Diglossia in Switzerland? A Social Identity Analysis of Speaker Evaluations

Michael A. Hogg · Dominic Abrams

31 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Language and Social Psychology

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Linguistic Variation and Morphology Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies Social and Intergroup Psychology

Abstract

Ferguson (1959) cites German Switzerland as a defining case of diglos-sia; however, little or no research has been conducted to substantiate this claim. The present paper discusses diglossia, describes the language situation to be found in German-speaking Switzerland, and reports an experimental study adopting the matched-guise technique in which language variety (Swiss vs. High German) and situational formality (formal vs. informal) are orthogonally manipulated in a within-subjects design. Speaker evaluations revealed an upgrading with respect to formality of context only on status variables, and an interesting two-way interaction on solidarity dimensions, whereby less solidarity is felt for a speaker of High German in a formal context. The results uphold the experimental hypotheses derived from a social identity perspective (Tajfel, 1982a), but disconfirm predictions from Ferguson's diglossia. It is concluded that an adequate taxonomy of language situations must include a consideration of the identity function of language.

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2000An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict 1979The Social psychology of intergroup relations 1982Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations 1978Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations.1968International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.1985Social Identity and Intergroup Relations.1959Diglossia 2014Social identity and intergroup relations.

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1992Diglossia: A bibliographic review 1998African American Evaluations of Black English and Standard American English 2013The Role of Accent and Ethnicity in the Professional and Academic Context 2019Welsh‐language prestige in adolescents: attitudes in the heartlands 1988Research note: Perceived vitality and context: A national majority in a minority setting 2001Chapter 10: Attitudes Toward Language: A Review of Speaker-Evaluation Research and a General Process Model

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