Comparative Sociolinguistic Studies in German
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Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Honors Theses Lee Honors College 5-29-2012 The Sound and the Fury: Comparative Sociolinguistic Studies in German Logan C. Pecinovsky Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses Part of the German Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Pecinovsky, Logan C., "The Sound and the Fury: Comparative Sociolinguistic Studies in German" (2012). Honors Theses. 2201. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/2201 This Honors Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Lee Honors College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Sound and the Fury: Comparative Sociolinguistic Studies in German An Undergraduate Honors Thesis by Logan Pecinovsky Presented to Dr. Peter Blickle, Dr. Paul Johnston and Dr. Thomas Kostrzewa on May 29, 2012 In fulfillment of the graduation requirements for The Carl and Winifred Lee Honors College of Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI 2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Anecdotal evidence 8 1.2 Thesis 9 1.3 Section Overview 9 1.4 Items Excluded 10 1.5 Methodology 10 2. German History, Ancient to Early Modern 10 2.1 Early German Tribes (Ancient World – 800) 10 2.2 Holy Roman Empire (800 – 1806) 11 2.3 Sociolinguistic Affects 12 3. German Dialects in Comparison 14 3.1 Temporal and Spatial Background 14 3.2 Phonology 15 3.2.1 Upper Saxon 15 3.2.2 Westphalian 16 3.2.3 East Franconian 17 3.3 Morphology 18 3.4 Lexicon 22 3.5 Dialects Today 23 4. German History, Post-1945 23 4.1 Division 24 4.2 Features and Conditions 24 4.2.1 Alliances 24 4.2.2 Foreign Policy 25 3 4.2.3 Government 25 4.2.4 Economy and Industry 26 4.2.5 Society 28 4.2.6 Ideology 29 4.2.7 Diglossia 29 5. Unique Language 30 5.1 Neologisms 30 5.1.1 Economics and Industry 30 5.1.2 Everyday Language 31 5.1.3 Politics 32 5.2 Semantic and Lexical Shifts 32 5.3 Russian Loans in the East 34 5.4 Anglicization 35 5.5 Obsolescence in the East 35 5.6 Conflict Model 36 5.7 Unique Syntax 37 5.8 Language Planning 38 6. Division and the Linguistic Impact of Unification 39 6.1 Perceptions of Language Drift 39 6.2 Unification and a Language in Flux 40 6.3 Sociolinguistic Impact and Discrimination 41 7. Linguistic Variation in Context 42 7.1 Contributing factors 43 7.1.1 Time 43 7.1.2 Space 43 4 7.1.3 Historical Origins 44 7.1.4 Lexicon 44 7.1.5 Phonology 45 7.1.6 Morphology 45 7.2 The Influence of Dialects and the Non-issue of the Cold War 45 7.3 Brief History of the Development of the Standard Dialect 46 7.4 Speech Community v. Communication Community 47 8. Conclusion 48 8.1 Topics for Future Study 48 8.2 Closing Thoughts 48 9. Appendix 50 9.1 Map of East Franconian Dialect Region 50 9.2 Map of Upper Saxon Dialect Region 51 9.3 Map of Westphalian Dialect Region 52 9.4 Map of High German Consonant Shift 53 9.5 Map of German Dialects 54 10. Works Cited 55 11. Declaration 55 5 List of Abbreviations Terms and Dialects CDU Christlisch Demokratische Union (Christian Democratic Union) CG Central German CSU Christliche-Soziale Union (Christian Social Union, CDU‟s sister party in Bavaria) EF East Franconian EEC European Economic Community EMG East Middle German FDP Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) FRG Free Republic of Germany (West Germany) GDR German Democratic Republic (East Germany) HG High German HRE Holy Roman Empire LG Low German MHG Middle High German MP Mönsterplänsk Platt NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NF North Franconian NHG New High German NM North Meißen SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschland (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (Social Democratic Party of Germany) STASI Ministerium für Staatsicherheit (Ministry of State Security) Sw Swabian WE West Erzgebirge WEU Western European Union WLG West Low German Wph Westphalian UG Upper German US Upper Saxon Linguistic Terms 1st/2nd/3rd 1st/2nd/3rd person (cases) Acc. accusative F feminine inf. infinitive M masculine N neuter Nom. nominative Pl. plural 6 Pp. past participle pret. preterite pres. present tense sg. singular List of Phonetic Symbols Consonants pf labial affricate, as in NHG Pfad ts alveolar affricate, as in NHG Zeit p voiceless bilabial plosive, as in pen, spin, tip b voiced bilabial plosive, as in but, web t voiceless alveolar plosive, as in two, sting, bet d voiced alveolar plosive, as in do, odd k voiceless velar plosive, as in cat, kill, skin, queen, unique, thick