Volker Gallé - "Uffs Maul gefalle - mein Weg zur rheinhessischen Mundartliteratu

Growing up with dialect on the streets, reading and school made me familiar with the standard language. There were therefore two worlds coexisting, an oral and a written linguistic world. I discovered the dialect as a language of literature for songs, poems, and cabaret after cultural excursions into Irish folk and the Iroquois autonomy movement threw me back to my own culture, linguistically and historically. And I began to write and perform in both linguistic worlds side by side. This led to the emergence of dialect literature, which not only incorporates childhood and homeland memories but also traditions of French chanson, folk music, Dadaism, modern poetry, and the mixing of languages. All of this was embedded in a nationwide movement of dialect as an expression of art, which, for example, also included the Rheinhessen dialect competition, thus encompassing the region. As a result, older dialect genres like the humorous speech at Carnival received new sociability from other contents and forms. Using my dialect story as an example, I want to narrate this development and contribute texts and songs that show what I mean.