Central German

Central German
Mitteldeutsch
Geographic distribution:	Western and Central Germany, southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg and northeastern France
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Central German
Subdivisions:	West Central German East Central German
Glottolog:	None
Central German dialects   1: Ripuarian   2: Moselle Franconian   3: Luxembourgish   4: Hessian   5: Palatinate German   6: Lorraine Franconian   7: Thuringian   8: Upper Saxon   9: Erzgebirgisch   10: Lusatian-Silesian   11: Berlin-Brandenburgish

Central German (German: Mitteldeutsche Dialekte) is a group of High German dialects spoken from the Rhineland in the west to the former eastern territories of Germany.

Central German divides into two subgroups, West Central German and East Central German.

Central German is distinguished by having experienced only the first and fourth phases of the High German consonant shift. It is spoken in the linguistic transition region separated from Northern Germany (Low German/Low Franconian) by the Benrath line isogloss. It is separated from Southern Germany (Upper German) by the Speyer line.

Central German is spoken in large and influential German cities like the capital Berlin, the former West German capital Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf and the main German financial center Frankfurt.

The area corresponds to the geological region of the hilly Central Uplands that stretches from the North German plain to the South German Scarplands, covering the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Thuringia and Saxony.