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One Standard German Axiom - is this plausible? (en.m.wikipedia.org)

submitted 1 week ago by Goten@piefed.social to c/linguistics@mander.xyz

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hello guys! recently i discovered this interesting concept which says that in german theres one dominant dialect which is the german standard german out of germany that dominates and discriminates all other dialects of german, such as austrian german and swiss german. im no linguist so i thought i ask some here about your opinion on this topic.

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[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Following the Wikipedia article Dollinger's objection is towards a trend of considering things as not "pluricentricic" but "pluriareal", that is, based not (solely) on national borders (Swiss vs. German vs. Austrian Standard German) but with a more free concept of what a language centre is: Multiple within a state, centres crossing states, etc.

Without knowing anything about the debate (not a linguist) that seems absolutely reasonable for the simple reason that Standard is not solely defined by state usage, and even state usage differs within e.g. Germany itself, e.g. you won't see Bavarians use "Sonnabend", but "Samstag". The north tends towards Sonnabend because of Low Saxon influence on lexical choice. NDR uses it very regularly, I think even exclusively. Then you have further possible centres such as, dunno, geologists forming a common vocabulary cross-border. Austro-Bavarian music doing Austro-Bavarian things to Austrian and Bavarian Standard that I know nothing about.

I also don't understand where he's getting the idea from that pluriareality implies that there's "One Standard German": Both models speak of multiple centres, how is there One Standard German in one model, but not the other? It also doesn't mean that there's suddenly no Austrian Standard any more, after all, they still have their own administration, their own schools, and decide for themselves what they use and teach there. Labels on pasta sauce will continue to distinguish between DE and AT as long as the Tomate vs. Paradeiser split exists. Random further example: "Roggenmischbrot" must be (predominantly) rye and the rest wheat in Austria, while in Germany it must be predominantly rye and the rest other bread grains (Section 2.1.3 in the pdf). Bakers aren't as free when it comes to forming vocabulary as geologists.

Honestly, all in all, this sounds like a random /c/AEIOU poster grasping at straws to find offence. Clinging to a cliff? SCNR.

EDIT: Is pluriareality supposed to be pluri + weird Latin/whatever reason for the a + real, or pluri + area + weird ending? I'm terminally confused right now.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

Thank you for the info!