TY - THES
KW - Linguistics
KW - Language use
KW - Dialects
KW - Kitchener
KW - Waterloo
KW - Interviews
AU - Sarah Darling
AB - Recent work in sociolinguistics suggest that how linguists view language matters very little when it comes to language evaluations and language change. Instead, Preston 1 argues that linguists should concentrate on the perceptions and attitudes of users of the language(s) in question. This study used Perceptual Dialectology to look at the German-Canadian attitudes towards traditional dialects in Kitchener, Canada. During face-to-face interviews, 24 participants rated 14 German dialects in terms of correctness, pleasantness, and similarity. In addition, social factors were gathered for each participant, and qualitative analysis was carried out on their comments. North/south divisions were found in the ratings for pleasantness and correctness, and elements of prestige were clearly attached to the Standard German dialect. The participants also had a tendency to rate their own heritage dialects higher than average in all categories. The results from this study indicate that dialect speakers face discrimination in social and educational settings. Keywords. German, dialects, diaspora language attitudes, perceptual dialectology 1 Preston, D. (1989) Preceptual Dialectology: Nonlinguists' Views of Areal Language. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.
C7 - Unknown(0)
CY - Canada
DP - ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
ET - M.A.
ID - 784
LA - English
M1 - Dissertation/Thesis
M3 - Print(0)
PB - University of Alberta
PP - Canada
PY - 2007
SP - 1
EP - 114
EP - 
T1 - German-Canadian folk linguistic perceptions of traditional dialects
ER -