Variation in German

A Critical Approach to German Sociolinguistics

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Paperback | 9 July 1990

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This book examines the interrelations between language and society in the German-speaking countries. The questions 'what is German and who speaks it?' and 'how does the language vary dependent on social, political and geographical factors?' are addressed and placed in their historical context. This is a comprehensive account of major topics in the contemporary study of German sociolinguistics, and topics covered include the history and development of the German language, German as a minority language, minority languages in German-speaking countries, traditional dialects, variation in contemporary colloquial speech, the influence of English on German, and German in East and West. It draws together much otherwise inaccessible material from a great range of sources. The authors also assess critically research work carried out in German-speaking countries.

Industry Reviews

"I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a comprehensive, lucid, lively, and extremely readable account of regional variation in German or the German research tradition in this field." Language "...by far the most comprehensive text available in the field...The text will benefit a diverse audience. For instructors and researchers interested in the German language, the book is a must, since it presents important information nowhere else available in such a concise, up-to-date, and generally well-organized manner. For the sociolinguist, the book presents one of the few successful attempts to apply the tradition of sociolinguistics to a single language system." Helga H. DeLisle, Polylingua "...an excellent example of a way to extend the boundaries of what is considered relevant and significant for language study." Mary E. Wildner-Bassett, The Modern Language Journal "...bring[s] a valuable multidimensional approach on a diachronic palette to the study of linguistic variation in German...I rather expect that Barbour and Stevenson will establish themselves as a regular entry on many graduate program reading lists." Craig W. Nickisch, German Studies Review

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Non-Fiction Language & Linguistics Linguistics Sociolinguistics Reference, Dictionaries & Guides Language Learning & Teaching

