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

目前低德语的使用在很大程度上仅限于说低德语和高德语的双语人士。低德语的生命力不仅取决于说话者的绝对数量和相对数量。它还取决于两种语言之间是否存在平衡的双语，功能上几乎没有重叠，还是两种语言中的一种占据主导地位，导致这种语言只是不完全习得。特别是，出现了一个问题，即在过去的2-3代讲德语的人中，是否像最近的电话调查所显示的那样，这两种语言之间的主导地位发生了转变，转向了高级德语。然而，这类调查的结果是以自我报告为基础的，而自我报告一般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，对当地讲双语社区的双语性质进行更细微的观察。鉴于对任务复杂性、认知应激与口语和阅读中声学效应之间关系的研究，出现了这样一个问题：在使用高德语和低德语时，是否也能发现不同应激反应的声学效应。在复杂的任务中，语言水平的不同会导致使用较弱语言时认知压力的增加。认知应激的声学效应将通过三代双语说话者的生产实验来研究，在这些实验中，三代说话者执行不同语言特定和一般认知工作量不同的演讲和阅读任务。声学分析包括语音基频、音质、元音共振峰、语速和清晰度的测量。录音将在东弗里西亚西部的Krumhörn市进行，这是德国北部德语水平较低的地区之一。该项目的创新之处在于，它评估了双语者的语言水平，而不是求助于某个语言目标水平的实现情况。这种办法似乎特别适用于评估区域语言和少数群体语言的状况，因为这些语言易受语言混杂和语言磨损的影响。

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.