How Does the Educational Level Affect the Affrication of k in Swiss Standard German?

Abstract

This paper explores sociolinguistic variation found for the phonetic variable (k) in Swiss Standard German. Data is based on sociolinguistic interviews, including conversational passages, two reading tasks, and translation tasks, gathered from 16 Biel-born adults (all working and living in Biel) ranging from age 19 to 39. Results show that educational level is a robust predictor for explaining (k) variation (i. e. [kh] vs. [kx]). Secondary educated participants were significantly more likely to use affricated variants than tertiary educated participants.