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Equal status, but unequal perceptions: language conflict in the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne

  • Daniel Elmiger EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 1, 2015

Abstract

The city of Biel/Bienne is often cited as a model of a non-conflicting cohabitation between two language groups with a similar status: German (i.e. in a diglossic situation: Standard German and Swiss German dialects) and French both benefit from explicit political promotion and legal protection. In a qualitative study conducted in the city of Biel/Bienne, most of the 40 interviewees talking about their lives in this bilingual city confirm this consensual view of linguistic cohabitation. However, the apparent balance between both communities is challenged on different levels, including the relationship between language communities according to their respective minority and majority status, the status and the visibility of both languages in the public sphere, the conflicting loyalties of bilingual citizens, the use or avoidance of a language in certain contexts or the choice of a common language in (potentially) bilingual interactions. The results of the analysis reveal divergent – and potentially conflicting – perceptions regarding urban bilingualism: although most of the interviewees appreciate the linguistic cohabitation in Biel/Bienne, many of them refer to various zones of language conflict which they suffer from or which they allot to the other speech community.

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Sarah-Jane Conrad for her valuable comments on a first draft of this text and Holli Schauber for her corrections and comments.

Appendix

Transcription conventions

In the transcriptions, we use a simplified version of the GAT-protocol (Selting et al. 1998):

[ ]

overlapping speech

(.) (-) (--) (---)

short pauses

=

uninterrupted speech

(...)

omission

<< >>

indications about diction etc.

: :: :::

elongated speech

(1 sec.)

longer pauses (in seconds)

(xxx)

incomprehensible segment

( )

supposed segment

(( ))

paralinguistic and non-linguistic behaviour

CAPITAL LETTERS

stressed pronunciation

Speakers: If, Im (female, male informant); Mf, Mm (female, male project collaborator).

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Published Online: 2015-8-1
Published in Print: 2015-9-1

©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton

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