Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > The diffusion of /l/-vocalization in Swiss German

Associated organisational unit

View graph of relations

The diffusion of /l/-vocalization in Swiss German

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
  • Adrian Leemann
  • Marie-José Kolly
  • Iwar Werlen
  • David Britain
  • Dieter Studer-Joho
Close
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>07/2014
<mark>Journal</mark>Language Variation and Change
Issue number2
Volume26
Number of pages28
Pages (from-to)191-218
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date16/06/14
<mark>Original language</mark>English

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.