Preliminary Report on Dialect Attitudes in Austrian and Slovene Carinthia

Abstract

This paper is a preliminary analysis of an internet-based questionnaire on dialect attitudes and perceptions conducted in Slovene-speaking areas in Austrian and Slovene Carinthia.Prispevek prinaša uvodno analizo internetne ankete o odnosu do narečij in o sprejemanju narečij, narejene na slovensko govorečih področjih avstrijske in slovenske Koroške.

Varieties of Spoken Slovenian in Austrian Carinthia and the Speech Practices of Young Members of the Minority

“…2 Dialect as a native language -or not Lundberg (2015) found that speakers of Carinthian Slovenian dialects 3 in Austria have a very positive attitude toward these dialects and perceive them as an important element of their own identity, 4 but more than half of his respondents were convinced that younger generations no longer speak predominantly in Slovenian. Priestly (2003: 110) argues that the language attitude toward Slovenian is developing more positively than in previous times, especially among younger members of the ethnic community; however, a process of levelling specifically dialect features toward a regional or even standard variety, 5 common across Europe, is apparently also taking place in Austrian Carinthia (Lundberg 2010: 45).…”