they could when speaking very slowly or solemnly, e.g. preaching or praying. High Franconian High Franconian is a transitional dialect group between the Rhine Franconian dialects of West Central German to the North and the Swabian dialects of Alemannic to the South. The High Franconian group divides into South Franconian and East Franconian. N-apocope can be documented in the following sentence from Standard German: Die Kinder halte-n die Äpfel fest. "The children hold on to the apples." The comparison with the above mentioned dialects demonstrates: Rhine Franconian: Die Kinner halte die Äppel fescht.South Frankonian: Die Kinner halte die Äpfel fescht.East Frankonian: Die Kinner halte die Äpfel fest. Swabian: Die Kinner haltet die Äpfel fescht. Alemannic The Eifeler Regel (Alemannic n-apocope) applies in all variants of Alemannic in the same fashion as described for Luxembourgish and is subject to the same exceptions. The earliest report on the phenomenon in Alemannic goes back to 1881. Certain Swiss German dialects also exhibit Eifeler Regel. A comparison, in Zurich German, would be: "Wötsch en Äpfe?" remains as "Wötsch en Äpfe?" ("Do you want an apple?"), but "Wötsch en Gipfel?" changes to "Wötsch e' Gipfel?" ("Do you want a croissant?"). Low Franconian Certain southern and southeastern dialects of Low Franconian (that is, Dutch) have a similar phenomenon. It is notable in Limburgish and some areas of Brabantian, and is called the "bdht-vowel-rule". Final -n is also deleted in these dialects, except when followed by b, d, h, t or a vowel, in case of a masculine noun. This is similar to the Eifeler regel. References Bibliography online: Cote LB 55442 online: https://www.webcitation.org/5n2evmQ8P?url=http://massard.info/pdf/finalen_n.pdf Central German languages Eifel Phonology