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The diffusion of /l/-vocalization in Swiss German

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2014

Adrian Leemann ,
Marie-José Kolly ,
Iwar Werlen ,
David Britain  and
Dieter Studer-Joho
Adrian Leemann
Affiliation:
University of Zürich
Marie-José Kolly
Affiliation:
University of Zürich
Iwar Werlen
Affiliation:
University of Bern
David Britain
Affiliation:
University of Bern
Dieter Studer-Joho
Affiliation:
University of Zürich
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Abstract

Several western Swiss German dialects roughly grouped around the nation's capital Bern show /l/ > [u] vocalization in various contexts. The spatial boundaries of /l/-vocalization in Swiss German are suspected to have been expanding since being described in the Linguistic Atlas of German-Speaking Switzerland in the middle of the 20th century. The present study assesses the overall expansion of /l/-vocalization by means of a rapid anonymous survey in 20 urban regional centers situated just beyond the traditional boundaries of /l/-vocalization highlighted by the Atlas. Results show that the expansion of /l/-vocalization mainly progresses in southeasterly, southerly, and westerly directions, but with much less success to the north and northwest, where the equally influential dialectal areas of Basel and Zürich seem to exert opposing influences. Further analysis of the data indicates that somewhat differing constraint hierarchies are at work in the different places to which vocalization has diffused.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , July 2014 , pp. 191 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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