Young people’s perspective of Maribor vernacular

Abstract

Abstract The article deals with the youngsters in a specific secondary school in Maribor which represents a sort of a conglomerate of different social varieties (dialects) of the Slovenian language. This conglomerate raises particular questions regarding perspectives of Maribor vernacular. The survey is based on 68 questionnaries of secondary school pupils. It was conducted in May 2012 in Maribor. All the pupils of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year were interviewed. Questionnaires differenciated between pupils according to their gender, their grade in the school subject of the Slovenian language and according to their place of residence during their schooling. The analysis included two variables, i.e. gender and grade; nevertheless, the latter did not prove to be relevant. During Slovenian language classes, male pupils use LSS more consistently than female pupils do; they both frequently use SDS-2, as well as SDS-1, while during other classes there is almost no LSS. The pupils are consistently corrected during Slovenian language classes, which is not the case during other classes (with the exceptions of history and geography). For Abbreaviations, see footnote 2, p. 8. At school, pupils more frequently use slang with classmates and peers than they use LDS. Moreover, the comparison between the use of slang by female and male pupils shows the growing use of slang by the latter. All the pupils whose current address is not in Maribor notice the influence of their school environment (of Maribor city speech), including German loan words (also typical of Maribor city speech). All pupils whose current address is not in Maribor use these words in informal speech, i.e. with classmates, school employees and other citizens of Maribor.