German in France? Yes! French is the only official language of France, but it’s certainly not the only language spoken in this prominent Western European nation. Minority Romance languages, such as Occitan, can be found all throughout the land, as well as Basque, famously the only pre-Indo–European language left in Europe. But along the border with Germany, you can also find minority Germanic languages, such as Alsatian.
With roughly 900,000 native speakers, Alsatian still boasts a sizable presence in the area it’s spoken, but unfortunately, the language is in decline, as the younger generations are increasingly shifting to just French. It’s still spoken fairly widely among older people in the region, but without conscious efforts, the language risks dying out in the future. Increasing the number of resources and access to translation services is an important way to support Alsatian—and that’s what we at TranslationServices.com are doing with our new Alsatian translation services.
All you have to do to see a free quote for our Alsatian translation services is send us a message!
Alsatian: a Germanic language in France
As savvy readers can surmise from the name, Alsatian is native to the northeastern French region of Alsace, which has switched hands between France and Germany five times in the past 500 years. Today, it lies under French control, but the German influence is prominent, both in the architecture and the Alsatian language, which has prevailed to this day. Alsatian is classified as an Alemannic German language, similar to Swiss German—in fact, Alsatians living near the Swiss border will often speak Alsatian to Swiss German speakers, as the languages demonstrate high mutual intelligibility.
Though Alsatian may sometimes be considered a German dialect, it differs significantly from Standard German in numerous ways. One notable difference is that it only has three cases, as opposed to Standard German’s four. Alsatian marks the nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), and dative (indirect object), but not the genitive (possessive). For example, in Standard German, the phrase “the language of a village” would be die Sprache eines Dorfes, whereas Alsatian speakers would say d Sproch vu eim Dorf, using the preposition vu (“from,” “of”) instead of a dedicated genitive case. Being spoken in France, Alsatian has also naturally sustained considerable French influence, which distinguishes it even more from Standard German. So, even if people call Alsatian a German dialect, it’s clear that a German translator isn’t fit for an Alsatian translation job. That’s why we’ve put together our own Alsatian translation team.
We provide Alsatian translation services for any occasion.
Our Alsatian translators are proud of their native language—and they’re proud to help people all over France, Germany, and beyond translate to and from Alsatian. Whether you’re looking to translate from English to Alsatian or from Alsatian to English, our translators have the skills and experience to assist, representing Alsatian dialects from all over Alsace. If you’re looking to work with any particular variant, feel free to request it!
We also have various specialists on our team who can assist clients with more niche translation requests, whether it’s in the realm of academic translation, business translation, literary translation, or something else. Our academic translators can translate anything from interview transcripts to educational materials to teach Alsatian kids their ancestral language, while our business translators can help companies and organizations cater to the local population through translations of press releases, ad copy, and more. For creatives, our literary translators are eager to translate works to and from Alsatian, whether you’re penning novels, poems, short stories, or digital media like games, apps, and websites. We work with any academic discipline, industry, genre, and subject matter—the sky’s the limit!
Let us translate to or from Alsatian for you! Whenever you’re ready, reach out to place your first Alsatian translation order!