Dialect Standard Continuum

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One speaks of a dialect-standard continuum in linguistics and especially in sociolinguistics when there is a smooth transition between language varieties , which is typically also available to the speaker in everyday life and which connects two extremes. At one end of the scale is the so-called dialect , at the other end the so-called standard language . These terms are often worded differently outside of the German-speaking area, so the following presentation can only be approximated to other major languages.

The prerequisite in all cases is the coexistence of dialects or spoken vernacular languages ​​and a standard language . In German, dialect is the historically oldest form of language with the greatest regional and local diversity, while high-level language is the supranational, as uniform as possible, variety. In the meantime, national, supra-regional or regional mixed and transitional forms of language have developed in many areas, which stand and mediate between the extremes.

Examples

There is currently a strong dialect-standard continuum in Bavaria, for example, in both the East Franconian and Bavarian language areas. There it is easily possible to get from the “deep” dialect in small, almost imperceptible steps, via the Franconian or Bavarian Regiolect and High German with Franconian or Bavarian accent to accent-free Standard German . A similar situation exists in Austria. The predominant colloquial language is often between standard German and the real regional dialects.

Absence

Such a continuum does not exist where this is not possible or simply does not work for the typical native speaker. The causes can be quite diverse. In Berlin, for example, the dialect is completely absent, there is only a continuum between standard German and the regional language known as Berlin -based . Some distance away, in the “deeper” Brandenburg, dialects are definitely still present. Often there is no smooth transition. In the Rhineland and beyond, there is a continuous transition between regiolect and high-level language, but the local dialects , which usually differ greatly from this, are used in diglossic in those cases where they are still needed . When changing from dialect to regiolect, the real dialect speakers “jump”; many characteristics of the spoken language are changed at the same time. This is probably due to the fact that the possible conceivable intermediate steps are perceived as "wrong", they belong neither to the dialect nor to the regional language. This assumption is confirmed by the fact that those who do not know the dialect or those who speak second languages, such as former East Germans who came to the Rhineland after the Second World War , find and use such intermediate levels somewhat more often, but do not assert themselves with their local communication partners.

Swiss German and Luxembourgish also have no dialect standard continuum . There is no smooth transition between the Alemannic dialects and the regional idiom, nor is the transition between Swiss German or Luxembourgish and Standard German particularly smooth. In these cases one speaks of a special form of bilingualism, a so-called diglossia .

See also

Literature and Sources

  1. ↑ according to Georg Cornelissen : Rheinisches Deutsch. Who speaks how to whom and why. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7743-0367-3 .
  2. ^ Georg Cornelissen: Rheinisches Deutsch. Who speaks how to whom and why. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7743-0367-3 , p. 98 f.
  3. ^ Georg Cornelissen: Rheinisches Deutsch. Who speaks how to whom and why. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7743-0367-3 , p. 95 ff.
  4. ^ Georg Cornelissen: Rheinisches Deutsch. Who speaks how to whom and why. Greven Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7743-0367-3 , p. 29 fu m. a.