On the Use of German Loan Words in Silesians’ Contemporary Ethnolect and Their Linguistic Attitudes (a Working Paper from a Research Project) Cover Image

Głos w sprawie aktualnego stanu użycia zapożyczeń niemieckich we współczesnym etnolekcie śląskim i postaw językowych jego użytkowników (raport wstępny z projektu badawczego)
On the Use of German Loan Words in Silesians’ Contemporary Ethnolect and Their Linguistic Attitudes (a Working Paper from a Research Project)

Author(s): Gerd Hentschel, István Fekete, Jolanta Tambor
Subject(s): Language studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Silesian ethnolect; German loans; language attitudes; subjective frequency; codification;

Summary/Abstract: The article presents initial findings from a research project that aims to investigate to what extent German loan words are still in use in Silesian today. Over the centuries, Silesian has adopted far more loan words from German than any other dialect on Polish territory. The project focuses on speakers of Silesian and analyses their so-called subjective frequency of usage of specific Silesian Germanisms in comparison with synonymous words in Standard Polish. Nearly 700 word pairs are tested. The estimates of usage frequency are correlated with the respondents’ sociodemographic data and their so-called language attitudes towards Silesian and its position in Silesian-Polish society. The question of how Germanisms are treated is a central issue in the current discussion on the codification of Silesian.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 6
  • Page Range: 17-42
  • Page Count: 26
  • Language: Polish