Increased Breathiness in Adolescent Kiezdeutsch Speakers: A Marker of Multiethnolectal Group Affiliation?

Abstract

Kiezdeutsch is a multiethnolectal variety of German spoken by young people from multicultural communities that exhibits lexical, syntactic, and phonetic differences from standard German. A rather salient and pervasive feature of this variety is the fronting of the standard palatal fricative /ç/ (as in ich "I") to [ɕ] or [ʃ]. Previous perception work shows that this difference is salient and carries social meaning but dependent on the listener group. Further investigations also point to the significance of /ɔɪ/-fronting in production; however, whether this is salient in perception has not yet been investigated. In several (multi)ethnolectal varieties, differences in voice quality compared to the standard have been identified. Therefore, in this study, we present an acoustic comparison of voice quality in adolescent speakers of Kiezdeutsch and standard German, with results showing that Kiezdeutsch speakers produce a breathier voice quality. In addition, we report on a perception test designed to examine the social meaning of voice quality in combination with two segmental cues: coronalization of /ç/ and /ɔɪ/-fronting. The results indicate perceptual gradience for phonetic alternations detected in Kiezdeutsch with coronalization of /ç/ being a highly salient and reliable marker, whereas fronting of /ɔɪ/ and breathy voice do not appear to be clearly enregistered features of Kiezdeutsch by all listeners. Thus, even though we find differences in production, these may not necessarily be relevant in perception, pointing toward enregisterment- like sound change-being a continuous process of forming learned associations through tokens of experiences.