German or Not German: That Is the Question! On the Status of the Autochthonous Dialects in East Lorraine (France)
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- Its standard variety is widespread in a (whole) nation state; and
- This standard variety is an official language in this state.
- (a)
- Do the speakers even succeed in expressing their sociolinguistic situation?
- (b)
- If yes, what status do they attribute to their Lorraine dialects? Are these dialects constructed as varieties of German, or are they regrouped as a language in its own right?
- (c)
- What categories, arguments, and themes do they bring up?
2. On the Subjective Perspective on Language and Its Use
3. Monolingualism and Multilingualism in Europe
3.1. Their Lay Conceptualization
- There is a group of varieties A, i.e., a set of closely related varieties, whose standard language (A0) is recognized as an official language in an autonomous state and is used as the language of instruction in schools there (in line with the congruence of state and language, the roots of state name and glottonyme are typically the same, i.e., Danish is spoken in Denmark, Polish in Poland, German in Germany, etc.). The other varieties of the same group/spoken in this country (A1-...) are typologically sufficiently similar to the standard but have a low communicative range both socially and regionally;
- In another state, the same situation now exists with a group of varieties B, which is typologically clearly distinguishable from the group of varieties A;
- In such a case, one would speak of two languages (being foreign to each other) with their respective dialects which are foreign to each other.
3.2. German Speaking Border Minorities
4. Past and Present of East Lorraine
- In 1871, France had to concede it to the German Reich;
- At the end of the First World War, the conceded territories became French again;
- In June 1940, the departement Moselle was immediately reattached to the German Reich (100,000 “non-assimilable” Lorraine residents were deported to unoccupied France, some of whom left “voluntarily”);
- At the beginning of 1945, the occupied territories became French again. Since that time. the German dialects constitute a minority in the French diasystem.
5. Data Description and Method
6. The Speakers’ Perspective
6.1. Situation and Perception
6.2. What the Speakers Tell US
6.2.1. “German” Refers to Germany
- German Must Be Learnt
- (2)
- Es ist (.) sehr leicht, die deutsche Sprache zu lernen, find ich bald. Deutsch zu lernen, umb/äh/aber bei uns hat, (.) wie soll ich sagen, das Ohr alles gemacht. (SZ-m1)It is (.) very easy to learn the German language, in my opinion. To learn German, um/uhh/but with us, (.) how shall I put this, the ear has done everything.
- (3)
- Die, die Mundart können, beherrschen auch Hochdeutsch ziemlich gut. (BL-w3)Those who speak dialect also speak High German fairly well.
- German Is a Foreign Language
- (4)
- Deutsch, also Hochdeutsch, ist für mich doch etwas wie eine Fremdsprache. (BL-m2)German, by which I mean High German, is something of a foreign language for me.
- (5)
- Hier sollte man nur Deutsch sowieso/äh/erste Fremdsprache. Also, also sollte/eigentlich keine so richtige Fremdsprache. (BL-m1)Here you should only [teach] German anyway/uh/first foreign language. Well, should/it’s not a real foreign language.
- Language and Nation
- (6)
- Nee, Deutsch ist kein/Plattdeutsch ist (.) eine Sprache des Landes, oder/ich weiß nicht. Jeden/jedes Land hat seine Sprache, ne? (NL-w1)Nah, German is not/Plattdeutsch is (.) a language of the country, or/I don’t know. Every country has its own language, doesn’t it?
- (7)
- Wir sind Lothringer, wir sprechen Platt. […] Wir sind auch keine richtigen Franzosen, wir sind Lothringer. Und auch keine Deutsche. Wir sind Lothringer. (BL-m6)We are Lorraine, we speak Platt. [...] We are not really French either, we are Lorraine. And we are not German either. We are Lorraine.
- (8)
- Die von hier: Lothringisch, Elsass-Lothringisch, die wir heute noch sprechen. (SB-w6)The one from here: Lorraine, Alsace-Lorraine, which we still speak until today.
6.2.2. “German” Refers to Lorraine
- Linguistic Continua
- (9)
- Der Platt vom Bitscherland, das ist doch mehr Deutsch. (DE-m2)The Platt from the country of Bitche, that is more German.
- (10)
- Platt und Luxemburger—das ist nicht dieselbe Sprache, hein? Fast dieselbe Sprache, kann man auch sagen. (DE-m2)Platt and Luxembourgish—they are not the same language, are they? You could also say, they are almost the same language.
