Convergence and Divergence in the Swiss German Dialects

Abstract

In view of the medial diglossia which determines language use in German-speaking Switzerland, the changes presently emerging in this dialect area are of particular interest. Will the use of the speaker's own local dialect with people speaking a different Swiss German dialect lead to convergence of dialects? And will the omnipresent standard German variety lead to convergence with the other German-speaking countries? This study reports on 'natural' changes in the old 'base dialects' which tend to lead to convergence within German-speaking Switzerland. In a few cases they also lead to divergence from standard German. Furthermore, the use of variants confined to a small area decreases, a process leading to larger dialect areas in the end. On the level of the lexicon there are clear signs of convergence with standard German. Moreover, when inexperienced speakers 'translate' a text written in standard German into the dialect, as is often the case in public speech, the influence of the standard language is undeniable. However, the dialect changes found in the data are not to the extent that the origin of young speakers cannot be localised any longer