Acoustic cues for language dominance in bilingual speakers of High and Low German in East Frisia

目前低地德语的使用主要局限于说低地德语和高地德语的双语者。低地德语的生命力不仅取决于说德语的绝对人数和相对人数。这还取决于两种语言之间是否存在一种平衡的双语，两种语言之间的功能重叠很少，或者两种语言中的一种语言是否占主导地位，导致这种语言只是不完全习得。特别是，最近的电话调查显示，两种语言之间的主导地位是否发生了转变，在过去的2-3代使用者中，高地德语的使用得到了支持。然而，这类调查的结果是基于自我报告，而自我报告通常有可能受到陈规定型观念和社会文化规范的影响。该研究项目正在寻找新的方法，通过使用客观数据，更细致地了解当地社区双语的本质。鉴于对任务复杂性、认知压力和语音效应之间关系的研究，不同应激反应的语音效应是否也存在于高低德语的使用中？在复杂的任务中，语言熟练程度的差异会导致使用较弱语言时认知压力的增加。认知压力的声学效应将通过生产实验来研究，在实验中，三代双语者在特定语言和一般认知工作量上进行不同的言语和阅读任务。声学分析包括测量语音基频、语音质量、元音共振峰、语音速率和发音速率。录音将在东弗里斯兰西部的Krummhörn市进行，该地区是德国北部低地德语人口比例最高的地区之一。该项目的创新之处在于，它评估双语者的语言能力，而不需要达到某种语言目标水平。这种方法似乎特别适合于评估区域语言和少数民族语言的地位，因为它们受到语言混合和语言流失的影响。

The current use of Low German is largely limited to bilingual speakers of Low and High German. The vitality of Low German depends not only on absolute and relative numbers of speakers. It also depends on whether there is a balanced bilingualism with little functional overlap between the two languages, or whether one of the two languages dominates the other, with the result that this language is acquired only incompletely. In particular, the question arises as to whether a dominance shift between the two languages has taken place over the past 2-3 generations of speakers in favor of High German, as recent telephone surveys suggest. However, the outcomes of such surveys are based on self-reports, which are generally at risk of being influenced by stereotypes and socio-cultural norms. The research project is looking for new ways to get at a more nuanced view of the nature of bilingualism in local speaker communities by using objective data. In view of the research on the relationship between task complexity, cognitive stress and acoustic effects in speaking and reading, the question arises whether acoustic effects of different stress reactions can also be found in the use of High and Low German. In complex tasks a difference in language proficiency should lead to an increase of cognitive stress when using the weaker language. The acoustic effects of cognitive stress will be investigated by means of production experiments in which bilingual speakers of three speaker generations perform speech and reading tasks which differ in their language-specific and general cognitive workload. The acoustic analysis includes the measurement of speech fundamental frequency, voice quality, vowel formants, speech rate, and articulation rate. Recordings will take place in the municipality of Krummhörn in western East Frisia, which is one of the regions with the highest proportion of Low German speakers in Northern Germany. The project is innovative in that it assesses language proficiency in bilinguals without resorting to the achievement of some linguistic target level. This approach seems particularly suitable for assessing the status of regional and minority languages, which are subject to language mixing and language attrition.