sadly, the Sathmar Swabian dialect is not being passed down to the younger generations, the reason being that those with Swabian orginis prefer to speak mostly Hungarian and in somecases standard German (especially the families who emigrated to Germany). Not only the Sathmar Swabian dialect is endangered. There are several other material and immaterial cultural elements typical to the Sathmar Swabian traditional communities – as vernacular architecture, cuisine, songs and stories – which are virtually extinct, mostly because of the disintegration of this historical minority.

Settlements represented in our collection

VIDEO COLLECTION

PHOTO COLLECTION