This paper aims to explain recent empirical findings on subjunctive II formation in the Bavarian dialects of Austria from both functional and formal perspectives. For this purpose, the explanatory ...power of the functional principles of natural morphology (NM) is compared with the formal framework of constructional morphology (CxM). It is argued that the two approaches complement each other. Thus, it is shown that the key concepts of NM (constructional iconicity, uniformity and transparency) can easily be adapted in terms of CxM. These adjustments are needed to explain the ongoing changes in subjunctive II formation in the Bavarian dialects of Austria. This is due to the well-documented shift towards the use of periphrastic constructions (with the
- and
-auxiliary) that are located at the interface between morphology and syntax.
The former German Bohemian minority that lived in the city of Pilsen (in Czech: Plzeň) and the West Bohemian district of Mies (Stříbro) until the forced resettlement in 1945/46, remains an almost ...blank spot in the context of research on Germans in the Bohemian lands. In this article, contributions from the journal „Mies-Pilsner Heimatbrief“ from 1950 are analysed and considered for the first time as a source type for the topic mentioned. The following questions were investigated: Which language varieties did the German residents of the city of Pilsen and the rural Mieser area use? Which language attitudes towards dialect and standard language did they represent? And what was the significance of dialect for their identity? These questions are dealt with by way of example using a dialect debate in the aforementioned monthly. In the second year of the magazine, a letter to the editor called for the publication of dialect stories to be stopped. In the following three editions, five other readers speak up, who vehemently contradict this demand and explain why dialect texts and dialect as such are valuable in their opinion. A native Pilsener even partially phrased his letter to the editor in his native dialect. In a brief analysis, this text turns out to be in northern Bavarian dialect, or in Egerland dialect, as he calls it. In addition to these structural linguistic investigations, the arguments used in letters to the editor to reject or approve dialect (texts) are considered from a sociolinguistic point of view. In this way we also learn something about the identity of the West Bohemian expellees. On the one hand, the arguments are of a general nature, such as that the dialect represents the “actual mother tongue”. On the other hand, the specific situation after the expulsion is discussed, in which the dialect represents „a piece of home“ in the foreign country for the Sudeten Germans. This intangible cultural heritage of the homeland should therefore continue to be cultivated and passed on to the next generation. At the end of the last letter to the editor, the editor of the magazine finally announced that texts in the dialect of Western Bohemia should continue to be printed in the future.
To date, no studies exist attempting to capture the temporal-relational emergence of dialect and standard German features in the second language (L2) across residence time in the Austro-Bavarian ...naturalistic context. In order to address this desideratum, 40 migrants with L2 German completed translation tasks assessing their ability to translate from standard German into dialect and vice versa. Taking a cross-sectional developmental perspective, our goal is to examine
dialect features (e. g.,
-darkening,
-vocalization) manifest in participants’ multivarietal repertoires during residence in Austria over a timespan of approximately 13 years. The results of Bayesian binary logistic multilevel modeling reveal that participants quickly acquire dialect features such as negation particles (e. g., standard
vs. dialectal
), fricative reduction (e. g., standard
vs. dialectal
), and Bavarian article use (e. g., standard
vs. dialectal
), but, even after over a decade of residence, do not produce morphological or syntactic dialectal features such as 2. person plural
(e. g., standard
vs. dialectal
) or relative clause connectors (e. g., standard
vs. dialectal
). Our results add to discussions concerning how the Austro-Bavarian naturalistic context impacts on patterns of L2 language variation and use and lend key insights into inquiries concerning
dialect features L2 learners acquire and
A kelet- és délkelet-európai országokban élő német nyelvi kisebbség körében végzett nyelviattitűd-kutatás még nem tekint olyan régi hagyományokra vissza, mint Németország, Ausztria, valamint a ...németnyelvű Svájc esetében. A kisebbségek körében végzett nyelviattitűd-kutatások eredményei bepillantást engednek abba, hogy a kisebbségi nyelvet aktívan vagy passzívan használók – jelen tanulmány esetében az idős magyarországi németek – hogyan érzékelik a környezetükben hallott német nyelv különböző változatait, hogyan vélekednek a német nyelvi változatok használatáról, a magyarországi német nyelvjárások generációkon átívelő eróziójáról, illetve hogyan értékelik a német nyelv köznyelvi, regionális és lokális változatait. A tanulmány a kétnyelvű (magyar-német) adatközlők nyelvi önmeghatározásából kiindulva a német nyelvi attitűdjük affektív és konatív komponenseit vizsgálja.
This paper explores intra-individual variation as a manifestation of language-internal multilingualism in the Central-Bavarian Austrian context. Based on speech data from children and adults in ...different contexts, we discuss different methods of measuring and analyzing inter-situational variation along the dialect and standard language spectrum. By contrasting measures of dialectality, on the one hand, and proportions of turns in dialect, standard language or intermediate/mixed forms on the other, we gain complementary insights not only into the individual dialect-standard repertoires but also into the consequences of different methodological choices. The results indicate that intra-individual variation is ubiquitous in adults and children and that individual repertoires need to be taken into account from the beginning of the language acquisition process. We suggest that while intra-individual variation can be attested through the use of various methods, the revealed level of granularity and the conclusions that can be drawn as to the individual repertoires on the dialect-standard spectrum largely depend on the measures used and their inherent assumptions and intrinsically necessary categorizations.
To date, no studies exist attempting to capture the temporal-relational emergence of dialect and standard German features in the second language (L2) across residence time in the Austro-Bavarian ...naturalistic context. In order to address this desideratum, 40 migrants with L2 German completed translation tasks assessing their ability to translate from standard German into dialect and vice versa. Taking a cross-sectional developmental perspective, our goal is to examine when dialect features (e. g., a-darkening, l-vocalization) manifest in participants’ multivarietal repertoires during residence in Austria over a timespan of approximately 13 years. The results of Bayesian binary logistic multilevel modeling reveal that participants quickly acquire dialect features such as negation particles (e. g., standard nicht vs. dialectal ned), fricative reduction (e. g., standard ich vs. dialectal i:), and Bavarian article use (e. g., standard das vs. dialectal des), but, even after over a decade of residence, do not produce morphological or syntactic dialectal features such as 2. person plural -s (e. g., standard braucht vs. dialectal brauchts) or relative clause connectors (e. g., standard die vs. dialectal de wos). Our results add to discussions concerning how the Austro-Bavarian naturalistic context impacts on patterns of L2 language variation and use and lend key insights into inquiries concerning which dialect features L2 learners acquire and when.
