The perception of multiethnolectal Zurich German: A continuum rather than clear-cut categories

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/loquens.2020.072

Keywords:

Multiethnolects, youth language, Zurich German, sociophonetics, perception

Abstract


Since about 2000, the emergence of so-called ‘multiethnolects’ has been observed among adolescents in German-speaking Switzerland; however, a systematic description of these varieties is lacking at present. The few existing perception studies of multiethnolects in other European countries are usually based on two or more predetermined groups that are compared. This paper investigates which labels are used for multiethnolectal Zurich German and how this way of speaking is perceived by adolescents; we adopt a perceptual sociolinguistics approach which focuses on the conceptualizations of lay people rather than on those of linguists.

In a rating experiment, 40 adolescents listened to short speech samples of 48 pupils recorded in two different schools in the city of Zurich and were asked to rate the speakers on a 7-point Likert scale according to how multiethnolectal they sounded (not at all – very strongly). The results yielded a perceptual continuum rather than a clear-cut binary categorization [±multiethnolectal]. A smaller follow-up experiment with 12 adult raters (using the same stimuli) yielded a highly significant correlation between the mean rating scores of the two groups of raters.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ammon, U. (2003). Dialektschwund, Dialekt-Standard-Kontinuum, Diglossie: Drei Typen des Verhältnisses Dialekt - Standardvarietät im deutschen Sprachgebiet. In J. K. Androutsopoulos, & E. Ziegler (Eds.), "Standardfragen": Soziolinguistische Perspektiven auf Sprachgeschichte, Sprachkontakt und Sprachvariation (pp. 163-171). Peter Lang.

Anders, C. A. (2010). Die wahrnehmungsdialektologische Rekodierung von laienlinguistischem Alltagswissen. In C. A. Anders, M. Hundt, & A. Lasch (Eds.), Perceptual Dialectology: Neue Wege der Dialektologie (pp. 67-87). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110227529

Androutsopoulos, J. (2001). Ultra korregd Alder: Zur medialen Stilisierung und Popularisierung von 'Türkendeutsch'. Deutsche Sprache 4, 321-339.

Appel, R. (1999). Straattaal: De mengtaal van jongeren in Amsterdam. Toegepaste Taalwetenschap in Artikelen 62(2), 39-57. https://doi.org/10.1075/ttwia.62.04app

Auer, P. (2003). 'Türkenslang': Ein jugendsprachlicher Ethnolekt des Deutschen und seine Transformationen. In A. Häcki Buhofer (Ed.), Spracherwerb und Lebensalter (pp. 255-264). Francke.

Auer, P., & Røyneland, U. (2020). Modelling acquisition and use of dialectal, standard and multiethnolectal features in migratory contexts across Europe. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1730385

Berry, J. W. (1999). Emics and etics: A symbiotic conception. Culture & psychology 5(2), 165-171. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X9952004

Bodén, P. (2010). Pronunciation in Swedish multiethnolect. In P. Quist, & B. A. Svendsen (Eds.), Multilingual urban Scandinavia: New linguistic practices (pp. 65-78). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847693143-010

Bruno, M. (2019). Morphosyntaktische Merkmale von multiethnolektalem Zürichdeutsch. University of Zurich MA thesis.

Cheshire, J., & Fox, S. (2016). From sociolinguistic research to English language teaching. In K. P. Corrigan, & A. Mearns (Eds.), Creating and digitizing language corpora (2nd ed.) (pp. 265-290). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-38645-8_10

Cheshire, J., Kerswill, P., Fox S., & Torgersen, E. (2011). Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(2), 151-196. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00478.x

Chiari, B., & Groß, G. P. (Eds.) (2009). Am Rande Europas? Der Balkan - Raum und Bevölkerung als Wirkungsfelder militärischer Gewalt. De Gruyter.

