Variation in German: A Critical Approach to German Sociolinguistics

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Cambridge University Press, May 10, 1990 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 308 pages
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This book examines the interrelations between language and society in the German-speaking countries. The questions 'what is German and who speaks it?' and 'how does the language vary dependent on social, political and geographical factors?' are addressed and placed in their historical context. This is a comprehensive account of major topics in the contemporary study of German sociolinguistics, and topics covered include the history and development of the German language, German as a minority language, minority languages in German-speaking countries, traditional dialects, variation in contemporary colloquial speech, the influence of English on German, and German in East and West. It draws together much otherwise inaccessible material from a great range of sources. The authors also assess critically research work carried out in German-speaking countries.

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Contents

Introduction
1
12 Languages in society
14
13 Approaches to the study of variation in language
19
14 Outline of following chapters
21
The historical background
23
22 The development of a distinct German language
36
23 The rise of standard German
45
24 Currents of change in contemporary German
53
53 The linguistic characteristics of colloquial German
146
54 Phonetic and phonological variation within German
148
55 Grammatical variation in German
159
56 Lexical variation in German
168
57 German in East and West
174
Standard and nonstandard German their rôle in society
181
62 The social effects of variation in German in the Federal Republic
183
63 The social effects of variation in other Germanspeaking countries
190

The German tradition of dialectology
55
32 Interests in dialect study
57
33 Background to the development of German dialectology
59
the Marburg School
61
35 Explanations in traditional dialectology
65
36 The contemporary relevance of the findings of traditional dialectology
75
37 The dialect boundaries within German
77
38 The northcentralsouth division based on the High German sound shift
78
39 Other isoglosses dividing northern from southern dialects
82
310 Major divisions within the three principal dialect areas
85
311 Other important isoglosses
90
312 Dialect vocabulary
96
313 Postscript
99
Language and society urban speech urbanization and new dialectology
100
modernization and its implications for linguistic study
101
43 New approaches to dialectology
104
portrait of a divided city
112
suburban dialectology
125
Sociolinguistic variation and the continuum of colloquial speech
133
52 The nature and study of variation in German
141
64 Conclusions
191
Language in multilingual societies the Federal Republic and Switzerland
192
72 Multilingualism in the Federal Republic
193
73 Gastarbeiterdeutsch
195
74 Accounting for uniformity and variation in Gastarbeiterdeutsch
197
75 Linguistic pluralism in Switzerland
204
76 Diglossia and the status of Swiss German
212
Contact and conflict
218
82 Analytical apparatus
219
83 German in competition with other languages
224
84 Language decline and language shift
242
85 Specific linguistic consequences of contact within the Germanspeaking area
250
86 German in contact with English
255
Conclusions and prospects
262
Phonetic symbols
265
Glossary
272
References
281
Subject index
294
Names index
306
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Common terms and phrases

accent Berlin boundaries central century Chapter characteristics clear clearly close colloquial speech complex considerable considered consonants corresponding countries cultural dialectology differences discussion distinction divided division Dutch East East Low German English example extent fact factors Federal Republic foreign formal standard forms French fricative Frisian further German dialects German-speaking given High German identity important individual influence interest Italy language least less lexical linguistic Low German major meaning Middle Middle German non-standard northern origin particularly pattern phonological political population position present problems pronunciation question reasons refer regional relatively replaced represent seen sense separate shift similar situation social sociolinguistics sound southern speakers speaking spoken standard German standard language stop Swiss Switzerland tense traditional dialect types Upper urban variation varieties various verb vocabulary voiceless vowel West West Germanic

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Bibliographic information

QR code for Variation in German
TitleVariation in German: A Critical Approach to German Sociolinguistics
AuthorsStephen Barbour, Patrick Stevenson
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherCambridge University Press, 1990
ISBN0521357047, 9780521357043
Length308 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General
Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Sociolinguistics
  
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