Phonetic stability across time: Linguistic enclaves in Switzerland

Büchler, Andrin; Leemann, Adrian (2022). Phonetic stability across time: Linguistic enclaves in Switzerland. Linguistik online, 116(4) Kulturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät an der Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) 10.13092/lo.116.8887

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The present paper shows results of a proof-of-concept study on two historically related but geographically separated dialects of Swiss German. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, speakers of Valais German (southwestern Switzerland) emigrated to the southeastern part of the country, forming so-called Sprachinseln (enclaves) of Valais German in a Romansh-speaking area. Using an online survey, we collected responses from 300+ participants from the cantons of Valais and Grisons to examine how the two dialects have developed over time. Results suggest stability on the phonetic level, i. e. the two dialects still sound very similar despite having been geographically separated for 800 years. The morphosyntax and lexicon, however, exhibit substantial change. We discuss historic and sociodemographic factors that may explain these patterns.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies > Institute of Germanic Languages
06 Faculty of Humanities > Other Institutions > Walter Benjamin Kolleg (WBKolleg) > Center for the Study of Language and Society (CSLS)

Graduate School:

Graduate School of the Arts (GSA)

UniBE Contributor:

Büchler, Andrin, Leemann, Adrian Martin

Subjects:

400 Language
400 Language > 410 Linguistics
400 Language > 430 German & related languages

ISSN:

1615-3014

Publisher:

Kulturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät an der Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder)

Language:

German

Submitter:

Andrin Büchler

Date Deposited:

15 Sep 2022 10:18

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 16:24

Publisher DOI:

10.13092/lo.116.8887

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/172815

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/172815

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