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.

The Politics of Pronunciation among German-Speaking Mennonites in Northern Mexico

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Klassen
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
German Language ◽  
Northern Mexico ◽  
Low German ◽  
Politics Of Language ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
Modern Technologies

This chapter discusses the politics of language use in collective singing among conserving Mennonites in northern Mexico. The group migrated to Mexico from Canada to distance itself from the worldly influences of modern technologies and secular society in general. In the new environment the German language stands as a symbolic marker, distinguishing Mennonites from the wider society. The chapter shows how further in-group linguistic distinctions are marked through uses of High and Low German (drawing on the wider class associations of the two languages), in which a distinct “a” (pronounced “au”) from Low German is often employed in contexts of High German use. The chapter explores what happens when this distinctive pronunciation is used politically in collective song as an expression of defiance by individual singers and the tensions that result when collective song becomes a space for “phonological expressions of difference.”

De verbeelding van moeras en veen

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 292-310
Author(s):  
Lesley Penné ◽  
Arvi Sepp
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
German Language ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Border Regions ◽  
Language Area ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The Representation of Marsh and Bog: Figurations of the Marshy Soil as a Topos of Community in Contemporary German-Language Belgian Literature Literature from border regions is often characterised by a specific transcultural poetics that reflects the liminal as discourse and experience. In contemporary German-language prose from East Belgium (‘Ostbelgien’), the topological representation of swamp and moor occupies an important place. We will show how swamp and moor express the complex definition of national and regional identity of the German-language area in Belgium and become relevant topoi in regard to cultural memory. Literature can be seen as a privileged medium of criticism for expressing the pressures of the unspoken and the closed and for initiating intra-community public discussions. Through a cultural-historical analysis of the various figurations of bog and moor, we will examine how the relationship between landscape and community is represented and conceived in contemporary Germanophone Belgian literature.

scholarly journals "in dem moment wo ich es dann erkenne dann ist es auch gleich wieder weg" – Salienzeffekte in der Sprachperzeption

2014 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Ada Anders ◽  
Nicole Palliwoda ◽  
Saskia Schröder
Keyword(s):  
German Language ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Response Test ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Perceptual Dialectology ◽  
Language Area ◽  
Salient Features ◽  
Definition Of

In context of the first study on folk linguistic concepts in the German language area carried out by the Kiel DFG research project "perceptual dialectology", this article looks at how salient features could be surveyed and categorized by a stimulus-response-test. After a definition of salience, the study design including the stimulus-response-test is presented. The test was created and modified during the project as a guessing game by the Institute for German Language (IDS Mannheim). The central question in this article is which linguistic features stimulate the informants to locate a speech sample on a map with predetermined cities and hence which salient features trigger the regional identification. In a second step, the speech samples are analyzed by the variables 'pleasantness' and 'correctness' defined by Dennis R. Preston. The central question here is: Are speech samples with a high pleasure value also automatically considered correct? Finally, an interpretation of metalinguistic comments in the speech examples will give more insight into folk linguistic concepts and the role of salient features in this regard.

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.

Rúfus-Rezeption im deutschen Sprachraum. Eine Bestandsaufnahme

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-359
Author(s):  
Ludwig Richter
Keyword(s):  
German Language ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Language Area

Summary Milan Rúfus (1928–2009) is one of the most received Slovak poets in the German-speaking world. Hitherto 150 of his poems have been translated into German and published in 14 anthologies as well as two single volumes. His reception in the German language area is presented chronologically, taking into consideration the respective occasions and literary coherences. Moreover, the linguistic solutions of the German translations and their relation to the original as well as among each other will be examined by considering selected examples.

