Austrian Standard German Becomes a Research Subject: Questionnaire for Participation

How is Austrian Standard German perceived? This question is currently being addressed by a large-scale online survey led by linguist Stefan Dollinger, who works in Canada. The goal is to create a detailed picture of how people in Austria evaluate their standard variety of German.

Participation in the Study Possible from Age Twelve

People aged twelve and older who currently live in Austria or have lived there for an extended period in the past are invited to participate. The survey is open until the end of September and, according to the study leaders, takes about eight to nine minutes. Click here for the questionnaire.

"Our goal is 10,000 and more," explained Dollinger, an Anglicist and Germanist at the University of British Columbia, to the APA. Currently, around 3,500 people have already completed the questionnaire. The results are expected to provide insights into the societal handling of language varieties in Austria.

Broad Range of Opinions Desired

A particularly broad societal participation is very important, emphasized the researcher. So far, people with a migration background, members of autochthonous minorities such as Carinthian Slovenes or Burgenland Croats, as well as people over 80 years old or with non-academic educational backgrounds, have been underrepresented.

The aim is to find out "what the speakers in Austria think of Austrian Standard German (Austrian Standard)," said Dollinger. Because the term is quite controversial – even within linguistics.

More Ambivalence Than in the English-Speaking World

While in the anglophone world, the linguistic independence of variants like Canadian English is widely recognized, the approach to Austrian German is sometimes "ambivalent," explained the researcher. The discussion about the status and independence of the Austrian standard is sometimes conducted controversially.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.