- Lorraine Is German
- (11)
- Wir reden Platt. Aber wir haben immer gesagt: ‚Wir reden Deutsch.’ Und ich finde das noch am besten. Das ist trotzdem der beste Begriff. Für mich. Wir reden Deutsch oder wir reden Platt. Jo. Mit Platt, Platt kann ich mich anfreunden. Weil das heißt, es gibt die Hochsprache, Schriftsprache. Und es gibt diese verschiedenen Dialekte; wenn man das jetzt Platt nennt, warum nicht. (BL-m2)We speak Platt. But we have always said: ‘We speak German.’ And I like that the most. That is still the best term. For me. We speak German or we speak Platt. Yeah. I can come to like Platt. Because that means that there is the high language, written language. And there are these different dialects; and if you call that Platt, why wouldn’t you?
- (12)
- Die sagen immer (.) Platt. Und wir reden kein Platt, wir reden Deutsch. […] Jeder sagt das so, Platt. Aber in Wirklichkeit sprechen wir (.) kein Platt. Und ich rede/ich spreche nur Deutsch, also kein Platt. (lacht) Wenn jemand sagt: ‚Redest du Platt?’, sage ich ihm: Hm. (.) Passt gar nicht. (lacht) […] Spreche Deutsch, ja. (SL-m5)They always say (.) Platt. And we don’t speak Platt, we speak German. [...] Everybody says that, Platt. But in fact we (.) don’t speak Platt. And I speak/I only speak German, not Platt. (laughs) If someone says: ‘Do you speak Platt?’, I tell him: Hm. (.) Doesn’t fit. (laughs) [...] I speak German, yes.
- (13)
- Ja, die Muttersprache war/war Deutsch. Ja, ja. War/war Platt, ne? (SL-m6)Yes, the mother tongue was/was German. Yes, yes. Was/was Platt, wasn’t it?
- (14)
- Meine Muttersprache ist ein/eindeutig äh/Dialekt und Deutsch. (.) War, also, ist immer noch. (KG-m9)My mother tongue is def/definitely äh/dialect and German. (.) Was, well, it still is.
7. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
- Académie de Nancy-Metz. 1990. Circulaire Rectorale Langue et Culture Regionales: Voie Specifique Mosellane. Nancy: Académie de Nancy-Metz. [Google Scholar]
- Adler, Astrid. 2019. Sprachstatistik in Deutschland. Deutsche Sprache 19: 197–219. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Adler, Astrid. 2021. Language or dialect, that is the question. How Attitudes Affect Language Statistics Using the Example of Low German. In Language Attitudes, Vitality and Development. Edited by Marco Tamburelli. Special issue, Languages 6. [Google Scholar]
- Adler, Astrid, and Rahel Beyer. 2018. Languages and language policies in Germany/Sprachen und Sprachenpolitik in Deutschland. In National Language Institutions and National Languages. Contributions to the EFNIL Conference 2017 in Mannheim. Edited by Gerhard Stickel. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Institute for Linguistics, pp. 221–42. [Google Scholar]
- Adler, Astrid, Christiane Ehlers, Reinhard Goltz, Andrea Kleene, and Albrecht Plewnia. 2018. The Current Status and Use of Low German. Initial Results of a Representative Study. Bremen/Mannheim: Institut für niederdeutsche Sprache and Institut für Deutsche Sprache. [Google Scholar]
- Ammon, Ulrich. 2015. Die Stellung der Deutschen Sprache in der Welt. Die Standardsprache in Österreich, der Schweiz, Deutschland, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Ostbelgien und Südtirol sowie Rumänien, Namibia und Mexiko. Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter. [Google Scholar]
- Auer, Peter. 2004. Sprache, Grenze, Raum. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 23: 149–79. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Auer, Peter. 2018. Das Beste zweier Welten: Das Bild elsässischer Dialektsprecher von den Deutschen, den Franzosen und sich selbst. In Variation–Normen–Identitäten. Edited by Alexandra Lenz and Albrecht Plewnia. Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter, pp. 5–40. [Google Scholar]
- Barbour, Stephen. 2004. National Language and Official Language. Nationalsprache und Amtssprache. In Sociolinguistics. Soziolinguistik. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Wissenschaft von Sprache und Gesellschaft. Edited by Ulrich Ammon, Norbert Dittmar and Klaus J. Mattheier. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, vol. 1, pp. 288–96. [Google Scholar]
- Barbour, Stephen, and Patrick Stevenson. 1998. Variation im Deutschen. Soziolinguistische Perspektiven. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter. [Google Scholar]
- Beyer, Rahel, and Fernand Fehlen. 2019. Der germanophone Teil Lothringens. In Handbuch des Deutschen in West-und Mitteleuropa. Sprachminderheiten und Mehrsprachigkeitskonstellationen. Edited by Rahel Beyer and Albrecht Plewnia. Tübingen: Narr, pp. 106–54. [Google Scholar]
