Swabia

Swabia is a cultural, historical and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of the German stem duchies, representing the historic settlement area of the Germanic tribe alliances named Alemanni and Suebi. This territory would include all of the Alemannic German area, but the modern concept of Swabia is more restricted, due to the collapse of the duchy of Swabia in the thirteenth century. Swabia as understood in modern ethnography roughly coincides with the Swabian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire as it stood during the early modern period, now divided between the states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Swabians (Schwaben, singular Schwabe) are the natives of Swabia and speakers of Swabian German. Their number was estimated at close to 800,000 by SIL Ethnologue as of 2006, out of a total population of 7.5 million in the regions of Tübingen, Stuttgart and Bavarian Swabia.