Details
| Translated title of the contribution | "The purest German is spoken in Hanover.": Results of a representative survey about a language myth |
|---|---|
| Original language | German |
| Pages (from-to) | 61-74 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Muttersprache : Vierteljahresschrift für deutsche Sprache |
| Volume | 131 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 15 Mar 2021 |
Abstract
For more than 200 years, Hanover (Lower Saxony, Germany) is known as the locus of the »best« or »purest« articulation of the German language. It is a common belief amongst the German speaking community that the Hanoverians speak a variety of High German close to the standard. This paper presents the results of the first representative survey about the dissemination of this «Han-over-myth», conducted in October 2020 as a part of the project «Die Stadtsprache Hannovers» («The urban vernacular of Hanover», funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG). This survey not only focuses on the loci of the «best High German» but also on possible regions without dialectal interferences in standard performance and the geographical poles of compre-hensibility to get a bigger picture of lay speaker's conceptualization of High German standard. The results of the representative survey indicate that the language myth of the «purest» German in Hanover is alive: The capital of Lower Saxony indeed is widely considered as the focus point of standard localization by lay speakers all over Germany. The findings further show that the German standard variety is highly conceptualized by phonetic-phonological factors. Regionally and socially determined differences in concepts and localization appear as well, which are also discussed.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Arts and Humanities(all)
- Language and Linguistics
- Social Sciences(all)
- Linguistics and Language
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In: Muttersprache : Vierteljahresschrift für deutsche Sprache, Vol. 131, No. 1, 15.03.2021, p. 61-74.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - »Das reinste Deutsch wird in Hannover gesprochen.«
T2 - Ergebnisse einer repräsentativen Umfrage zu einem linguistischen Mythos.
AU - Conrad, Francois
AU - Ehrlich, Stefan
PY - 2021/3/15
Y1 - 2021/3/15
N2 - For more than 200 years, Hanover (Lower Saxony, Germany) is known as the locus of the »best« or »purest« articulation of the German language. It is a common belief amongst the German speaking community that the Hanoverians speak a variety of High German close to the standard. This paper presents the results of the first representative survey about the dissemination of this «Han-over-myth», conducted in October 2020 as a part of the project «Die Stadtsprache Hannovers» («The urban vernacular of Hanover», funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG). This survey not only focuses on the loci of the «best High German» but also on possible regions without dialectal interferences in standard performance and the geographical poles of compre-hensibility to get a bigger picture of lay speaker's conceptualization of High German standard. The results of the representative survey indicate that the language myth of the «purest» German in Hanover is alive: The capital of Lower Saxony indeed is widely considered as the focus point of standard localization by lay speakers all over Germany. The findings further show that the German standard variety is highly conceptualized by phonetic-phonological factors. Regionally and socially determined differences in concepts and localization appear as well, which are also discussed.
AB - For more than 200 years, Hanover (Lower Saxony, Germany) is known as the locus of the »best« or »purest« articulation of the German language. It is a common belief amongst the German speaking community that the Hanoverians speak a variety of High German close to the standard. This paper presents the results of the first representative survey about the dissemination of this «Han-over-myth», conducted in October 2020 as a part of the project «Die Stadtsprache Hannovers» («The urban vernacular of Hanover», funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG). This survey not only focuses on the loci of the «best High German» but also on possible regions without dialectal interferences in standard performance and the geographical poles of compre-hensibility to get a bigger picture of lay speaker's conceptualization of High German standard. The results of the representative survey indicate that the language myth of the «purest» German in Hanover is alive: The capital of Lower Saxony indeed is widely considered as the focus point of standard localization by lay speakers all over Germany. The findings further show that the German standard variety is highly conceptualized by phonetic-phonological factors. Regionally and socially determined differences in concepts and localization appear as well, which are also discussed.
KW - Hanoverism
KW - Language ideology
KW - Language myth
KW - Metalinguistic awareness
KW - Perception
KW - Representative survey
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105068967&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.15488/18281
DO - 10.15488/18281
M3 - Artikel
VL - 131
SP - 61
EP - 74
JO - Muttersprache : Vierteljahresschrift für deutsche Sprache
JF - Muttersprache : Vierteljahresschrift für deutsche Sprache
SN - 0027-514X
IS - 1
ER -