- Beyer, Rahel, and Albrecht Plewnia, eds. 2019. Handbuch des Deutschen in West- und Mitteleuropa. Sprachminderheiten und Mehrsprachigkeitskonstellationen. Tübingen: Narr. [Google Scholar]
- Beyer, Rahel, and Albrecht Plewnia. 2021. Über Grenzen. Deutschsprachige Minderheiten in Europa. In Deutsch in Europa. Sprachpolitisch, grammatisch, methodisch. Jahrbuch des Instituts für Deutsche Sprache 2020. Edited by Henning Lobin, Andreas Witt and Angelika Wöllstein. Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter, pp. 35–54. [Google Scholar]
- Bouillon, Heinz. 2019. Deutsch in Ostbelgien. In Handbuch des Deutschen in West- und Mitteleuropa. Sprachminderheiten und Mehrsprachigkeitskonstellationen. Edited by Rahel Beyer and Albrecht Plewnia. Tübingen: Narr, pp. 47–70. [Google Scholar]
- Busch, Brigitta. 2019. Sprachreflexion und Diskurs: Theorien und Methoden der Sprachideologieforschung. In Handbuch Sprache im Urteil der Öffentlichkeit. Edited by Gerd Antos, Thomas Niehr and Jürgen Spitzmüller. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, pp. 107–39. [Google Scholar]
- Coulmas, Florian. 1985. Sprache und Staat. Studien zur Sprachplanung. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter. [Google Scholar]
- Darquennes, Jeroen. 2019. Komplexe Überdachung III: Belgien. In Language and Space. An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation. vol. 4: Deutsch. Edited by Joachim Herrgen and Jürgen Erich Schmidt. Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 1060–76. [Google Scholar]
- Drenda, Georg. 2019. Hunsrücker Platt. Dialekte zwischen Mosel, Rhein, Nahe und Saar. St. Ingbert: Röhrig Universitätsverlag. [Google Scholar]
- Eichinger, Ludwig M. 2006. Soziolinguistik und Sprachminderheiten. In Sociolinguistics. Soziolinguistik. Ein internationales Handbuch zur Wissenschaft von Sprache und Gesellschaft. Edited by Ulrich Ammon, Norbert Dittmar, Klaus J. Mattheier and Peter Trudgill. Berlin and de Gruyter: de Gruyter, vol. 3, pp. 2473–84. [Google Scholar]
- Eichinger, Ludwig M. 2010. Kann man der Selbsteinschätzung von Sprechern trauen? In “Perceptual Dialectology”. Neue Wege der Dialektologie. Edited by Christina Ada Anders, Markus Hundt and Alexander Lasch. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, pp. 433–49. [Google Scholar]
- Ellis, Elizabeth, Ingrid Gogolin, and Michael Clyne. 2010. The Janus face of monolingualism: A comparison of German and Australian language education policy. Current Issues in Language Planning 11: 439–60. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Elmentaler, Michael, Joachim Gessinger, Jürgen Macha, Peter Rosenberg, Ingrid Schröder, and Jan Wirrer. 2006. Sprachvariation in Norddeutschland. Ein Projekt zur Analyse des sprachlichen Wandels in Norddeutschland. In Dialekt im Wandel. Perspektiven Einer Neuen Dialektologie. Edited by Anja Voeste and Joachim Gessinger. Duisburg: Universitätsverlag Rhein-Ruhr, pp. 159–78. [Google Scholar]
- Ewels, Andrea-Eva, and Albrecht Plewnia, eds. 2020. Muttersprache 130.1. Themenheft Sprache und Geschlecht. Wiesbaden: Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache e.V. [Google Scholar]
- Giddens, Anthony. 1987. Social Theory and Modern Sociology. Stanford: Stanford University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Gogolin, Ingrid. 1997. The ‘monolingual habitus’ as the common feature in teaching in the language of the majority in different countries. Per Linguam 13: 38–49. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Harrison, Michelle A., and Aurélie Joubert, eds. 2019a. French Language Policies and the Revitalisation of Regional Languages in the 21st Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [Google Scholar]
- Harrison, Michelle A., and Aurélie Joubert. 2019b. Introduction: Shifting Dynamics in French Language Policies. In French Language Policies and the Revitalisation of Regional Languages in the 21st Century. Edited by Michelle Harrison and Aurélie Joubert. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1–34. [Google Scholar]
- Hogan-Brun, Gabrielle, ed. 2000. National Varieties of German Outside Germany. A European Perspective. Oxford and Frankfurt a.M. u.a.: Lang. [Google Scholar]
- Horner, Kristin, and Andrew F. Bradley. 2019. Language Ideologies. In Language Contact: An International Handbook. Edited by Jeroen Darquennes, Joseph Salmons and Wim Vandenbussche. Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 294–305. [Google Scholar]