Clyne, M. (2000). Lingua Franca and ethnolects in Europe and beyond. Sociolinguistica 14, 83-89. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110245196.83

Dieth, E. (1938/1986). Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift. Dieth-Schreibung (2nd ed. by C. Schmid-Cadalbert). Sauerländer.

Dieth, E. (1950). Vademekum der Phonetik: Phonetische Grundlagen für das wissenschaftliche und praktische Studium der Sprachen. Francke.

Dirim, İ., & Auer, P. (2004). Türkisch sprechen nicht nur die Türken: Über die Unschärfebezeichnung zwischen Sprache und Ethnie in Deutschland. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110919790

Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (1992). Communities of practice: Where language, gender, and power all live. In K. Hall, M. Bucholtz, & B. Moonwomon (Eds.), Locating power (pp. 89-99). Berkeley Women and Language Group.

Fagyal, Z., & Stewart, C. M. (2011). Prosodic style-shifting in preadolescent peer-group interactions in a working-class suburb of Paris. In F. Kern, & M. Selting (Eds.), Ethnic styles of speaking in European metropolitan areas (pp. 75-99). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.8.04fag

Ferguson, C. (1959). Diglossia. Word 15(2), 325-340. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1959.11659702

Fishman, J. (1967). Bilingualism with and without diglossia; diglossia with and without bilingualism. Journal of Social Issues 23(2), 29-38. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1967.tb00573.x

Fleischer, J., & Schmid, S. (2006). Zurich German. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36(2), 243-253. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100306002441

Fox, S. (2015). The new Cockney: New ethnicities and adolescent speech in the traditional East End of London. Palgrave Macmillan.

Fox, S., Khan, A., & Torgersen, E. (2011). The emergence and diffusion of Multicultural English. In F. Kern, & M. Selting (Eds.), Ethnic styles of speaking in European metropolitan areas (pp. 19-44). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.8.02fox

Freywald, U., Mayr, K., Özçelik, T., & Wiese, H. (2011). Kiezdeutsch as a multiethnolect. In F. Kern, & M. Selting (Eds.), Ethnic styles of speaking in European metropolitan areas (pp. 45-73). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.8.03fre

Füglein, R. (2000). Kanak Sprak: Eine ethnolinguistische Untersuchung eines Sprachphänomens im Deutschen. University of Bamberg Diploma thesis.

Goodglass, H., & Kaplan, E. (1983). Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE). Distributed by Psychological Assessment Resources, Odessa, FL.

Gorlée, D. L, & Anderson, M. (2011). Kenneth L. Pike's semiotic work: Arousing, disputing, and persuading language-and-culture. The American Journal of Semiotics 27(1/4), 243-255. https://doi.org/10.5840/ajs2011271/410

Grabe, E., & Low, E. L. (2002). Durational variability in speech and the rhythm class hypothesis. Laboratory Phonology 7, 515-546. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197105.515

Grondelaers, S., & van Gent, P. (2019). How 'deep' is dynamism? Revisiting the evaluation of Moroccan-flavored Netherlandic Dutch. Linguistics Vanguard 5(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2018-0011

Hayden, R. M. (2013). From Yugoslavia to the Western Balkans: Studies of a European disunion, 1991-2011. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004241916

Häberli, A., & Wollensack, J. (2006). Code-switching. Zurich University of the Arts MA thesis.

Hägi, S., & Scharloth, J. (2005). Ist Standarddeutsch für Deutschschweizer eine Fremdsprache? Untersuchungen zu einem Topos des sprachreflexiven Diskurses. Linguistik online 24(3), 19-47. https://doi.org/10.13092/lo.24.636

Hinskens, F. (2011). Emerging Moroccan and Turkish varieties in Dutch. In F. Kern, & M. Selting (Eds.), Ethnic styles of speaking in European metropolitan areas (pp. 101-129). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.8.05hin

Huber, M. (2000). Gebrochenes Ausländerdeutsch als moderner Sprechstil. Sprachspiegel 56(2), 62-64.

