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Quite recently I have noticed that most Bavarian verbs can become theoretical epistemic modal. What I mean by that is that you can take any verb, e.g. "[i] ko" - "[I] can", and turn it into it's theoretical form "[i] kand" - "[I] could". The special thing about Bavarian though is that you can make it even more theoretical and turn it into "[i] kandad" which could be translated to "[I] could (in theory)". Another example is "[i] muas" - "[I] must/need to" turning to "[i] miassd" - "[I] would need to" and finally "[i] miassad" - "[I] would need to (in theory)".

Are there other languages that have this "two tier system"? I'm especially interested in other Germanic languages.

I am sorry if I misused any technical term. I just got into studying them, so if they are misused, please tell so I can fix it.

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  • Concerning misuse of technical terms: Insisting on Bavarian being a Germanic language in every second post becomes a little annyoing after a while ;)
    – Natalie Clarius
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 22:26
  • Do you have evidence that speaks against it? If so, please show me, UNESCO (who declared Bavarian as endangered language) and while you are at it, change the English Wikipedia article, which also talks about it as language. At most you can argue that it is a group of dialects, but it is definitely NOT a dialect of standard German.
    – Matthias Schreiber
    Commented Jun 11, 2016 at 10:21
  • Yes. I rely on the, as far as I got to know it in my linguistics course of studies, most widely accepted definition that speakers of different dialects can understand each other, while speakers of different languages cannot (although those definitions are of course always highly vague, especially when there are dialect continuums). Clearly, speakers of High German or other German dialects can understand Bavarian speakers and vice versa. If it were a different language, mutual communication between Standard German and Bavarian would have to be about as difficult as mutual communication...
    – Natalie Clarius
    Commented Jun 11, 2016 at 11:06
  • ... between Standard German and, e.g. Dutch, which could as well be seen as a German dialect but is rather classified as a language due to the distinction I mentioned above.
    – Natalie Clarius
    Commented Jun 11, 2016 at 11:07
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    I have no problem in calling Bavarian a "language", but I have difficulties in understanding what "theoretical epistemic modality" should mean applied to modal verbs. Trying to use the terminology of logic for linguistic phenomena is futile (at least) because linguistic phenomena live in another category. Having said this, you can find some interesting information on Germanic modal verbs here: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A4teritopr%C3%A4sens
    – Sir Cornflakes
    Commented Jun 13, 2016 at 9:15

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