Dialects, Cultural Identity, and Economic Exchange

We investigate whether time-persistent cultural borders impede economic exchange across regions of the same country. To measure cultural differences we evaluate, for the first time in economics, linguistic micro-data about phonological and grammatical features of German dialects. These data are taken from a unique linguistic survey conducted between 1879 and 1888 in 45,000 schools. Matching this information to 439 current German regions, we construct a dialect similarity matrix. Using a gravity analysis, we show that current cross-regional migration is positively affected by historical dialect similarity. This suggests that cultural identities formed in the past still influence economic exchange today.gravity, internal migration, culture, language, dialects, Germany

Dialects, Cultural Identity, and Economic Exchange

We investigate whether time-persistent cultural borders impede economic exchange across regions of the same country. To measure cultural differences we evaluate, for the first time in economics, linguistic micro-data about phonological and grammatical features of German dialects. These data are taken from a unique linguistic survey conducted between 1879 and 1888 in 45,000 schools. Matching this information to 439 current German regions, we construct a dialect similarity matrix. Using a gravity analysis, we show that current cross-regional migration is positively affected by historical dialect similarity. This suggests that cultural identities formed in the past still influence economic exchange today.dialects, language, culture, internal migration, gravity, Germany

Drawing areal information from a corpus of noisy dialect data

This article is an analysis of linguistic survey data representing German dialects in Switzerland in 1933/34 based on the so-called Wenker sentences. The data are impressionistic in terms of applied phonetic transcriptions, which were produced by non-specialists using the Latin alphabet. Due to the lack of pre-defined standardization, the phonetic transcriptions are very heterogeneous. From a technical perspective, this leads to very noisy data, which is why the validity of the Wenker data in general and the Swiss Wenker data in particular has been questioned. Using methods from computational linguistics, we compare, for the first time, Wenker data with linguistic data collected at virtually the same time by linguistics professionals. Direct comparison with a sample from the published atlas of German-speaking Switzerland (SDS) reveals that despite the noisiness of the data, they nevertheless provide reliable information, e.g., in terms of the spatial structuring of Swiss dialects. The study is thus a successful pilot for other corpus-based studies dealing with unstructured Wenker data in other regions

Stimulus und Kognition. Zur Aktivierung mentaler Raumbilder

Within the context of investigations of cognitive spatial models, the study analyzes the effect of varying the informational structure of linguistic survey instruments. A group of informants was asked to draw German language areas on different types of geographic maps. First, in a quantitative approach we show how the specific informational structure of each map type influences the frequency and prominence of the named language areas. The second part of the study focuses on the localization of the mentioned language areas. Here we discuss the specific effects of each type of map and the information it contains on the localization. We also discuss general characteristics of the conceptualization of linguistic space as well as differences in the perception of the prominent language areas

The Effect of Perceived Regional Accents on Individual Economic Behavior:A Lab Experiment on Linguistic Performance, Cognitive Ratings and Economic Decisions

<div><p>Does it matter if you speak with a regional accent? Speaking immediately reveals something of one’s own social and cultural identity, be it consciously or unconsciously. Perceiving accents involves not only reconstructing such imprints but also augmenting them with particular attitudes and stereotypes. Even though we know much about attitudes and stereotypes that are transmitted by, e.g. skin color, names or physical attractiveness, we do not yet have satisfactory answers how accent perception affects human behavior. How do people act in economically relevant contexts when they are confronted with regional accents? This paper reports a laboratory experiment where we address this question. Participants in our experiment conduct cognitive tests where they can choose to either cooperate or compete with a randomly matched male opponent identified only via his rendering of a standardized text in either a regional accent or standard accent. We find a strong connection between the linguistic performance and the cognitive rating of the opponent. When matched with an opponent who speaks the accent of the participant’s home region—the in-group opponent –, individuals tend to cooperate significantly more often. By contrast, they are more likely to compete when matched with an accent speaker from outside their home region, the out-group opponent. Our findings demonstrate, firstly, that the perception of an out-group accent leads not only to social discrimination but also influences economic decisions. Secondly, they suggest that this economic behavior is not necessarily attributable to the perception of a regional accent per se, but rather to the social rating of linguistic distance and the in-group/out-group perception it evokes.</p></div

Vokalräume und Artikulationsrange in deutschen Regionalsprachen

d

The Amazing Diversity of Dialects of Germany

The "Linguistic Atlas of the German Empire" is an exhaustive and precise documentation of the German dialects of the 19th century. The complete digitalisation of the linguistic maps open up new possibilities for international research. The project "Digital Formatting and Electronic Publication of Georg Wenker's 'Linguistic Atlas of the German Reich'Empire'" is funded by the DFG as part of the "Retrospective Digitalisation of Library Collections" programme. URL: www.diwa.info

Vokalräume und Artikulationsrange in deutschen Regionalsprachen

d

Bruder, Broder, Brauder - Dialekte in Deutschland

Die Dialekte des Deutschen zeichnen sich durch ungew\uf6hnlich feine regionale Unterschiede aus. Ein Informationssystem sichert historisch einmaliges Sprachmaterial und er\uf6ffnet neue wissenschaftliche Perspektiven. Das Projekt "Digitale Aufbereitung und elektronische Publikation von Georg Wenkers 'Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reichs' (Kennwort: Digitaler Wenker-Atlas (DiWA))" wird von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft im Rahmen des Programms "Retrospektive Digitalisierung von Bibliotheksbest\ue4nden" gef\uf6rdert. Das Informationssystem ist unter http://www.diwa.info frei zug\ue4nglich

Vokalräume und Artikulationsrange in deutschen Regionalsprachen

d