In this paper, first results of a real-time study on the regularities of dialect change and dialect attrition in an Austrian village (Ulrichsberg) between 1977 and 2017 will be presented. So far, no sociolinguistic study in... [ view full abstract ]
In this paper, first results of a real-time study on the regularities of dialect change and dialect attrition in an Austrian village (Ulrichsberg) between 1977 and 2017 will be presented. So far, no sociolinguistic study in Austria was able to focus on the structural heterogeneity of dialects in the long run and take the whole range of the dialect spectrum into consideration. The focus of this data-based study is to analyse the relationship between linguistic and sociolinguistic factors within the processes of both dialect change and dialect attrition.
Based on ‘apparent time’ data of the linguistic behavior in Ulrichsberg from 1977, Scheutz (1985) documented different stages of Middle-Bavarian dialect change and dialect attrition depending on linguistic conditions (e.g., different types of phonological processes and phonological contexts) and extra-linguistic factors (different levels of education and use of the Standard Language in everyday conversation; age differences of the respective informants). The acoustic recordings showed significant results. An underlying ordering of the apparent linguistic variability and heterogeneity in terms of an inter-individual implicational scale could be identified.
40 years later, in an on-going project on the variation and change of dialect varieties in Austria (German in Austria 2017), we started a new series of acoustic recordings of both formal interviews and informal talks of the current speech-community of Ulrichsberg. Some of the youngest informants of our first recording series could be recorded again.
We will present a real time comparison of various phonological (e.g., vocalisation of syllable-final l, dialectal developments of MHG , , ) and morphological features (e.g., plural formation of the verb) and will show how dialect levelling correlates with various linguistic and sociolinguistic factors. The comparison of the results from 1977 and 2017 will offer important insights into the respective characteristics of ongoing dialect change and dialect attrition in Austria.
References
German in Austria. 2017. https://dioe.at/en/
Hannes Scheutz. 1985. Strukturen der Lautveränderung. Variationslinguistische Studien zur Theorie und Empirie sprachlicher Wandlungsprozesse. Wien.
Hannes Scheutz. Umgangssprache als Ergebnis von Konvergenz- und Divergenzprozessen zwischen Dialekt und Standardsprache. In: Thomas Stehl (ed.) (1999): Dialektgenerationen, Dialektfunktionen, Sprachwandel. Tübingen, 103-132.
