Perceptual salience and analogical change: evidence from vowel lengthening in modern Swiss German dialects

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Relation ◽  
Short Vowel ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
Perceptual Salience ◽  
German Dialects ◽  
Morphological Theory ◽  
Vowel Lengthening

In the light of current morphological theory, this paper examines the analogical levelling of long/short vowel oppositions in certain inflectional and derivational alternations in a number of modern Swiss German dialects. The regular occurrence of levelling is shown to depend on the extent to which the alternation in question is ‘perceptually salient’ (Chapman 1994). That is, if the semantic relation between base and derivative is transparent and the derivative is uniformly marked, analogical levelling occurs regularly. On the basis of this evidence it is argued that all morphological alternations, both inflectional and derivational, are listed in the lexicon and that each one is assigned a different status according to its degree of perceptual salience.

Analyzing rhythmic convergence between two Swiss German dialects

2019 ◽  
Vol 145 (3) ◽  
pp. 1929-1929
Author(s):  
Elisa Pellegrino ◽  
Volker Dellwo
Keyword(s):  
Swiss German ◽  
German Dialects

scholarly journals Sprachgebrauch und Spracheinstellungen in der Deutschschweiz. Pfarrpersonen als sprachbewusste Sprecherinnen und Sprecher im Fokus

2017 ◽  
Vol 85 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Oberholzer
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
German Dialects ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Real Language ◽  
High Degree

The relation between Swiss German dialects and Standard German has been subject to public and scholarly debates for over 100 years. Among the most frequently discussed points are the appropriateness of spoken Standard German in different contexts and the attitudes of Swiss people towards the two varieties. This paper summarises the results of a completed research project (Oberholzer in Vorb.), which surveyed language use and language attitudes in Swit-zerland for a specific group of speakers: pastors and priests working in German-speaking Switzerland. The paper shows how pastors and priests make use of the diglossic situation and the possibility to code-switch in Sunday services. The use of Standard German emerges as an important communicative resource in German-speaking Switzerland. In addition, real language use and intended language use match to a high degree; this shows the degree of language awareness of this particular group in a diglossic situation. Furthermore, a relatively new approach – the assumption that several mental models of High German coexist – helps to show differentiated language attitudes and to contradict some of the most common stereotypes regarding Standard German in German-speaking Switzerland. The attitudes towards Standard German in this study are significantly more positive than those observed in previous studies.

scholarly journals Der s-Plural im Alemannischen.

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 31-49
Author(s):  
Andreas Klein ◽  
Kristin Kopf
Keyword(s):  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Native Structure ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
German Dialects ◽  
The Difference

It is commonly agreed that the plural -s has become a part of Standard German inflection, yet in dialects such as Alemannic it is often seen as an intruder. We challenge this view based on data from a written survey amongst speakers of Swiss German dialects. Our analysis of pluralised loanwords (e. g. Mango) and abbreviations (e. g. WG ‘flat share’) shows a strong effect of both speakers’ age and grammatical gender that points towards a progressive integration of the plural -s into the dialectal system. While masculine and neuter nouns can express number syntagmatically (using articles that differ in singular and plural), feminine nouns rely heavily on suffixes (as the definite article is d’ in both cases). A comparison of the -s plural with traditional dialectal plurals shows clear advantages for -s plurals in both cue strength (output) and scope (input) of the plural schema. We argue that it is due to this that feminine nouns show a significantly higher percentage of -s plurals compared with masculine and neuter nouns in speakers aged 25 and above. The difference disappears for younger speakers while the overall number of -s plurals increases drastically. Combined, we have an apparent time scenario that shows how the -s plural is first borrowed with nouns that rely on overt plural markers, and later spreads to most loans and other words with non-native structure.

scholarly journals Tüen Sie au gern apéröle, käffele oder kungfule?

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (5) ◽  
pp. 99-136
Author(s):  
Karin Madlener ◽  
Mirjam Weder ◽  
Sophie Dettwiler
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Morphological Pattern ◽  
Pilot Survey ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
German Dialects ◽  
Different Types

How can we measure dialectal constructional productivity? Which factors determine degrees of productivity and the acceptability of creative ad hoc coinages in the domain of derivational processes? Based on data from a pilot survey (n=80), we discuss a range of factors influencing degrees of productivity/creativity for the denominal -(e)le-verb pattern (e. g., käffele, apéröle, ipödle, kungfule) in Swiss German dialects. This morphological pattern is currently highly productive, as indicated by substantial numbers of creative ad hoc coinages (oral and written evidence) as well as our participants’ acceptability judgements (for both isolated verbs and verbs in sentences) and their elicited productions (meaning paraphrases and sentence contexts for ad hoc coinages). We discuss different types of evidence for constructional productivity, based on quantitative and qualitative data. Our data indicates that schema-based frequency/familiarity effects and analogy-based pattern extension contribute to the pattern’s productivity. The fact that the verbs’ constructional contexts partly influence their acceptability indicates that the derivational pattern stretches beyond the traditional domain of morphology such that morphological, semantic, and syntactic patterns jointly determine degrees of constructional productivity.

scholarly journals Annali, Ruedi, Mami.

2021 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-208
Author(s):  
Helen Christen ◽  
Gerda Baumgartner
Keyword(s):  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
German Dialects

Data of the dialect research project “Das Anna und ihr Hund. Weibliche Rufnamen im Neutrum” indicate the important role of diminutive names in terms of the historical develop-ment and consolidation of the onymic neuter gender assignment. The focus in the present arti-cle lies therefore on the forms and the use of diminutive names (e. g. Anneli, Ruedi) in Swiss-German dialects. Based on diachronic evidence from literary works and regional dictionaries, differences in the diminution of male and female names are historically traced and substantiated. It is for prag-matic reasons that female kinship names (e. g. Mami) are crystallized to be the last bastion for the neutral gender assignment which opens up new perspectives on the diachronic emergence of this phenomenon. The consideration of further onymic suffixes in the outlook brings up a debate on the disagreement of gender and sex which is considered to be a possible objective of the suf-fixation itself.

scholarly journals Reduction of Survey Sites in Dialectology: A New Methodology Based on Clustering

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Péter Jeszenszky ◽  
Carina Steiner ◽  
Adrian Leemann
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Reduction Process ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
German Dialects ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Traditional Approaches

Many language change studies aim for a partial revisitation, i.e., selecting survey sites from previous dialect studies. The central issue of survey site reduction, however, has often been addressed only qualitatively. Cluster analysis offers an innovative means of identifying the most representative survey sites among a set of original survey sites. In this paper, we present a general methodology for finding representative sites for an intended study, potentially applicable to any collection of data about dialects or linguistic variation. We elaborate the quantitative steps of the proposed methodology in the context of the “Linguistic Atlas of Japan” (LAJ). Next, we demonstrate the full application of the methodology on the “Linguistic Atlas of German-speaking Switzerland” (Germ.: “Sprachatlas der Deutschen Schweiz”—SDS), with the explicit aim of selecting survey sites corresponding to the aims of the current project “Swiss German Dialects Across Time and Space” (SDATS), which revisits SDS 70 years later. We find that depending on the circumstances and requirements of a study, the proposed methodology, introducing cluster analysis into the survey site reduction process, allows for a greater objectivity in comparison to traditional approaches. We suggest, however, that the suitability of any set of candidate survey sites resulting from the proposed methodology be rigorously revised by experts due to potential incongruences, such as the overlap of objectives and variables across the original and intended studies and ongoing dialect change.

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