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.

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 The diffusion of /l/-vocalization in Swiss German

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Leemann ◽  
Marie-José Kolly ◽  
Iwar Werlen ◽  
David Britain ◽  
Dieter Studer-Joho
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
The North ◽  
German Dialects ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Regional Centers ◽  
Constraint Hierarchies

AbstractSeveral western Swiss German dialects roughly grouped around the nation's capital Bern show /l/ > [u] vocalization in various contexts. The spatial boundaries of /l/-vocalization in Swiss German are suspected to have been expanding since being described in theLinguistic Atlas of German-Speaking Switzerlandin the middle of the 20th century. The present study assesses the overall expansion of /l/-vocalization by means of a rapid anonymous survey in 20 urban regional centers situated just beyond the traditional boundaries of /l/-vocalization highlighted by theAtlas. Results show that the expansion of /l/-vocalization mainly progresses in southeasterly, southerly, and westerly directions, but with much less success to the north and northwest, where the equally influential dialectal areas of Basel and Zürich seem to exert opposing influences. Further analysis of the data indicates that somewhat differing constraint hierarchies are at work in the different places to which vocalization has diffused.

scholarly journals Si isch grösser weder ig! Zum Komparativanschluss im Schweizerdeutschen

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Friedli
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
The Other ◽  
Variant Selection ◽  
Small Areas ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
The Third ◽  
German Dialects ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Comparative Constructions ◽  
The One

Whereas in Standard High German (SHG) there is only one comparative particle, in Swiss German Dialects (SGD) different lexemes may fulfill the function of a comparative particle: (1) SHG: Sie ist grösser als ich SGD: Si isch grösser als / as / weder / wan / wie ig 'She is bigger than me' The present paper describes the geographical distribution of the comparative particles in the Swiss German area in contexts such as (1). Whereas in some small areas only one comparative particle is found, in the rest of the Swiss German speaking area several competing variants coexist. The data are taken from the third questionnaire of the Syntactic Atlas of Swiss German Dialects, where three different comparative constructions have been investigated. A sociolinguistic analysis of the data reveals differences in the use of the particles: On the one hand, older people tend to use only one comparative particle, whereas younger people show a higher degree of variation. Moreover, older people tend to use the particle weder, in contrast to younger people who tend to use the particle wie. On the other hand, higher educated people use more than one comparative particle, whereas less educated people tend to use one variant only. The analysis of two other constructions also shortly mentioned in the paper shows that syntactic factors have an impact on variant selection, too.

scholarly journals Also d'Susi wär e ganz e liebi Frau für de Markus! Zur Verdoppelung des indefiniten Artikels in der adverbiell erweiterten Nominalphrase im Schweizerdeutschen

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Time Analysis ◽  
Indefinite Article ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Doubling Construction ◽  
The One

Three possible constructions of adverbially complemented noun phrases are attested in Swiss German. In (1), the indefinite article is doubled, whereas in (2) and (3) the article appears only once; it precedes or follows the adverb, respectively: (1) Also d' Susi wär e ganz e liebi Frau für de Markus! So the Susi would_be Art really Art lovely wife for the Markus! 'Susi would be a really lovely wife for Markus!' (2) Also d' Susi wär ganz e liebi Frau für de Markus! So the Susi would_be really Art lovely wife for the Markus! 'Susi would be a really lovely wife for Markus!' (3) Also d' Susi wär e ganz liebi Frau für de Markus! So the Susi would_be Art really lovely wife for the Markus! 'Susi would be a really lovely wife for Markus!' Doubling of the indefinite article is quite often mentioned in dialectological literature. Unfortunately there is nothing to be found about regional differences, frequency or possible contexts for a doubling in most standard works of Swiss German dialectology. The present paper now fills in some of these gaps in research on the adverbially complemented noun phrase in Swiss German: In a quantitative analysis will be shown that the construction with the article between adverb and adjective (2) is the one given the highest acceptance and preference rates by the informants. Furthermore the paper also shows that the doubling-construction (1) is more prominent in some Swiss German speaking-areas than in others. An apparent time analysis reveals ongoing language change and, last but not least, it shows that sociolinguistic parameters have an impact on the adverbially complemented noun phrase as well.

scholarly journals Wortgeografischer Wandel im Schweizerdeutschen. Sommersprossen, Küchenzwiebel und Schmetterling 70 Jahre nach dem SDS

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Britta Juska-Bacher
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Change ◽  
German Language ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Language Area ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Small Parts

