Variation and Change of Dialect Varieties in Austria (in Real and Apparent Time)

1) Acoustic recordings of four dialect speakers per location (balanced for gender, two age groups) in a total of 40 locations, collected using standardised and innovative survey methods; 2) further lab recordings from selected speakers for the acoustic-phonetic analysis; 3) preparation of data and documentation of features ranging from phonetics and phonology to syntax on the first visual and ‘talking’ dialect atlas of Austria; 4) investigation of variation and ongoing change by comparing features from different regions and generations of speakers (apparent-time); 5) investigation of long-term change by comparing contemporary data with data from old dialect grammars and atlases. The project aims at a comprehensive investigation of recent Austrian dialects and their dynamics, which may be partially explained as the result of regional processes of convergence and divergence on different basilectal substrates, partially due to dialect contact and partly as a result of advergence to the standard varieties. Such dynamics will be studied on the basis of data that allow for a reconstruction of change in apparent as well as real-time.