We are happy to announce a talk by Marieke Einfeldt (Konstanz) in the Phonology Colloquium.
Room: IG 4.301
Date: November 06, 2024
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct
Title: „Differences of prenuclear accents and stops in the two varieties of Zurich German speakers: A within speaker comparison”
Abstract:
While research on the two languages of bilingual speakers has already received a lot of
attention (see e.g., Chang, 2021 for an overview), research on the two varieties of bilectal
speakers is still scarce (Kupisch et al., 2023). I will present findings from the analyses of two
closely related Swiss German varieties (Zurich German and Swiss Standard German) spoken
by the same speakers and compare them to a Standard German control group.
We focused on segmental (VOT and closure duration) and prosodic (prenuclear
accents) properties that have the potential to differ in the dialectal and in the standard
realizations: Zurich German stops have been reported to differ based on closure duration, while
Standard German stops are differentiated based on VOT (Ladd & Schmid, 2018; Jessen, 1998)
and Swiss German varieties and Standard German differ in their pitch accent choices and
realizations (Ulbrich, 2005).
We recorded ten Swiss native speakers who read alternative questions of the type ‘Do
you want –target– or X?’ in Zurich German and in Swiss Standard German and a control group
from Germany. Results show that the Swiss Standard German stop pattern lies in-between the
Zurich German and the German Standard German pattern. The intonation contour of both
standard varieties, however, is remarkably similar and differs from the dialect. I will discuss
the findings in light of cross-varietal influence and from an acquisitional perspective.