This paper intends to show the importance of having linguistic instruments, principally semantic ones, for determining the meaning of words with the greatest precision and, consequently, managing to meticulously establish the different meanings of a dictionary's entry words. As an example, a new definition of the Spanish verb mezclar ('to mix') will b Since the beginning of the publication of the linguistic atlas of German-speaking Switzerland (Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz, SDS) in the early 1960s individual linguists collected contemporary material for comparison to investigate language change. However, due to time and money restrictions these studies were limited to small parts of the language area only. So far a description of tendencies concerning the entire Swiss German language area is missing. Based on an online-survey of 5600 informants this investigation is the first to present word geographic data covering (almost) the whole German-speaking Switzerland. Comparing GIS-maps of SDS and online data of the dialectal lexemes for freckles, onion and butterfly, language change over the last century becomes apparent, with striking convergence tendencies towards standard German, but also a Swiss German dialect expanding its range. Most of the dialect words mentioned in the SDS were preserved; some new were found. Thus, diversity of lexicon and creative language use are not endangered. Statistical analysis showed that younger speakers are more likely to deviate from the SDS. Less strong, but still significant were the influence of the parent's dialect and the duration of living in the dialect area, whereas gender had no influence.

Swiss themes in three “pluricentric” German language textbooks

2003 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Boss
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
German Language ◽  
Factual Information ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
German Dialects ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Language Textbooks

Researchers agree that German is a pluricentric language and the pedagogical implications of pluricentricity have been spelt out in the D-A-CH-Konzept. This article examines three current textbooks for German as a foreign language with regard to their coverage of Switzerland as a German-speaking nation. After a brief discussion of the Swiss linguistic situation, especially the diglossic relationship between Swiss Standard German and the Swiss-German dialects, the article demonstrates that Themen neu and Stufen international contain more factual information about Switzerland than Moment mal!, but only the latter offers linguistically authentic examples of language use. The article concludes by pointing out that pluricentric German language textbooks for beginners are unfortunately still rare.

scholarly journals Hochdeutsch im Kindergarten

2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathilde Gyger
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
International Students ◽  
Migrant Children ◽  
Strong Tendency ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
Scientific Support ◽  
Nursery Schools ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
German Dialects ◽  
German Speaking

According to the results of the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) the linguistic competencies of Swiss students need to be improved. Currently, there is a strong tendency to ban local Swiss-German dialects from Swiss schools, including nursery-schools, and to replace them by Standard High-German more or less completely. Since parts of the Swiss-German speaking population have strong reservations about High-German or at least the use of High-German in nursery-schools, school authorities look for scientific support. Indeed linguistic research has shown favourable results for the pre-school use of High-German: German speaking children are encouraged to use High-German freely and spontaneously. Migrant children benefit regarding fluency and proficiency in German as a second language. The following article comments on some steps taken by school-authorities and summarizes the current discussions on the part of educational and linguistic research in Switzerland.

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.

scholarly journals Variation in Faroese and the development of a spoken standard: In search of corpus evidence

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Remco Knooihuizen
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Morphological Variation ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
Rapid Social Change ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics ◽  
Constrained Variation

Although Faroese exhibits extensive linguistic variation and rapid social change, the language is near-uncharted territory in variationist sociolinguistics. This article discusses some recent social changes in Faroese society in connection with language change, focusing in particular on the development of a de facto spoken standard, Central Faroese. Demographic mobility, media and education may be contributing to this development in different ways. Two linguistic variables are analysed as a first step towards uncovering the respective roles of standardisation, dialect levelling and dialect spread as contributing processes in the formation of Central Faroese: morphological variation in -st endings and phonological variation in -ir and -ur endings. The analysis confirms previously described patterns of geographically constrained variation, but no generational or stylistic differences indicative of language change are found, nor are there clear signs that informants use Central Faroese. The results may in part be due to the structure of the corpus used.

scholarly journals An Analysis of Heterogeneity in German Speaking Birdwatchers Reveals Three Distinct Clusters and Gender Differences

Birds ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-260
Author(s):  
Christoph Randler
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Cluster Solution ◽  
Novice Group ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Bird Group ◽  
And Gender

The purpose of this study was to segment birdwatchers into clusters. Members from a wide range of bird related organizations, from highly specialized birders as well as Facebook bird group members were studied to provide a diverse dataset (n = 2766; 50.5% men). Birding specialization was measured with a battery of questionnaires. Birding specialization encompassed the three constructs of skill/competence, behavior, personal and behavioral commitment. Additionally, involvement, measured by centrality to lifestyle, attraction, social bonding, and identity, was used. The NbClust analyses showed that a three-cluster solution was the optimal solution. Then, k-means cluster analysis was applied on three groups: casual/novice, intermediate, and specialist/advanced birdwatchers. More men than women were in the specialist/advanced group and more women than men in the casual/novice group. As a conclusion, this study confirms a three-cluster solution for segmenting German birdwatchers based on a large and diverse sample and a broad conceptualization of the construct birding specialization. These data can be used to address different target audiences (novices, advanced birders) with different programs, e.g., in nature conservation.

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