Sprachlenkung oder Sprachpflege? Zur Situation der germanistischen Sprachpflege heute

1984 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-63
Author(s):  
Albrecht Greule
Keyword(s):  
Adult Education ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Basic Question ◽  
German Language ◽  
German States ◽  
Language Area ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Speaker ◽  
Academie Francaise

SUMMARY Directing a Language or Cultivating It? On German Language Cultivation Today The cultivation of the German language outside Germany is, as is well known, the task of the Goethe Institute. But how is German cultivated at home, that is, within the German-language area? Indeed, is there any need to cultivate a language internally, "intralingually"? And if so, how can language cultivation be organized? In Germany there is no institution corresponding to the Académie française. Finally we may ask the basic question as to the meaning of "language cultivation." What is it? Cultivation of the German language within the large, self-contained community of people whose native language it is? This paper seeks to answer this and other questions. It provides an overview of activities in language cultivation in the two German states and, based upon language cultivation as it is currently practiced, offers for discussion a new definition of language cultivation: a way of directing language that seeks to improve the linguistic competence of the individual speaker through advice on points where he considers improvement necessary. Currently, the most important forms of language cultivation in Germany are through adult education, consultation, and the mass media. RESUMO Direkti au kultivi lingvonP Pri la germanisma lingvokultivado nuntempe La zorgado de la germana lingvo eksterlande estas, kiel konäte, la tasko de Goethe-Instituto. Sed kiel oni kultivas la germanan hejme, t.e., ene de la germanlingva lan-daro? Kaj cu ec necesas kultivi lingvon interne, "enlingve"? Se jes, kiel eblas organizi la lingvokultivadon? En Germanio mankas institucio, responda al Académie française. Fine, ni faru la fundamentan demandon pri la signifo de "lingvokultivado." Kio gi estas? Cu kultivado de la germana lingvo ene de la granda, memstara komunumo de homoj, kies denaska lingvo gi estas? La nuna artikolo provas respondi al tiu kaj aliaj demandoj. Gi provizas superrigardon pri la aktivado en la lingvokultivado en ambau germanaj statoj kaj, surbaze de la lingvokultivado, kiel oni nun flegas gin, ofertas al la diskutado novan difinon de la lingvokultivado: maniero direkti la lingvon, kiu strebas plibonigo la lingvan kompetentecon de la unuopa parolanto per konsilado pri punktoj, kie, lau li, la plibonigo necesas. Nuntempe la plej gravaj formoj de lingvokultivado en Germanio estas per la edukado de plenkreskuloj, per la konsultado kaj per la amasmedioj.

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 Ways of Conceptualization German-Language Discourse

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-132
Author(s):  
Kateryna Mikhidenko ◽  
Olena Opanasenko
Keyword(s):  
Structural Features ◽  
German Language ◽  
Conceptual System ◽  
Virtual Communication ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Intercultural Conflict ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Language Conflict

The article is devoted to the study of the conceptual picture of German-speaking virtual intercultural reality and the processes of categorization that occur during the confrontation of local inhabitants and foreigners, as well as the definition of concepts objectified in German-language conflict discourse in virtual communication and their verbalization. A theoretical review of modern studies on the actualization of the conceptual system of individuals in linguistic reality in an intercultural context. The processes of categorization and conceptualization of discourse space on the basis of categorical, structural or metaphorical actualization of concepts of intercultural reality are analyzed. It is proposed to divide the concepts verbalized in the analyzed fragments of intercultural conflict discourse into three types: categorical concepts organize the knowledge of subjects about themselves and their environment by dividing and combining the concepts of intercultural discursive space in opposition pairs; structural concepts organize knowledge about the subject according to the structural features of the object through which they are denoted; metaphorical concepts concretize abstract and general ideas with the help of vivid concrete images based on an analogy between two phenomena.

scholarly journals Ist Standarddeutsch für Deutschschweizer eine Fremdsprache? Untersuchungen zu einem Topos des sprachreflexiven Diskurses

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Hägi ◽  
Joachim Scharloth
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
The Status ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
The Relationship

This paper is concerned with the question, whether the status of Standard German in German-speaking Switzerland is adequately described as that of a foreign language. It discusses typological aspects, language awareness and language ideologies among German-speaking Swiss people, the practice of language acquisition, the language use in private life and media and the linguistic discourse about the relationship between the use of Swiss German and Standard German. It argues that from a linguistic point of view in none of these fields a clear decision can be made whether Standard German is a foreign language or not. Thus, the authors suggest that the conceptual framework ought to be widened to adequately describe the status of Standard German in German-speaking Switzerland. Finally, they take occasion to develop the concept of "Sekundärsprache"/"secondary language" for language situations similar to that in German-speaking Switzerland.

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