Kern, F., & Selting, M. (Eds.) (2011). Ethnic styles of speaking in European metropolitan areas. John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.8

Kerswill, P., Cheshire, J., Fox, S., & Torgersen, E. (2007). Linguistic innovators: The English of adolescents in London. Final report submitted to the ESRC.

Koppensteiner, W., & Lenz, A. (2020). Tracing a standard language in Austria using microvariations of Verbal and Matched Guise Technique. Linguistik online 102(2), 47-48. https://doi.org/10.13092/lo.102.6816

Kotsinas, U.-B. (1988). Immigrant children's Swedish: A new variety? Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development 9(1-2), 129-140. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.1988.9994324

Krefeld, T. (2004). Einführung in die Migrationslinguistik. Gunter Narr.

Krefeld, T., & Pustka, E. (2010). Für eine perzeptive Varietätenlinguistik. In T. Krefeld, & E. Pustka (Eds.), Perzeptive Varietätenlinguistik (pp.

-129). Peter Lang.

Lehtonen, H. (2011). Developing multiethnic youth language in Helsinki. In F. Kern, & M. Selting (Eds.), Ethnic styles of speaking in European metropolitan areas (pp. 291-318). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.8.12leh

Man in Helvetica (2010). Ausländerdeutsch. http://maninhelvetica.blogspot.com/2010/09/deutsch-fur-anfanger.html

Marzo, S., & Ceuleers, E. (2011). The use of Citétaal among adolescents in Limburg: The role of space appropriation in language variation and change. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 32(5), 451-464. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2011.597560

Montefiori, N. (2017). Präpupertärer Zweitspracherwerb im Deutschschweizer Kontext. University of Fribourg PhD thesis.

Morand, M.-A., Bruno, M., Julmi, N., Schwab, S., & Schmid, S. (2019a). The voicing of lenis plosives in Zurich German: a sociophonetic marker of (multi-)ethnolectal speech. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Melbourne. https://icphs2019.org/icphs2019-fullpapers/pdf/full-paper_707.pdf

Morand, M.-A., Bruno, M., Julmi, N., Schwab, S., & Schmid, S. (2019b). Duration of word-initial fricatives in Zurich German: A sociophonetic marker of (multi-)ethnolectal speech. Talk at Phonetik und Phonologie 15, Düsseldorf, 26 September.

Morand, M.-A., Bruno, M., Julmi, N., Schwab, S., & Schmid, S. (2020). Speech rhythm in multiethnolectal Zurich German. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody. Tokyo (virtual). https://doi.org/10.21437/SpeechProsody.2020-116

Morand, M.-A., Schwab, S., & Schmid, S. (accepted). Standarddeutsche Interferenzen im Dialektwortschatz Schweizer Jugendlicher: Lexikalische und lautliche Entlehnungen. Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquée (Vals-Asla).

Nortier, J., & Dorleijn, M. (2013). Multiethnolects: Kebabnorsk, Perkerdansk, Verlan, Kanakensprache, Straattaal, etc. In P. Bakker, & Y. Matras (Eds.), Contact languages: A comprehensive guide (pp. 229-271). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614513711.229

Nortier, J., & Svendsen, B. A. (Eds.) (2015). Language, youth and identity in the 21st century: Linguistic practices across urban spaces. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139061896

Opsahl, T., & Røyneland, U. (2016). Reality rhymes: Recognition of rap in multicultural Norway. Linguistics and Education 36, 45-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2016.06.003

Pike, K. (1967). Etic and emic standpoints for the description of behavior. In K. L. Pike (Ed.), Language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of human behavior (pp. 37-72). Mouton & Co. https://doi.org/10.1037/14786-002

Preston, D. R. (1999). Handbook of perceptual dialectology. John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/z.hpd1

Pustka, E. (2007). Phonologie et varietés en contact. Ayeronnais et Guadeloupéens à Paris. Gunter Narr.

