LINGUIST List 15.1454

Fri May 7 2004

Diss: Sociolinguistics: Lameli: 'Standard und...'

Editor for this issue: Tomoko Okuno <tomokolinguistlist.org>

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  • lameli, Standard und Substandard. Regionalismen im diachronen...

    Message 1: Standard und Substandard. Regionalismen im diachronen...

     Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 12:20:25 -0400 (EDT)
    From: lameli <lamelistaff.uni-marburg.de>
    Subject: Standard und Substandard. Regionalismen im diachronen...


    Marburg University: Marburg University Program: Standard und Substandard Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2003

    Author: Alfred Lameli

    Dissertation Title: Standard und Substandard. Regionalismen im diachronen L�ngsschnitt

    Dissertation URL: http://www.lameli.net/lfdProjekte.htm

    Linguistic Field: Phonetics, Phonology & Sociolinguistics

    Subject Language: German, Standard (code: GER)

    Dissertation Director 1: J�rgen Erich Schmidt Dissertation Director 2: Joachim Herrgen

    Dissertation Abstract:

    This book is dedicated to the diachronic exploration of intended standard language in German. The real-time study analyses linguistic changes over 40 years in the course of the twentieth century. It is based on covertly recorded speech data from German municipal councillors acting in an authentic context, and sets out to examine regional influences on linguistic phenomena. Geographically, the study is focussed on the Rhine-Franconian city of Mainz, with the Low German city of Neum�nster providing a secondary reference point.

    A complex of different methods is employed to show that, viewed diachronically, the speech of councillors from Mainz is closely approaching that of German television newsreaders in phonological and phonetic terms. In contrast, speakers from Neum�nster demonstrate no such diachronic change, remaining at a level equivalent to that found in Mainz in the 1990s. Further analyses reveal correlations between linguistic and social and attitudinal data. In addition, the study explores the implicational relations of typical speech patterns and how the latter can be ordered into a hierarchy of decline in dialect features. Drawing on a survey of linguistically naive judgments of typical speech samples, a perceptual boundary to standard language is proposed. This enables not just an explanation of the linguistic and metalinguistic results, but also a dating of the accelerated convergence on standard language and, further, a prediction as to future developments.