Bönnsch dialect
Bönnsch is a Ripuarian dialect of German, which is spoken in Bonn and the bordering municipalities. Bönnsch is very similar to the more northern Kölsch of Cologne and distinct from the latter only in particular points. One can find a main difference and some other features, which however do not occur among all speakers or are being levelled more and more due to the influence of Standard German and also Kölsch itself (which is more present in culture and broadcasting). In private life (family, friends, clubs, local pubs etc.), the dialect is still used relatively frequently in the  region. However, it has almost vanished as a vernacular in public places. Almost all speakers of Bönnsch use an adapted kind of Standard German when talking to people who do not belong to their private circle of acquaintances (see Rhinelandic regiolect). Characteristical "monophthongization". The main characteristic of Bönnsch in comparison to Kölsch is the absence of word-internal original diphthongs. Ancient Germanic "au" and "ai" are realized and in Kölsch (similar to the vowels in English "gold" and "take"). In Bönnsch, they merge with the long vowels and . Note that these monophthongs do not occur word-finally. Thus both Bönnsch  and Kölsch use "zwei" ("two") and "Dau" ("push"). In Standard German, ancient Germanic "au" und "ai" have been preserverd. However, Standard German later merged Germanic "ū" and "ī" with these diphthongs, which occurred neither in Bönnsch nor Kölsch. Therefore, some Standard German rhyming cuplets do not exist in the Ripuarian dialects. For example, standard "heiß" ~ "weiß" vs. Bönnsch "heeß" ~ "wieß" (English "hot" and "white"); standard "kaufen" ~ "saufen" vs. Bönnsch "koofe" ~ "suffe" (English "buy" and "drink"). Contrariwise, Kölsch often contracts the combinations "ir" and "ur" into and . In this case, Bönnsch preserves two diphthongs which emerged through  vocalization of "r". Thus one says "Vierdel" instead of Kölsch ("quarter") and "hä wurd" instead of Kölsch ("he became"). Other features. Some Bönnsch speakers do not distinguish the grammatical endings "-e" and "-er" and pronounce both of them (as in English "antenna"). This peculiarity is declining in actual usage, but is still well known as a typical feature of Bönnsch. As many Rhinelandic language varieties, when compare to Standard German, Bönnsch phonetically distinguishes much less between the phonemes and . Contrary to Kölsch, both appear like in Bönnsch, at least to non-Bönnsch listeners. Whether or not there are still two  different phonemes in Bönnsch, which are distinguished at least by natives, is an open question. The auxiliary verb "sinn" ("to be") traditionally uses the infinitive form for the 1st person singular of the present tense, thus: "ich sinn" for "I am". Kölsch uses "ich ben", which is closer to Standard German ("bin") and therefore has become quite common in Bonn as well. For historical reasons, the Bönnsch vocabulary has a rural imprint and has preserved some Middle High German words, which have long died out in the urban Kölsch. Moreover, the Bönnsch pronunciation is thought to be softer and its  intonation is considered to be (even) more rhythmic than that of Kölsch. However, such characteristics are difficult to measure and may vary greatly among speakers. Finally, there are different forms for individual words, e.g. Bönnsch "att" instead of Kölsch "allt" ("already"), "donn" instead of "dunn" ("to do"), "ühr doot" instead of "ehr deit" ("you [all] do"), "du siss" instead of "do sühs" ("thou seest"). Examples. In German studies, the German dialects are characterized and compared to each other by means of the so-called "Wenker sentences". The first three of these forty sentences are rendered in Bönnsch as follows. Bönnsch