New approaches to describing phonological change
-
Christian Schwarz
Abstract
In most of the German-speaking area the constellation of dialect and standard repertoires has changed from diglossic to diaglossic – a process that involves the disappearance of rural dialects and the transition towards the use of regional variants of the standard language. The description of dialect change on a larger quantitative and geographical scale has rarely been a subject of research in German dialectology. Our paper will introduce an innovative method of describing phonological change in the Alemannic dialects of Southwest Germany in which a twofold approach of real time analysis combined with apparent time analysis is the main characteristic. Our paper will present results for the phonological change of Middle High German î. We will argue that innovative dialect areas (intensive change) can be separated from conservative areas (relic areas) and that phonological dialect change in some areas is induced by contact with dialects rather than by regional standard language.
Abstract
In most of the German-speaking area the constellation of dialect and standard repertoires has changed from diglossic to diaglossic – a process that involves the disappearance of rural dialects and the transition towards the use of regional variants of the standard language. The description of dialect change on a larger quantitative and geographical scale has rarely been a subject of research in German dialectology. Our paper will introduce an innovative method of describing phonological change in the Alemannic dialects of Southwest Germany in which a twofold approach of real time analysis combined with apparent time analysis is the main characteristic. Our paper will present results for the phonological change of Middle High German î. We will argue that innovative dialect areas (intensive change) can be separated from conservative areas (relic areas) and that phonological dialect change in some areas is induced by contact with dialects rather than by regional standard language.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Clefts in Cypriot Greek 13
- Lexical change, discourse practices and the French press 27
- Arbitrary subjects of infinitival clauses in European and Brazilian Portuguese 47
- Modal verbs in long verb clusters 59
- Changing pronominal gender in Dutch 71
- Meaning variation and change in Greek morphology 81
- Syntactic variation in German-English code-mixing 91
- Sources of phonological variation in a large database for Dutch dialects 103
- Broad vs. localistic dialectology, standard vs. dialect 119
- Intonational variation in Swiss German 135
- Morphological reduction in Aromanian 145
- Greek dialect variation 157
- Using electronic corpora to study language variation 169
- Language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation 179
- Salience and resilience in a set of Tyneside English shibboleths 191
- New approaches to describing phonological change 205
- Variation and grammaticisation 215
- Towards establishing the matrix language in Russian-Estonian code-switching 225
- Index 241
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Clefts in Cypriot Greek 13
- Lexical change, discourse practices and the French press 27
- Arbitrary subjects of infinitival clauses in European and Brazilian Portuguese 47
- Modal verbs in long verb clusters 59
- Changing pronominal gender in Dutch 71
- Meaning variation and change in Greek morphology 81
- Syntactic variation in German-English code-mixing 91
- Sources of phonological variation in a large database for Dutch dialects 103
- Broad vs. localistic dialectology, standard vs. dialect 119
- Intonational variation in Swiss German 135
- Morphological reduction in Aromanian 145
- Greek dialect variation 157
- Using electronic corpora to study language variation 169
- Language attitudes and folk perceptions towards linguistic variation 179
- Salience and resilience in a set of Tyneside English shibboleths 191
- New approaches to describing phonological change 205
- Variation and grammaticisation 215
- Towards establishing the matrix language in Russian-Estonian code-switching 225
- Index 241