Quist, P. (2010). The sociolinguistic study of youth and multilingual practices in Denmark. In P. Quist, & B. A. Svendsen (Eds.), Multilingual urban Scandinavia: New linguistic practices (pp. 6-11). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847693143-005

Quist, P., & Svendsen, B. A. (Eds.) (2010). Multilingual urban Scandinavia: New linguistic practices. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847693143

Rash, F. (1998). The German language in Switzerland: multilingualism, diglossia and variation. Peter Lang.

Riegelnig, J. (2012). Wie spricht Zürich? Stadt Zürich. https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/prd/de/index/statistik/publikationen‑angebote/publikationen/webartikel/2012-09-06_Wie-spricht-Zuerich.html

Schmid, S. (2012). Segmental features of Swiss German ethnolects. In S. Calamai, C. Celata, & L. Ciucci (Eds.), Sociophonetics, at the crossroads of speech variation, processing and communication (pp. 69-72). Scuola Normale Superiore.

Schmid, S. (2017). Differenzierungsprozesse im Sprachgebrauch von Jugendlichen in der Deutschschweiz: zur sozialen Interpretation von ethnolektalen Sprechweisen in Schweizer Medien. Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquée (Vals-Asla) Special Issue(1), 105-116.

Schmid, S. (2020). Swiss German dialects spoken by second-generation immigrants: Bilingual speech and dialect transformation. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1730386

Schmutz, C. (2013). Balkanslang: Die Sprache geht nicht unter. SRF Literatur. https://www.srf.ch/kultur/literatur/ balkanslang-die-sprache-geht-nicht-unter

Siegel, V. (2018). Multiethnolektale Syntax: Artikel, Präpositionen und Pronomen in der Jugendsprache. Universitätsverlag Winter.

Stadt Zürich (2018). Bevölkerung nach Nationalität, Stadtkreis und Stadtquartier, seit 1993. https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/dam/stzh/prd/Deutsch/Statistik/Themen/Bevoelkerung/BEV336T3360_Bevoelkerung_nach-Nationalitaet-Stadtkreis-Stadtquartier.xlsx

Stadt Zürich (2019). Ausländische Bevölkerung nach Nationalität und Aufenthaltsart, seit 1993. https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/dam/stzh/prd/Deutsch/Statistik/Themen/Bevoelkerung/BEV337T3370_Auslaendische-Bevoelkerung_nach-Nationalitaet-Aufenthaltsart.xlsx

Sullivan, C. (2006). Towards an integrated perceptual sociolinguistics. Haverford College Senior thesis.

Svendsen, B. A. (2015). Language, youth and identity in the 21st century: Content and continuations. In J. Nortier, & B. A. Svendsen (Eds.), Language, youth and identity in the 21st century: Linguistic practices across urban spaces (pp. 3-23). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139061896.002

Tissot, F., Schmid, S., & Galliker, E. (2011). Ethnolektales Schweizerdeutsch. In E. Glaser, J. E. Schmidt, & N. Frey (Eds.), Dynamik des Dialekts: Wandel und Variation (pp. 319-344). Steiner Verlag.

Torgersen, E., & Szakay, A. (2012). An investigation of speech rhythm in London English. Lingua 122, 822-840. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.01.004

Wiese, H. (2006). "Ich mach dich Messer": Grammatische Produktivität in Kiez-Sprache ("Kanak Sprak"). Linguistische Berichte 207, 245-273.

Woker, M. (2008, December 12). Der Balkan und seine Grenzen. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, https://www.nzz.ch

Published

2020-12-30

How to Cite

Morand, M.-A. ., Schwab, S. ., & Schmid, S. . (2020). The perception of multiethnolectal Zurich German: A continuum rather than clear-cut categories. Loquens, 7(2), e072. https://doi.org/10.3989/loquens.2020.072

Issue

Section

Articles