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Contested Languages: The hidden multilingualism of Europe
Edited by Marco Tamburelli and Mauro Tosco
[Studies in World Language Problems 8] 2021
► pp. 87–104

Chapter 5
The cost of ignoring degrees of Abstand in defining a regional language

Evidence from South Tyrol

| Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
| Bangor University
It is generally accepted that the concepts ‘language’ and ‘dialect’ are not entirely linguistic notions, but also involve social, cultural and political factors. Nonetheless, it is still nowadays difficult to agree upon a set of satisfying criteria by which ‘languages’ can be differentiated from ‘dialects’. In this chapter, we analyse the linguistic context present in South Tyrol in order to highlight the consequences of these unsatisfying definitions. Using the intelligibility criterion, we demonstrate that there is a certain degree of Abstand between Standard German and the Bavarian variety spoken in South Tyrol. We then show how this degree of Abstand affects the early stages of acquisition and the linguistic performance of South Tyrolean children.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Sociolinguistic bilingualism: The South Tyrolean case
  • 3.Bilingualism: Who is bilingual and when?
  • 4.Measuring bilingualism: An empirical approach
  • 5.First empirical study: Measuring intelligibility between Standard German and Bavarian
    • 5.1Design and procedure
    • 5.2Materials and stimuli
    • 5.3Participants
    • 5.4Results
    • 5.5Discussion and summary
  • 6.Second empirical study: South Tyroleans’ receptive language comprehension in German
    • 6.1Design and Procedure
    • 6.2Materials and stimuli
    • 6.3Participants
    • 6.4Results
    • 6.5Discussion and Summary
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 21 January 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/wlp.8.05leo
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