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Sociolinguistic Variation and Language Acquisition across the Lifespan
Edited by Anna Ghimenton, Aurélie Nardy and Jean-Pierre Chevrot
[Studies in Language Variation 26] 2021
► pp. 129–160

Chapter 6
Children’s sociolinguistic preferences

The acquisition of language attitudes within the Austrian dialect-standard continuum

ORCID logo | University of Salzburg
ORCID logo | Private University of Education, Diocese Linz

The Bavarian-speaking part of Austria is often referred to as an instantiation of a dialect-standard continuum with a range of speech forms between (Austrian) Standard German and the respective base dialects. The socio-indexical meaning (i.e. the speaker characteristics associated with certain varieties) of different speech forms has been the object of several studies with adults in Austria. Our aim was to gain an understanding of the acquisition process regarding these socio-indexical values of L1-varieties. In order to do so, we studied the sociolinguistic preferences of Austrian children aged between 3 and 10 years, using adapted ‘matched-guise’ experiments in which the child had to choose between two doctors speaking different varieties (dialect, standard German). Whereas the younger children do not show consistent preferences, children from grade 2 (age 7/8) onwards prefer the standard-speaking doctor.

Keywords: variation, children, Austria, German, dialect, Bavarian, preferences, language attitudes, matched-guise, acquisition
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sociolinguistic background: German in Austria
    • 2.1Varieties of German in Austria
    • 2.2Patterns of use
    • 2.3The socio-indexical meaning of Austrian German varieties
  • 3.Acquisition of attitudes towards varieties of an L1 – results from international studies
  • 4.Austrian children’s attitudinal preferences in a ‘matched-guise’ task
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Materials and procedure
    • 4.3Results: Overall attitudinal preferences
    • 4.4Predictors of attitudinal preferences
      • 4.4.1Age
      • 4.4.2Socio-economic status (SES)
      • 4.4.3Parental language input
      • 4.4.4Participants’ gender
  • 5.Summary and discussion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 16 August 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.26.06kai
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