Proyecto de investigación de la formación de dialectos (FORDIAL)

Abstract

The research project on Dialect Formation (DIALFOR) focuses on dialect contact between southern varieties of Spanish in urban contexts boosted by migration from the rural Hinterland in Andalusia in the course of the last thirty years. Either loyalty to rural vernacular varieties or convergence towards regional and national standard is constrained by the speakers' degree of integration into the large (urban) speech community. The analysis of the social networks where ordinary people live and communicate allows us to explain the speakers' choices. To carry out this research, two sample surveys (Granada and Malaga) using the same fieldwork methodology and theoretical background have been prepared, where commuters and migrant citizens are separated. A third control group of speakers is studied in each rural community where migrants come from. Theoretical foundations and empirical bases are taken from contemporary trends of European social dialectology research on dialect convergence and divergence (Auer/ Hinskens, 1996a; Mattheier, 2000), with special reference to studies on dialect formation in new towns (Kerswill, 1994a, 2002). Long term network research carried out on Malaga and Granada speech communities are taken as a point of depart (Villena, 1994, 2001; Moya, 1997, 1998).