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In a recent discussion we talked about the phrase meines Wissens but I recalled a variant with a t: meinet Wissens. Is this a regionalism or what? If I google it the first dozen hits or so come up from Google Books, but here is an example from a discussion group forum:

Hey Leute,

Ich habe vor nem guten halben Jahr im tv eine vorschau von der Serie "The Walking Dead" gesehen und die sollte ja eigentlich im Deutschen Fernsehen laufen so hieß es in der vorschau aber sie kam meinet wissens noch nicht deswegen wollte ich mal fragen ob hier jemand mehr weiss z.B. wird sie noch ausgestrahlt? wenn ja wann? usw.

Anyone care to comment on the use of this expression?

EDIT: Takkat has pointed out something one of his comments that must be so obvious to all Native German speakers that they simply took it for granted: that meinetwegen is a real word but meinetwisses isn’t. Could it be that the use of meinetwissens has nothing to do with the regions where wat/dat is spoken, and simply a case of people transferring over from the correct form (meinetwegen) to a similar-sounding one that is incorrect?

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    Wahrscheinlich einfach ein Tippfehler. Der Text ist ohnehin schlampig.
    – Carsten S
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 14:52
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    Auf welcher Tastatur liegen s und t denn so, dass das ein Tippfehler sein könnte?
    – user unknown
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 19:43
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    Also einen größeren Wind um nichts habe ich selten hier gesehen. Der Typ hat einfach geschrieben wie er im Dialekt spricht, und manche machen daraus jetzt eine Wissenschaft hier... kopfschüttel
    – äüö
    Commented Jun 17, 2015 at 5:35
  • On the topic of your edit’s question: No, I think that is highly unlikely. Meinetwegen and meinethalben are usually regarded as so fixed expressions that nobody would assume any relevance to meines Wissens. Oftentimes people might use the dative case (meinem Wissen …) which doesn’t work at all for meinetwegen (meinemwegen?) indicating that most people would understand the phrase as two words.
    – Jan
    Commented Jun 17, 2015 at 15:53

3 Answers 3

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As @sollniss already mentioned, this is just a regional pronunciation of the word written literally. The tone of the text is rather informal and the author probably didn't worry too much about using standard spelling (you can tell just by looking at nem instead of einem).

However, this is not exclusive of Berlinerisch. This map shows other regions that feature the pronunciation (it is particularly popular in the so-called Ruhrgebiet):

pronunciation map

It's also worth noting that it is normally believed that the pronunciation with the /t/ is newer and came from the standard pronunciation, which is actually not true. It's completely the other way around. The /t/ sound shifted towards an /s/ sound.

Sources:

http://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/runde-1/f17a-c/

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zweite_Lautverschiebung#Phase_1

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    I don't think you can conclude that "meinet" is said where people say "wat". I am from cologne and I say "wat", but OP's sentence sounds odd to me. I can't quite think of anything off the top of my head where I would say "meinet", except for "meinetwegen".
    – Em1
    Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 15:06
  • @Em1 while it might not be common in certain words, it is certainly not exclusive of 'wat'. In the atlas page a few other words are mentioned. The last map in that page might be particularly relevant to your comment, since it doesn't seem to be used in Köln but is also definitely not exclusive of Berlin.
    – clinch
    Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 15:14
  • I would say that using the third map would have been better. But other than that, this answer is good. +1
    – Jan
    Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 16:39
  • Agree, the third one is much more relevant and indeed, I wouldn't say "neuet".
    – Em1
    Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 17:58
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    Changed the image to the more relevant map.
    – clinch
    Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 18:06
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Meinet is the berlinerisch version of meines.

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    Willkommen auf German Language und vielen Dank für deinen Beitrag. Vielleicht kannst du deine Antwort noch ein wenig ausbauen, evtl. mit Beispielen? Klicke dazu einfach auf edit. Interessant wäre z.B auch der Bezug zu meinetwegen, meinetwillen (nur so als Idee).
    – Takkat
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 13:32
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    @Takkat: Ich finde die Idee jede Antwort zu einem Aufsatz auszubauen furchtbar. Statt die Essenz dessen, was gesagt werden soll, maximal zu verdichten wird verdünnt und gelabert bis zum dorthinaus.
    – user unknown
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 19:45
  • @userunknown: die Antwort hatte schon 2 delete votes aus der First-Post-Review (das ist also nicht meine Idee!). Wenn alle deine Meinung teilten, dann müssten wir dies nicht jedesmal auf Neue diskutieren.
    – Takkat
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 20:05
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    I don't know why anyone would ask a question if he only wanted the simplest most literal answer. I come to this group because I enjoy the discussions. A correct answer is always appreciated, but the hope is always that it might lead to further unexpected areas of interest. I honestly feel a bit cheated if someone answers my question with a single line and thereby ends the discussion. (Nothing personal, @solniss)
    – Marty Green
    Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 4:43
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    I am glad to hear from you Solniss. I upvoted your answer for being the first, but gave the coveted check-mark to @clinch for his detailed and informative contribution. On the question of drama: yes, it seems like a tempest in a teapot over such a small matter. But behind it is a bigger phenomenon: there are two very different world-views at play here: one, who thinks that the "drama" detracts from the value of this forum; and another, who thinks that it contributes to the value.
    – Marty Green
    Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 17:28
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The only widely accepted spelling is "meines Wissens"

It is as early as the 16th Century when the term "meines Wissens" was used in written German documents. The earliest Google reference dates back to 1539:

enter image description here

Another spelling was never used, at least not within the limits we can search by Google (search hits for "meinet wissens" were exclusively from scanning errors of small prints or Fraktur).

Misspellings are not rare

Still, results in all newer media including poorly reviewed journals, chats, blogs, or forums reveal that "meinet Wissens" is found surprisingly often with variants such as "meinet wissens" or very often "meinetwissens" (we event found entries for "meinentwissens").

enter image description here

Origin of "meinet"

It remains speculative as to why people use this spelling. One reason may be that it was influenced by regional dialects where "meines" is pronounced "meinet".

Another rather likely reason may be that people who are not sure about the correct spelling use similar words they know such as meinetwegen. This would also explain why the occurence as a composite (which it is not) outnumbers other variants.

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  • I wonder why you find meinetwegen to be more legitimate than meinetwissens. I thought they were cut from the same cloth. Or am I missing something?
    – Marty Green
    Commented Jun 16, 2015 at 22:53
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    @MartyGreen meinetwegen is a common German word, meinetwissens never was. I believe this is the main reason for the misspelling and I could not find any reference that it is more common in or around of Berlin or the Rhineland.
    – Takkat
    Commented Jun 17, 2015 at 5:55

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