Morphological Change in German Dialects: Two cases of plural verbs in Alemannic

The present paper examined two cases of morphological change in transition zones between Alemannic dialect areas. The results can be summarized as follows.(a) Morphological change occurs mainly in transition zones between different dialect areas. The centers of the dialect areas show a high degree of stability.(b) Morphological change often lead to compromise forms. In the county of Lörrach the compromise consists in the unification of the High Alemannic two-form plural with the Low Alemannic/Swabian markers N and NT. In Bavarian Swabia the compromise occurs at a higher level of abstraction: it is the introduction of the category of person in the paradigm as such, but without adoption of markers or plural types from other varieties. The category of person is marked with a proprietary Bavarian Swabian marker and paradigm type.(c) Morphological innovations which revitalize traditional speech norms against the standard language usually progress contiguously across a region in a non-hierarchical fashion. This is the case in the Bavarian Swabian example. In contrast, standard-convergent innovations are likely to diffuse hierarchically. This holds for the replacement of the High Alemannic two-form plural which is completed first in the county town of Lörrach, and then progresses evenly in the countryside.(d) The function of the base dialects shifts from a primarily instrumental to a primarily expressive usage. Variationist studies show how base dialectal communication is increasingly restricted to family contexts or communications among friends. Exempted from the many requirements of instrumental usage, today’s base dialects today are thus freer vehicles for the expression of local identity than were yesterday’s.