Abstract: In Nuremberg, we also find a virtually complete absence of umlaut marking for mid and high vowels until about 1500, and for a long while after that the ...
Abstract: This quantitative study, based on a computerized corpus of texts written by five men in early 16th-century Nuremberg, employs multivariate GLM statistical procedures to analyze the way linguistic, social and stylistic factors work individually and in interaction to influence ...
Abstract: Papers presented at the 2nd annual Michigan/Berkeley Germanic Linguistics Roundtable held Apr. 12-14, 1991, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Abstract: Abstract
In a series of articles which appeared in the sixties, WILLIAM G. MOULTON showed how the dialects of Switzerland could be used to illustrate the principles of structural dialectology. In this work, WILLIAM G. MOULTON demonstrated how various dialects took independent paths to a composite result: each filled holes which they had inherited from a common reconstructed system. In the Alemannic dialect of Großdorf in western Austria, which is very similar to the eastern Swiss dialects examined in some of WILLIAM G. MOULTON'S work, a series of changes in progress are currently recreating holes which were filled by the earlier trend. Because structural theory deals with the conception of a functionally balanced system and not with the transitional stage between or away from balanced systems, this tendency cannot be dealt with from within that paradigm. In fact, such unbalanced states provide an interesting area for the study of language external factors and language change. The study at hand examines quantitatively how degree of integration into local communication networks based on kinship, workplace environment, and social involvement can create motivation strong enough to fuel changes which will upset a balanced phonological system.