- Hughes, Stephanie. 2000. Germanic dialect spoken in Lorraine—with reference to use of dialect by cross-border workers in Germany and Luxembourg. In Essays on Politics, Language and Society in Luxembourg. Edited by Gerald Newton. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, pp. 113–34. [Google Scholar]
- Kamusella, Tomasz. 2009. The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. [Google Scholar]
- König, Katharina, Jennifer Dailey-O’Cain, and Grit Liebscher. 2015. A comparison of heritage language ideologies in interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics 19: 484–510. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Kraus, Peter. 2008. A Union of Diversity. Language, Identity and Polity-Building in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Kroskrity, Paul V. 2000. Regimenting Languages: Language Ideological Perspectives. In Regimes of Language. Ideologies, Polities, and Identities. Edited by Paul V. Kroskrity. Oxford: Currey. [Google Scholar]
- Lasagabaster, David. 2004. Attitude/Einstellung. In Sociolinguistics. Soziolinguistik. Ein Internationales Handbuch zur Wissenschaft von Sprache und Gesellschaft. Edited by Ulrich Ammon, Norbert Dittmar, Klaus J. Mattheier and Peter Trudgill. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, vol. 1, pp. 399–405. [Google Scholar]
- Leonardi, Mara Maya Victoria. 2016. Bilingualism or Trilingualism? Social Versus Linguistic Views: Evidence from the Germanic-Speaking Language Group in South Tyrol (Italy). Available online: https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/files/20580655/null (accessed on 9 February 2021).
- Liebscher, Grit, and Jennifer Dailey-O’Cain. 2009. Language attitudes in interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics 13: 195–222. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Löffler, Heinrich. 2005. Germanistische Soziolinguistik. Berlin: Erich Schmidt. [Google Scholar]
- Manesse, Danièle, and Gilles Siouffi, eds. 2019. Le Féminin et le Masculin dans la Langue. L’écriture Inclusive en Questions. Paris: ESF Sciences Humaines. [Google Scholar]
- Mattheier, Klaus Jürgen. 1980. Pragmatik und Soziologie der Dialekte. Einführung in die Kommunikative Dialektologie des Deutschen. Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer. [Google Scholar]
- Niedzielski, Nancy, and Dennis R. Preston. 2000. Folk Linguistics. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter. [Google Scholar]
- Pedersen, Karen Margarethe, and Tobias Haimin Wung-Sung. 2019. Die deutsche Minderheit in Nordschleswig in Dänemark. In Handbuch des Deutschen in West- und Mitteleuropa. Sprachminderheiten und Mehrsprachigkeitskonstellationen. Edited by Rahel Beyer and Albrecht Plewnia. Tübingen: Narr, pp. 11–45. [Google Scholar]
- Plewnia, Albrecht. 2021. Measuring Attitudes Towards Standard Languages and Their Regional Varieties. Design, Methods and Results of Recent Representative Survey Data from Germany. In Standard Languages in Europe. Edited by Alexandra Lenz and Barbara Soukop. Oslo: Novus, in prep. [Google Scholar]
- Pusch, Claus D. 2010. Old minorities within a language space. In Language and Space. An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation. Edited by Peter Auer and Jürgen E. Schmidt. Berlin: de Gruyter, New York: de Gruyter Mouton, vol. 1, pp. 375–90. [Google Scholar]
- Rindler Schjerve, Rosita. 2004. Minderheit/Minority. In Sociolinguistics. Soziolinguistik. Ein Internationales Handbuch zur Wissenschaft von Sprache und Gesellschaft. Edited by Ulrich Ammon, Dittmar Norbert and Klaus J. Mattheier. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, vol. 1, pp. 480–86. [Google Scholar]
- Schmidt, Jürgen Erich. 2017. Vom traditionellen Dialekt zu den modernen deutschen Regionalsprachen. In Vielfalt und Einheit der Deutschen Sprache: Zweiter Bericht zur Lage der Deutschen Sprache. Edited by Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung/Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, pp. 105–44. [Google Scholar]
- Schreiner, Patrick. 2006. Staat und Sprache in Europa. Nationalstaatliche Einsprachigkeit und die Mehrsprachenpolitik der Europäischen Union. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang. [Google Scholar]
- Sieburg, Heinz, and Britta Weimann. 2014. Sprachliche Identifizierungen im luxemburgisch-deutschen Grenzraum. In Räume und Identitäten in Grenzregionen. Politiken–Medien—Subjekte. Edited by Christian Wille, Rachel Reckinger, Sonja Kmec and Markus Hesse. Bielefeld: Transcript. [Google Scholar]
