Upper Saxon (German: Obersächsisch or colloquially (but incorrectly), Sächsisch) is a Central German dialect spoken in much of the modern German States of Saxony and Thuringia. The degree of accent varies from place to place within the states, with it being anywhere from a relatively mild accent in the larger cities such as Dresden or Chemnitz, to a stronger form in rural areas. In the villages of the Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) a distinct dialect ("Erzgebirgisch") is spoken.
The most notable distinguishing feature of the dialect is that the letters "o" and "u" are pronounced as centralized vowels ([ɵ] and [ʉ], which are also used in Swedish, for instance). Speakers of other German dialects that do not have these sounds tend to perceive these sounds as being "ö" [ø] and "ü" [y] respectively. For example, they hear [ʔæʉs] ‘out’ as if written "aüs" (Standard aus [ʔaʊs]) and [ˈʔɵːma] ‘grandma’ as if written "Öma" (Standard Oma [ˈʔoːma]). Front rounded vowels are pronounced as non-rounded ("ö" = [eː], "ü" = [iː]). Final -er is pronounced [ɝ], which speakers of other German dialects tend to hear as [oː]; e.g. [ˈheː(h)ɝ] ‘higher’ (Standard [ˈhøː(h)ɚ] höher) is misheard as if written..... full article at Wikipedia
