This article provides an overview of Jugendsprache, youth language, as spoken in the German Democratic Republic, a variety far less studied than its West German cousin. Attitudes toward and perceptions of GDR youth language are treated, showing far greater diversity than previous Western discussions have found. More importantly, this study provides empirical data from a variety of sources for a sociolect previously largely lacking such evidence.
The claim that American Sign Language (ASL) has creole origins
or remains a creole is examined from a creolist perspective. Applying
criteria based on the work of a number of creole researchers
we find that the evidence for creole origins of ASL fails to meet
any usual definition of a creole. Lexical and morphosyntactic similarities
between ASL and other signed languages (especially French
Sign Language) are discussed in terms of lexical borrowing and
the characteristics unique to the transmission of visual/spatial languages,
respectively.
Abstract. This article treats two aspects of linguistic (especially lexical) variation in a number of dialects of German spoken in southwestern Indiana for over 150 years, but which have now reached relatively late stages of language death. I first trace evidence for changes in stylistic range or register during the lifespan of these linguistic varieties. Crucial here are both the notion of ''base register'' (rather than the traditional "base dialect") and the role of a standard variety, spoken and written, in the community. Second, I discuss several examples of innovative differences across the dialects, that is, changes which serve to increase the linguistic distance among the dialects. This counterpart to levelling in a colonial setting is connected with change in the linguistic register found within the communities.
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