Invisibilising Austrian German

On the effect of linguistic prescriptions and educational reforms on writing practices in 18th-century Austria

von Anna Dorothea Havinga

256 Seiten, Hardcover

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

This book provides an insight into the standardisation process of German in eighteenth-century Austria. It describes how norms prescribed by grammarians were actually implemented via a school reform carried out by educationalist Johann Ignaz Felbiger on the order of Empress Maria Theresa. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were undertaken of certain Upper German features (e-apocope, the absence of the prefix ge- and the ending -t in past participles, and variants of the verb form sind) in reading primers, issues of the Wienerisches Diarium / Wiener Zeitung and petitionary letters. These reveal how such variants became increasingly 'invisible' in writing. This process of 'invisibilisation', i.e. a process of stigmatization which prevents the use of certain varieties and variants in writing, can be attributed to a number of factors: Empress Maria Theresa's appeal for a language reform, the normative work by eighteenth-century grammarians, the implementation of educational reforms, and the early introduction of East Central German variants in newspaper issues.

• Reihe: Lingua Historica Germanica
• Themen: Sprache und Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaft, Linguistik
• ISBN: 9783110546293
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 22.01.2018
• Größe: 24 x 17 cm
• Verlag: De Gruyter