West Central German in the context of "Hessian dialects"

Ripuarian (/ˌrɪpjuˈɛəriən/ RIP-yoo-AIR-ee-ən) or Ripuarian Franconian is a German dialect group, part of the West Central German language group.Together with the Moselle Franconian which includes the Luxembourgish language, Ripuarian belongs to the larger Central Franconian dialect family and also to the linguistic continuum with the Low Franconian languages.

It is spoken in the Rhineland south of the Benrath line — from northwest of Düsseldorf and Cologne to Aachen in the west and to Waldbröl in the east.

Moselle Franconian (German: Moselfränkisch; Luxembourgish: Muselfränkesch) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish.

Central German or Middle German (German: mitteldeutsche Dialekte, mitteldeutsche Mundarten, Mitteldeutsch) is a group of High German languages 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.

Elbe Germanic, also called Irminonic or Erminonic, is a proposed subgrouping of West Germanic languages introduced by the German linguist Friedrich Maurer (1898–1984) in his book, Nordgermanen und Alemanen, to describe the West Germanic dialects ancestral to Lombardic, Alemannic, and Bavarian. During late antiquity and the Middle Ages, its supposed descendants had a profound influence on the neighboring West Central German dialects and, later, in the form of Standard German, on the German language as a whole. While most scholars accept the existence of an Elbe Germanic archaeological group, the existence of a linguistic group remains controversial.

Weser–Rhine Germanic languages (or Rhine–Weser Germanic, German: Rheinweser-germanisch), sometimes also referred to as Istvaeonic languages, are a proposed Frank-related subgroup of the West Germanic languages which would in terms of modern languages unite both West Central German dialects and Low Franconian dialects including standard Dutch.

According to original versions of this proposal, introduced by the German linguist Friedrich Maurer (1898-1984), this subgroup descends from a distinct Frankish language, while the related ancestral languages of the so called Elbe Germanic dialects to the south, and North Sea Germanic languages to the north, only subsequently became smoothly connected within the same dialect continuum. Maurer's proposals were influenced not only by linguistic evidence, but also by the Germanic archaeological provinces defined by Raphael von Uslar in 1938, which include the so called Rhine-Weser Germanic peoples, and by early Roman era reports of the Istvaeones – a group of Germanic peoples which lived near the River Rhine, and understood themselve to share a distinct common ancestry, according to their descriptions by Tacitus and Pliny the Elder.

Hunsrik (natively Hunsrik [ˈhunsɾɪk], Hunsrückisch or Hunsrickisch and Portuguese hunsriqueano or hunsriqueano riograndense), also called Riograndese Hunsrik, Riograndenser Hunsrückisch or Katharinensisch, is a Moselle Franconian language derived primarily from the Hunsrückisch dialect of West Central German which is spoken in parts of South America. A co-official language in the Brazilian municipalities of Antônio Carlos, Santa Maria do Herval, and São João do Oeste, Hunsrik is spoken in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Paraná, as well as some regions of neighboring Paraguay and Argentina. It has been an integral part of the historical and cultural heritage of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul since 2012, and considered an intangible cultural heritage of Santa Catarina state since 2016.

Hunsrik developed from the Hunsrückisch dialect spoken by immigrants from the Hunsrück region of Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland) who settled in Brazil's southern region such as Rio Grande do Sul, beginning under the Empire of Brazil in 1824. This immigration later fell under the control of individual states, and then of private European investment enterprises. While primarily based on the Hunsrückisch branch of the German language, it has also been greatly influenced by other German dialects such as East Pomeranian and Plautdietsch and by Portuguese, the national language of Brazil. It has been influenced to a lesser extent by indigenous languages such as Kaingang and Guarani and by immigrant languages such as Italian and Talian.

Central or Middle Franconian (German: mittelfränkische Dialekte, mittelfränkische Mundarten, mittelfränkische Mundart, Mittelfränkisch) refers to the following continuum of West Central German dialects:

• Ripuarian (spoken in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in eastern Belgium, and the southeastern tip of Dutch Limburg)
• Moselle Franconian (in German Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, in eastern Belgium and French Lorraine)
  • Luxembourgish (in Luxembourg and the adjacent areas of Belgium and France)

Luxembourgish is often included within Moselle Franconian, but sometimes regarded as a separate group. The German-speaking Community of Belgium comprises both Ripuarian and Moselle Franconian dialects. The Central Franconian dialects are part of a continuum stretching from the Low Franconian language area in the northwest to the Rhine Franconian dialects in the southeast.Along with Limburgish, Central Franconian has a simple tone system called pitch accent.

Rhenish Franconian or Rhine Franconian (German: Rheinfränkisch [ˈʁaɪnfʁɛnkɪʃ] ) is a dialect chain of West Central German. It comprises the varieties of German spoken across the western regions of the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, northwest Baden-Württemberg, and Hesse in Germany. It is also spoken in northeast France, in the eastern part of the département of Moselle in the Lorraine region, and in the north-west part of Bas-Rhin in Alsace. To the north, it is bounded by the Sankt Goar line (or das–dat line) which separates it from Moselle Franconian; to the south, it is bounded by the Main line which is also referred to as the Speyer line which separates it from the Upper German dialects.