How do ordinary people perceive regional modes of speech? This question is often posed at present within German dialectology, without however having produced a satisfactory answer. As part of an empirical pilot study in Saxony, Saxon-Anhalt, Thuringia and South Brandenburg, the present investigation uses the example of Upper Saxon to examine how the structures of everyday language-related knowledge can be observed and described, to look at the parameters within which this knowledge is organised and to determine the role played by extra-linguistic factors in the perception of dialects.