Stephan Elspass: Zum Wandel im Gebrauch regionalsprachlicher Lexik. Ergebnisse einer Neuerhebung
A characteristic feature of vernacular speech and colloquial standard usage (as opposed to traditional dialects and the standard language itself) is their linguistic instability, which makes them susceptible for various forms of contact-induced language change. In an internet survey conducted in 2002, about 1,500 informants from Germany, Austria and Switzerland were asked to comment on eleven selected items from the first two volumes of the Wortatlas der deutschen Umgangssprachen [Atlas of the Colloquial Varieties of German] (WDU 1977/78). A series of new maps was drawn and compared with the WDU maps. The new maps revealed considerable changes in the use of regional lexis. In the present article, most of the changes are interpreted here as result of the convergence and divergence of the various speech communities in the German speaking countries. Some of the findings, however, indicate a noticeable spread of ‘southern’ variants in the northern Germany, and it is suggested that this development is the result of an increase in the covert prestige of southern German regionalisms.