Abstract
This paper intends to show the importance of having linguistic instruments, principally semantic ones, for determining the meaning of words with the greatest precision and, consequently, managing to meticulously establish the different meanings of a dictionary's entry words. As an example, a new definition of the Spanish verb mezclar ('to mix') will b Since the beginning of the publication of the linguistic atlas of German-speaking Switzerland (Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz, SDS) in the early 1960s individual linguists collected contemporary material for comparison to investigate language change. However, due to time and money restrictions these studies were limited to small parts of the language area only. So far a description of tendencies concerning the entire Swiss German language area is missing. Based on an online-survey of 5600 informants this investigation is the first to present word geographic data covering (almost) the whole German-speaking Switzerland. Comparing GIS-maps of SDS and online data of the dialectal lexemes for freckles, onion and butterfly, language change over the last century becomes apparent, with striking convergence tendencies towards standard German, but also a Swiss German dialect expanding its range. Most of the dialect words mentioned in the SDS were preserved; some new were found. Thus, diversity of lexicon and creative language use are not endangered. Statistical analysis showed that younger speakers are more likely to deviate from the SDS. Less strong, but still significant were the influence of the parent's dialect and the duration of living in the dialect area, whereas gender had no influence.
Highlights
Based on an online-survey of 5600 informants this investigation is the first to present word geographic data covering the whole German-speaking Switzerland
Im Einleitungstext des Fragebogens wurden die Probanden explizit gebeten, das in ihrer Mundart am häufigsten verwendete Wort zu markieren
Hotzenköcherle 1962: 121), gaben zur Online-Befragung – wie dies auch in anderen Untersuchungen festgestellt wurde
Summary
Mit dem Sprachatlas der deutschen Schweiz (SDS; Erhebungen in den Jahren 1939–58) liegt für den Deutschschweizer Sprachraum umfangreiches Kartenmaterial zur Laut-, Wort- und Formengeografie der ersten Hälfte des 20. Da die Erfassung phonetischer Feinheiten linguistisch geschulter Interviewer bedarf, blieb man methodisch der direkten Erhebung des SDS verpflichtet und beschränkte sich, u. Im Gegensatz dazu war die im Folgenden beschriebene Untersuchung darauf angelegt, wie der SDS den gesamten Deutschschweizer Raum zu erfassen. Um Dialektsprechende mit möglichst breiter regionaler Streuung bei überschaubarem zeitlichen Aufwand für die Teilnahme gewinnen zu können, wurde statt mit der direkten Befragung in Interviews mit der indirekten Erhebung in Form einer Online-Befragung gearbeitet. Ziel der Untersuchung war es, exemplarisch aktuelle wortgeografische Daten zu erheben, die über den Vergleich mit SDS-Karten Aussagen zu Veränderungstendenzen in der Deutschschweizer Dialektlandschaft der letzten gut 70 Jahre erlauben.
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