ɡ voiced velar plosive, as in go, get, beg f voiceless labio-dental fricative, as in fool, enough, leaf, off, photo v voiced labio-dental fricative, as in voice, have, of w bilabial semi-vowel or fricative, as in we, queen β voiced bilabial fricative, as in NHG wo s voiceless alveolar fricative, as in see, city, pass z voiced alveolar fricative, as in zoo, rose ʃ voiceless palate-alveolar fricative, as in she, sure, session, emotion, leash ʒ voiced palate-alveolar fricative, as in pleasure, beige, equation, seizure ç voiceless palatal fricative, as in NHG ich j voiced palatal fricative or approximant, as in yes χ voiceless velar fricative, as in (Scottish) loch ɣ voiced velar fricative, as in NHG lagen l alveolar lateral, as in left, bell ɫ velarized alveolar lateral, as in Viennese bisserl m bilabial nasal, as in man, ham ɱ labio-dental nasal, as in NHG Senf n alveolar nasal, as in no, tin ƞ velar nasal, as in ringer, sing, finger, drink r alveolar trill, fricative or approximant, as in run, very ɾ alveolar flap, as in NHG Vater ʀ uvular trill, fricative or approximant, as in NHG reiten th or tʰ denotes aspiration of preceding consonant 7 Vowels i close high front unrounded vowel, as in city ɪ open high front unrounded vowel, as in sit y close high front rounded vowel, as in NHG Haus ʏ open high front rounded vowel, as in NHG müssen u close high back rounded vowel, as in NHG Suppe ʊ open high back rounded vowel, as in put, hood e half-close mid front unrounded vowel, as in EF [bezə] ɛ half-open mid front unrounded vowel, as in bed æ open low front unrounded vowel, as in lad, bad, pass, path a open low front unrounded vowel, as in NHG Tanne ɑ open low back unrounded vowel, as in NHG macht ɒ open low back rounded vowel, as in not, wasp o half-close mid back rounded vowel, as in Sw [ɡʃbon] ɔ half-open mid back rounded vowel, as in NHG soll œ half-open mid front rounded vowel, as in NHG gönnen ø half-close mid front vowel, as in NHG Flöte ə unstressed half-open central vowel, as in about ɐ unstressed half-open central vowel, as in NHG Bruder Diacritics ˜ nasalization, as in NHG mein : indicates full length of preceding vowel, as in NHG [le:bən] · indicates half length of preceding vowel, as in NF [sna·kəs] [ʃpra:χəﺍ] main stress on following syllable, as in NHG ﺍ ʔ glottal plosive ę indicates more open nature of vowel, as in NHG Herrn 8 1. Introduction 1.1 Anecdotal Evidence One day in the early 1990‟s after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a young East German couple approached two West German real estate agents. The following exchange occurred between them: Relativ schüchtern, ‚fast als Bitsteller,„ nehmen sie die Angebote des Maklers zur Kenntnis, erschrecken über die Mietpreise. Dann bietet ihnen der Makler eine deutlich preisgünstigere Altbauwohnung an, ‚ziemlich Interessantes Angebot,„ wie der Makler betont. Darauf pikierte, schließlich verärgerte Abwehr: Keine Altbauwohnung, nicht mit ihnen, das ließen sie ‚nicht mehr mit sich machen!„. Das Maklerehepaar ist ratlos, schließlich verägert; es hält dies Ehepaar für ‚anspruchsvoll,„ ‚unbegreiflich,„ ‚undankbar,„ es sind halt doch andere Menschen.„ Quite shyly, „almost as if making a humble request,‟ they register the estate agent‟s offers and are shocked by the rents. Then the agent offers them a significantly cheaper flat in an old building, „a pretty interesting offer,‟ the agent stresses. They are put out and then annoyed, and reject the offer: no flat in an old building, not for them, they wouldn‟t „be treated like that anymore!‟ The agents are confused and then annoyed; they consider the couple to be „hard to please,‟ incomprehensible,‟ ungrateful,‟ „they‟re just a different sort of people‟ (italics my own) (Hellmann 132). The two couples could have avoided this unfortunate and embarrassing incident if they had both known that the West German word Altbauwohnung meant “an old flat that had been modernized while retaining its original character” and the same word in East German denoted “a run-down flat with no modern facilities and in desperate need of renovation” (Stevenson 126). Alas, the agents viewed the young couple as unappreciative toward their good opportunity and the East Germans felt the West Germans were being socially discriminatory. They both left the meeting with the sentiment that “they‟re just a different sort of people.” From September 2010 to August 2011 the author lived and studied in Passau, Bavaria, a small city on the German-Austrian border at the confluence of the Inn, Danube and Ilz rivers.