On the spatial structure of the syntactic variable 'pronominal partitivity' in German dialects

Pronouns that can have a partitive function, such as French en and Italian ne, are well known from Romance languages and, within Germanic, from Dutch (partitive/quantitative er). However, German dialects also show a wide range of syntactic means to express partitive-anaphoric reference and a lot of interesting (micro)variation within the different systems. The Middle High German (MHG) system of partitive genitive pronouns lives on in mostly phonetically reduced enclitic forms such as (d)(ə)r(ə), s(ə)n, əs. Relic areas can be found primarily in a strip between West Central German and East Franconian, but also in the very south of the German-speaking area (High/Highest Alemannic and South Bavarian). However, the genitive system finds itself under strong pressure from several innovative strategies to refer to indeterminate partial quantities, namely the Low/Northern and Standard German indefinite pronoun we(l)k-/welch-, the Southeastern (Bavarian) ein-system and the Southwestern (Alemannic) ∅-system. Based on the work within the current research project Syntax of Hessian Dialects (SyHD), this chapter presents the first results concerning the areal and syntactic structure of pronominal partitivity. The German state of Hesse, which comprises all three major German dialect areas (Low, Central and Upper German) as core and/or transitional zones, is particularly instructive with respect to this phenomenon, because it represents one of the remaining core areas of partitive genitive pronouns and, due to its central position, it is considerably influenced by the expanding circumjacent patterns, resulting in interesting transition zones.