List of figures	p. x
List of maps	p. xi
List of tables	p. xii
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
What is German and who speaks it?	p. 1
Problems of definition	p. 1
The scope of variation in German	p. 3
Fuzzy and discrete language boundaries	p. 8
Conclusion	p. 14
Languages in society	p. 14
Language contact and language change	p. 14
Multilingual speech communities	p. 16
Conclusion	p. 18
Approaches to the study of variation in language	p. 18
Dialectology and sociolinguistics	p. 18
Sociolinguistics and sociolinguistics	p. 21
Outline of following chapters	p. 21
The historical background	p. 23
German as an Indo-European language and as a Germanic language	p. 23
German as an Indo-European language	p. 23
German as a Germanic language	p. 25
Relationships between German and other Germanic languages	p. 29
The development of a distinct German language	p. 36
The fragmentation of continental West Germanic	p. 38
Factors favouring the unity of German	p. 40
The rise of standard German	p. 45
The rise of standard written forms	p. 45
The acceptance of a single written standard	p. 47
The rise of a standard spoken variety	p. 49
The emergence of the modern continuum	p. 51
Currents of change in contemporary German	p. 53
The influence of German on other languages	p. 53
German influenced by other languages	p. 54
The influence of standard German on other varieties	p. 54
The German tradition of dialectology	p. 55
Definitions and the object of study	p. 55
Interests in dialect study	p. 57
Attitudes to dialect variation	p. 57
Types of interest	p. 58
Background to the development of German dialectology	p. 59
Dialect geography: the Marburg School	p. 61
Explanations in traditional dialectology	p. 65
Interpreting data	p. 65
The extralinguistic approach	p. 67
The linguistic approach	p. 72
Explanations in dialectology and sociolinguistics	p. 74
The contemporary relevance of the findings of traditional dialectology	p. 75
The dialect boundaries within German	p. 77
The north-central-south division based on the High German sound shift	p. 78
Low German and Dutch dialects	p. 79
Upper German dialects	p. 80
Middle German dialects	p. 80
The importance of the north-central-south division	p. 81
Other isoglosses dividing northern from southern dialects	p. 82
Older north-south divisions	p. 82
Newer north-south divisions	p. 83
Major divisions within the three principal dialect areas	p. 85
Divisions within Low German-Dutch	p. 85
Divisions within Middle German	p. 87
Divisions within Upper German	p. 88
Other important isoglosses	p. 90
Diphthongization	p. 90
Unrounding	p. 91
Lenition	p. 92
Dialect vocabulary	p. 96
Categories of lexical variation	p. 96
Regional lexical variation in both dialect and standard	p. 97
Dialect variation and stylistic variation in standard German	p. 98
Postscript	p. 99
Language and society: urban speech, urbanization and 'new dialectology'	p. 100
From rural to urban dialectology	p. 100
Social change: 'modernization' and its implications for linguistic study	p. 101
Changing theoretical perspectives	p. 101
Changes in methodology	p. 103
New approaches to dialectology	p. 104
Departing from tradition: Nauborn	p. 104
Variation and social groups	p. 106
Variation and individuals	p. 108
Berlin: portrait of a divided city	p. 112
The social meaning of Berlinisch	p. 112
Vocabulary	p. 113
Phonology	p. 114
Pragmatics: Berliner Schnauze	p. 118
Attitudes to variation	p. 122
Erp: suburban dialectology	p. 125
The speech community	p. 125
Composing a communication profile	p. 127
Identifying speech varieties	p. 129
Re-assessing variation	p. 132
Sociolinguistic variation and the continuum of colloquial speech	p. 133
Differing views of variation in German	p. 133
Standard German	p. 133
Traditional German dialects	p. 136
The continuum of colloquial speech	p. 139
The nature and study of variation in German	p. 141
The relationship between colloquial speech, formal standard German and traditional dialect	p. 141
The relative neglect of colloquial speech	p. 142
The neglect of the continuum	p. 143
The neglect of divisions within the continuum	p. 143
The users of the various types of German	p. 144
The linguistic characteristics of colloquial German	p. 146
A social rather than a geographical view of variation in German	p. 146
The standard of comparison	p. 147
Phonetic and phonological variation within German	p. 148
Categories of phonetic and phonological variation	p. 148
Phonological accent deviations from DH	p. 151
Phonological dialect differences from standard German	p. 155
Grammatical variation in German	p. 159
Typological differences between varieties of German	p. 159
The nominal systems of varieties of German	p. 160
The verb systems of varieties of German	p. 164
Lexical variation in German	p. 168
Lexical variation in perspective	p. 169
National varieties of German	p. 169
Formal and informal lexicon	p. 170
Regional variation in lexicon	p. 172
German in East and West	p. 174
Differing views of the East--West linguistic divide	p. 175
The extent of East--West variation	p. 176
East--West variation in context	p. 179
Standard and non-standard German: their role in society	p. 181
The political and social correlates of variation in German	p. 181
The social effects of variation in German in the Federal Republic	p. 183
The assumed linguistic disadvantage of the working class	p. 183
Restricted and elaborated codes	p. 184
Suggested linguistic causes of disadvantage	p. 185
Linguistic problems facing all social groups	p. 189
The social effects of variation in other German-speaking countries	p. 190
Conclusions	p. 191
Language in multilingual societies: the Federal Republic and Switzerland	p. 192
Introduction	p. 192
Multilingualism in the Federal Republic	p. 193
Gastarbeiterdeutsch	p. 195
Accounting for uniformity and variation in Gastarbeiterdeutsch	p. 197
The process of acquisition	p. 197
The transfer hypothesis	p. 199
The pidgin hypothesis	p. 200
Foreigner Talk and the universal simplification hypothesis	p. 201
Conclusions	p. 203
Linguistic pluralism in Switzerland	p. 204
Maintaining social and linguistic stability	p. 204
Areas of potential conflict	p. 210
Diglossia and the status of Swiss German	p. 212
The 'classic example' of German-speaking Switzerland	p. 212
Diglossia reconsidered	p. 214
Contact and conflict	p. 218
Approaches to the study of language contact	p. 218
Analytical apparatus	p. 219
Sociological and psychological factors	p. 219
Sociopolitical factors	p. 221
Economic and demographic factors	p. 222
Sociocultural factors	p. 223
Summary	p. 223
German in competition with other languages	p. 224
Eastern Belgium	p. 224
Luxembourg	p. 230
Alsace-Lorraine	p. 234
South Tyrol	p. 237
Language decline and language shift	p. 242
Schleswig	p. 243
South-east Austria	p. 246
Specific linguistic consequences of contact	p. 250
Lexical transfer	p. 251
Morphological/syntactic transfer	p. 254
German in contact with English	p. 255
English influence in context	p. 255
Examples of English influence on German	p. 257
Conclusions and prospects	p. 262
Phonetic symbols	p. 265
Glossary	p. 272
References	p. 284
Subject index	p. 294
Names index	p. 306
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Variation in German

A Critical Approach to German Sociolinguistics

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

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