"Il parle normal, il parle comme nous”: self-reported usage and attitudes in a banlieue

We report on a survey of language attitudes carried out as part of a project comparing youth language in Paris and London. As in similar studies carried out in London (Cheshire et al. 2008), Berlin (Wiese 2009) and elsewhere (Boyd et al. 2015), the focus was on features considered typical of ‘contemporary urban vernaculars’ (Rampton 2015). The respondents were pupils aged 15-18 in two secondary schools in a working-class northern suburb of Paris. The survey included (1) a written questionnaire containing examples of features potentially undergoing change in contemporary French; (2) an analysis of reactions to extracts from the project data: participants were asked to comment on the speakers and the features identified. Quantitative analysis had shown that some of these features are more widespread than others and are used by certain categories of speaker more than others (Gardner-Chloros and Secova, 2018). This study provides a qualitative dimension, showing that different features have different degrees of perceptual salience and acceptability. It demonstrates that youth varieties do not involve characteristic features being used as a ‘package’, and that such changes interact in a complex manner with attitudinal factors. The study also provides material for reflection on the role of attitude studies within sociolinguistic surveys

Verification of German methane emission inventories and their recent changes based on atmospheric observations

Continuous methane concentration records and stable isotope observations measured in the suburbs of Heidelberg, Germany, are presented. While delta13C-CH4 shows a significant trend of -0.14 permil per year, towards more depleted values, no trend is observed in the concentration data. Comparison of the Heidelberg records with clean air observations in the North Atlantic at Izana station (Tenerife) allows the determination of the continental methane excess at Heidelberg, decreasing by 20% from 190 ppb in 1992 to 150 ppb in 1997. The isotope ratio which is associated with this continental methane pile-up in the Heidelberg catchment area shows a significant trend to more depleted values from delta13C (source) = -47.4 ± 1.2 permil in 1992 to 52.9 ± 0.4 permil in 1995/96, pointing to a significant change in the methane source mix. Total methane emissions in the Heidelberg catchment area are estimated using the 222Radon (222Rn) tracer method: from the correlations of half hourly 222Rn and CH4 mixing ratios from 1995 to 1997, and the mean 222Rn exhalation rate from typical soils in the Rhine valley, a mean methane flux of 0.24 ± 0.5 g CH4 km-2 s-1 is derived. For the Heidelberg catchment area with an estimated radius of approximately 150 km, Core Inventories Air 1990 (CORINAIR90) emission estimates yield a flux of 0.47 g CH4 km-2 s-1, which is about 40% higher than the 222Rn derived number if extrapolated to 1990. The discrepancy can be explained by over-estimated emissions from waste management in the CORINAIR90 statistical assessment. The observed decrease in total emissions can be accounted for by decreasing contributions from fossil sources (mainly coal mining) and from cattle breeding. This finding is also supported by the observed decrease in mean source isotopic signatures

Seeking systematicity in variation : theoretical and methodological considerations on the “variety” concept

One centennial discussion in linguistics concerns whether languages, or linguistic systems, are, essentially, homogeneous or rather show “structured heterogeneity.” In this contribution, the question is addressed whether and how sociolinguistically defined systems (or ‘varieties’) are to be distinguished in a heterogeneous linguistic landscape: to what extent can structure be found in the myriads of language variants heard in everyday language use? We first elaborate on the theoretical importance of this ‘variety question’ by relating it to current approaches from, among others, generative linguistics (competing grammars), sociolinguistics (style-shifting, polylanguaging), and cognitive linguistics (prototype theory). Possible criteria for defining and detecting varieties are introduced, which are subsequently tested empirically, using a self-compiled corpus of spoken Dutch in West Flanders (Belgium). This empirical study demonstrates that the speech repertoire of the studied West Flemish speakers consists of four varieties, viz. a fairly stable dialect variety, a more or less virtual standard Dutch variety, and two intermediate varieties, which we will label ‘cleaned-up dialect’ and ‘substandard.’ On the methodological level, this case-study underscores the importance of speech corpora comprising both inter- and intra-speaker variation on the one hand, and the merits of triangulating qualitative and quantitative approaches on the other