- Stroh, Cornelia. 1993. Sprachkontakt und Sprachbewusstsein. Eine Soziolinguistische Studie am Beispiel Ost–Lothringens. Tübingen: Günther Narr. [Google Scholar]
- Vandermeeren, Sonja. 2005. Research on Language Attitudes/Spracheinstellungsforschung. In Sociolinguistics. Soziolinguistik. Ein Internationales Handbuch zur Wissenschaft von Sprache und Gesellschaft. Edited by Ulrich Ammon, Dittmar Norbert and Klaus J. Mattheier. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, vol. 2, pp. 1318–32. [Google Scholar]
- Walker, Alastair. 2018. To what extent can Nynorsk be considered a European minority language? In Perspectives on Two Centuries of Norwegian Language Planning and Policy. Theoretical Implications and Lessons Learnt. Edited by Ernst Håkon Jahr. Uppsala: Kungl. Gustav Adolfs Akademien för Svensk Folkkultur. [Google Scholar]
- Weinreich, Uriel. 1954. Is a structural dialectology possible? Word 10: 388–400. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
1 | The classification and naming of the autochthonous varieties in East Lorraine prove to be very problematic, which is basically the subject matter of the whole article. For pragmatic reasons, we follow the common grouping under the hyperonym of “Germanic languages”, knowing that this leads to other difficulties: among other things, it hides the fact that the two varieties (Standard German and the dialects in Lorraine) are structurally much more similar to each other than, for example, German and Danish. |
2 | The different phenomena in the field of the layperson’s perspective (on language) have been defined from different disciplines according to different frameworks and methodologies, which has resulted in lots of different definitions, modelings, and terminology, e.g., attitudes, opinions, beliefs, regard, and folk linguistic knowledge (see, e.g., Busch 2019; Lasagabaster 2004; Niedzielski and Preston 2000). The most common term seems to be “attitude”, with definitions going back to social psychology. |
3 | Thus, we obviously hold a mental–cognitive modelling of language attitudes. For a plea for a “language attitudes in-interaction” approach, see Liebscher and Dailey-O’Cain (2009). |
4 | See the example of the Netherlands or Dutch, respectively, on which Coulmas states: “By developing a written language standard for the dialects spoken in the Netherlands, it became detached from German in a process of divergence and acquired the status of an independent language, which has become the language of the Dutch nation.” (Coulmas 1985, p. 20, our translation). |
5 | Of course, dialects are still present and familiar also to standard speakers via older generations and less progressive regions. |
6 | For an overview of the status of the discussion and the different positions on gender-sensitive language in different European countries see, e.g., Ewels and Plewnia (2019) or Manesse and Siouffi (2019). |
7 | A very impressive example is not only the draft law on the German microcensus, which states: “The recording of the language predominantly spoken in the household complements the information on the migration background and is important for assessing various dimensions of integration”. This is also made clear by the positioning of the question in the block with questions on “nationality and length of residence” (cf. Adler 2019). |
8 | For more on the hierarchy on languages and the different prestige of different kinds of multilingualism from a comparative perspective, see Ellis et al. (2010). |
9 | As long as it is not English, which is the global lingua franca. |
10 | While in anglophone and germanophone literature, the term “linguistic minorities” or “minority language” has become established, there are other states (e.g., France—see the article 75-1 of the French constitution) that prefer the term “regional languages”. To cover both usages and naming traditions, the European Charter for regional or minority languages mentions both terms. Just like Walker (2018), we assume that they “were possibly initially seen as two synonyms […] rather than as diverging concepts” (Walker 2018, p. 185). In contrast to this understanding, Germany designated in ratifying the Charter four minority languages (Danish, Frisian, Sorbian, and Romani) and one regional language (Low German) (cf. https://www.coe.int/de/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/148/declarations?p_auth=adpW1NP; Last access date 11 March2021). Therefore, they implicitly established a distinction. For a further discussion on the terminology (cf. Walker 2018). |
