Atlas of German Dialects in the Czech Republic

The project "Atlas of the historical German dialects in the Czech Republic (ADT)" constitutes an international joint project of scientists and universities in the Czech Republic, in Germany, and in Austria. The immediate aims of the project are: - Research in and documentation of the German dialects in Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia by means of a direct linguistic survey with members of the German language minority, i.e. speakers of German that have not been exiled in 1945/46, and their family members - as far as these are still speakers of the German dialects - Research in Czech influence in and interference with the German dialects, and - by this way - linguistic documentation of almost a millenium of mainly peaceful co-existence of Germans and Czechs - Publication of a linguistic atlas consisting of eight volumes. Of these, two volumes (on morphology and syntax) are to be prepared by the Austrian project. As an indirect object of the project we see the improvement of scientific relations and human relations in general between speakers of German and Czech in the centre of Europe. We are convinced that unprejudiced research in the German part of the (linguistic) history of the Bohemian lands constitutes an important contribution to the process of tearing down still existing walls of hostility and prejudice, connecting a common past with a common future.

Until 1945 the territory of the present Czech Republic was a region of intensive language contact between speakers of German and Czech.A baseline study of German vernacular in the Bohemian provinces was not attempted for a long time.What seemed impossible between the years 1945 and 1989 because of the political situation has been achieved in the course of this project and related projects after the political turn of events in Europe.It became evident that the number of remaining German native speakers in the Czech Republic was sufficient to carry out a linguistic study of this extent.The project Atlas der historischen deutschen Mundarten auf dem Gebiet der Tschechischen Republik (ADT) / Atlas of the historical German dialects in the territory of the Czech Republik brings together scholars, universities and research funding from the Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria. It has been the main object of this project to document and describe the German dialects in the Czech Republic in a linguistic atlas as long as the last remaining speakers are still able to contribute.To this day seven volumes of the ADT-project have been realized. The fifth volume on morphology and syntax was completed in the context of this project.The language of the remaining German native speakers is to a great extent conservative if not archaic, mostly without any development after the year 1945.It is to be expected that the German dialects in the Czech Republic will vanish within the following years.