Variety contact

In linguistics, the term variety contact means the contact between different varieties of a language (e.g. between regional dialects of German and the umbrella language / standard German).

The dialect variety is defined as linguistically sociologically less prestigious expression of the standard language . Dialects are in a double tension. On the one hand, neighboring dialects influence each other; on the other hand, there are also interactions between the umbrella language and its dialects.

Variety contact can, depending on the objectives of the discourse participants, lead to accommodation (forms unknown to the interlocutor are avoided), convergence (as a result of accommodation over a long period of time, the different dialects move towards one another) or to divergence , i.e. as a conscious attempt to find each other to distinguish from the other variety lead.

literature

Riehl, Claudia Maria: Language contact research: An introduction, Tübingen, Gunter Narr Verlag, 2009. ISBN 978-3-8233-6469-6 . (P. Isb. P. 134ff).