11 | Rightly, Pusch (2010, p. 377) hints to fact that “the socio-demographic attributes of minority/majority may shift according to the reference space that is taken into account”. |
12 | For a more detailed overview of German in Western and Central Europe, see, e.g., Beyer and Plewnia (2019) or Hogan-Brun (2000). |
13 | Cf. e.g., http://www.dg.be/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-2788/5431_read-34851/ (Last access date 2 February 2021). |
14 | |
15 | |
16 | For the history of language policies in France and their link to Republican values, see Harrison and Joubert (2019b). |
17 | In primary schools, for instance, regional languages were to be taught one to three times a week; in secondary schools (collèges), pupils were allowed one lesson on a voluntary basis with a minimum of 15 pupils; in grammar schools (lycées), the regional language could be chosen as the first or third foreign language as an option for the baccalaureate (Stroh 1993, p. 71). |
18 | For the terms used by the community’s individuals, see Section 6.2. |
19 | See https://www.education.gouv.fr/bo/2008/3/MENE0773513A.htm (7 April 2020). |
20 | Available online: https://euregio.lu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/signature_convention_plurilinguisme_et_transfrontalier_juillet2019.pdf (Last access date 11 March 2021). |
21 | The data are expected to be available via the Archive for Spoken German (Archiv für Gesprochenes Deutsch, AGD) of the Leibniz Institute for the German language (http://agd.ids-mannheim.de/index_en.shtml; Last access date 11 March 2021) from 2022. |
22 | Since this contribution is about the content of the speakers’ statements (and not about phonetic or morphological features of the dialects), we present, for the purpose of easier readability, the examples in a literary transcription based on the Standard German orthography. |
23 | As explained above, the departement Moselle comprises different cantons with different socioeconomic conditions. To be able to trace their influence on linguistic behavior and development, the subgrouping of the informants is (amongst others) based on these cantons. The abbreviations of the speakers are a combination of an abbreviation of the canton of origin (in German), sex, and sequential numbering. The abbreviations of the cantons are as follows: DE (Dreiländereck—“border triangle”), NL (Niedland—“country of the Nied”), KG (Kohlengebiet—“coal area”), SL (Saargemünder Land—“country of Sarreguemines”), BL (Bitscher Land—“country of Bitche”), SZ (Salzgau—“salt region”) and SB (Saarburger Land—“country of Sarrebourg”). That means that the example in (1) was uttered by the second male interviewee coming from the border triangle, the example in (2) from the first male informant interviewed from the salt region, etc. |
24 | |
25 | Just how firmly this topos of the identity of language and nation is anchored is also shown by another example which does not deal with one’s own language. One respondent reports that toward the end of the Second World War, soldiers were quartered in his village with whom he spoke in English; he then specifies: “I thought it was English, but it was American.” (NL-m3) Because they were not English soldiers, but American soldiers. |
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. |
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Beyer, R.; Plewnia, A. German or Not German: That Is the Question! On the Status of the Autochthonous Dialects in East Lorraine (France). Languages 2021, 6, 48. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010048
Beyer R, Plewnia A. German or Not German: That Is the Question! On the Status of the Autochthonous Dialects in East Lorraine (France). Languages. 2021; 6(1):48. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010048
Chicago/Turabian StyleBeyer, Rahel, and Albrecht Plewnia. 2021. "German or Not German: That Is the Question! On the Status of the Autochthonous Dialects in East Lorraine (France)" Languages 6, no. 1: 48. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010048
APA StyleBeyer, R., & Plewnia, A. (2021). German or Not German: That Is the Question! On the Status of the Autochthonous Dialects in East Lorraine (France). Languages, 6(1), 48. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6010048