“Interactional” egocentric networks and long-term accommodation in an L2-variety of Swiss German

Büchler, Andrin (14 October 2022). “Interactional” egocentric networks and long-term accommodation in an L2-variety of Swiss German (Unpublished). In: NWAV 50. Stanford. 13.–15.10.2022.

Since Milroy’s (1980; Milroy & Milroy, 1992) seminal publications on Belfast, it is widely known that processes of linguistic change and innovation are constrained by network structures. However, despite social network analysis’ sustained influence on sociolinguistic theory, there has been relatively little empirical research using network measures as predictors in quantitative analysis (cf. e.g. Bortoni-Ricardo, 1985; Lippi-Green, 1989). This can be attributed to the fact that conventional network measurements (e.g. density or multiplexity) are difficult to apply in large-scale settings without clearly demarcated network boundaries. In the present study, I there-fore propose a new way of analysing social networks, grounded in Bloomfield’s (1933; see also Labov, 2001) ‘principle of density’, which states that the speech of individuals will become more similar the more they talk to each other.
For this, I focus on speakers of the minority language, Romansh, spoken in Switzerland. These speakers usually grow up with Romansh as L1 and naturalistically acquire a south-eastern variety of Swiss German during childhood/adolescence as L2. When later moving to German-speaking Switzerland to attend university, they come into contact with speakers of oth-er regional Swiss German varieties.
The sample consists of sociolinguistic interviews with 40 tertiary-educated Romansh speakers, aged between 20 and 40, who have migrated to the city of Bern, in German-speaking Switzerland, at the age of 19–20. “Interactional” egocentric networks were used as an analytical tool whereby participants reflected on how frequently they interact with specific people (= alteri) in their daily lives. Participants were thus asked to map their personal social networks on a con-centric network structure and instructed to place the alteri closer to the centre (= ego) the more frequently they interact with them. These maps then facilitated an analysis that takes into consid-eration relative interaction frequency with different alteri alongside what types of people are named.
The variationist analysis is based on three phonetic-phonological variables, Germanic word-initial (k) (n = 2’297) (e.g. cho ‘to come’), non-Germanic word-initial (x) (n = 1’380) (e.g. Kapitel ,chapter) and word-final (ə) (n = 3’367) (e.g. renne ‘to run’), for which the south-eastern variety of Swiss German has typical local variants. Long-term accommodation would lead speakers to drop south-eastern features in favour of Midland ones (that is, the adoption of supralocal variants). Random Tree Forests were used to determine RVIs and Minimal Depth of the predictors and mixed regression modelling for the individual linguistic variables.
Results suggest that the frequency of interaction depending on the alteris’ place of resi-dence (south-eastern Switzerland or Midlands/Bern), indicative for the regional variety spoken, features among the most important predictors for explaining variation in all three variables test-ed. This result was consolidated in regression models. Significant correlations were found for all linguistic variables: the more frequently speakers interact with people from the Mid-lands/Bern, the more likely they use supralocal variants. Thus, I conclude that the frequency of interaction is a rather powerful and easy-to-implement analytical tool to explain variability and evolving patterns in long-term accommodation.

References
Bloomfield, L. (1933). Language. G. Allen and Unwin.
Bortoni-Ricardo, S. M. (1985). The urbanization of rural dialect speakers: A sociolinguistic study in Brazil. Cambridge University Press.
Labov, W. (2001). Principles of linguistic change. Vol. 2. Blackwell.
Lippi-Green, R. L. (1989). Social network integration and language change in progress in a ru-ral alpine village. Language in Society, 18(2), 213–234.
Milroy, L. (1980). Language and social networks. Blackwell.
Milroy, L., & Milroy, J. (1992). Social network and social class: Toward an integrated sociolin-guistic model. Language in Society, 21(1), 1–26.

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